Wouldn’t you know it – the day after I reminded the congregation to always be thankful for everything (Ephesians 5:20), my hard drive crashes. And the man who repeatedly reminds his daughter to back up her hard drive has not backed up his own in four or five months. I cannot imagine the mess I am going to have on my hands if the computer geniuses or wizards or whatever they are cannot retrieve my data. The loud popping noise you hear is my head exploding at the thought of it.
Struggling is common to the human condition. We struggle not only with the big things like death and taxes, but in America our struggles are often caused by the “stuff” of life. Cars break down. Toes get stubbed. Hearts get broken. Hard drives fail. So what does God speak into the stuff of our lives? “…always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
I could console myself that there are millions of people who have it worse than I – and there are – and their problems are far worse than I could even imagine. Yet it is the stuff of life – the dead batteries, the hammered thumbs, the lost keys, and the crashed hard drives that seem to sweep in the rob us of the joy and peace that should and could be ours.
So today I sit at a back-up computer typing on a different feeling keyboard … thankful. Why I should be thankful for the headache of a hard drive crash? Because in spite it and all the other day-to-day challenges I may face, I have a God who sits on His throne, a Savior died for my sins, a Holy Spirit who lives in my life, and a home with Him in heaven that has been promised to me. Who could ask for anything more?!
Be Transformed 