One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.

We've all said it.  We've at least thought it.  Maybe we have heard it sung in a blues song.  "One step forward, two steps back." We are all too familiar with this idiom.  I've had a run of these episodes that seem to fit.  I got the entry floor doneand thought I could take a day off,  then the refrigerator died.  Got all of the cars running, now Kaiti's car needs work and the engine in my truck is blown.  When we were towing it home, Dana put a huge dent in the side of her car.  Seems like as soon as it looks like I will have time to really do what I am here to do, I have to spend my time fixing stuff.  I've often wondered why God called me into ministry and then allows all this to happen.  Sometimes I feel that there is no time to actually advance my ministry because I'm so busy fixing the stuff that breaks.  One step forward and two steps back.

I don't suppose there is any real comfort knowing that this happens to us all.  It's not a real joy of mine to hear of other's problems. While towing the truck home, we saw three other cars on the side of the road.  I know there are even many who don't have a vehicle to tow. I know there are people who had even worse days.  Still, the fact remains that it seems we never get ahead.  I can't tell you all the times we have used our vacation money to pay repair or medical bills.  I could tell you....

What if the goal of life is not to get ahead?  Then we we take one step forward and two steps back, we are really taking a total of three steps.  Maybe ending up where we started is ok.  When I look at all of the times I have had to struggle (which seems to be most of the time), I realize that I have to rely on God more.  During those times, I have developed better relationships with others.  When I share my struggles, I get closer to people, closer to God, and can better help others.

If we go one step forward, God is there.  When we take two step back, God is there also.

 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
                                                                                                          -1Peter 1:3-7