Plans began to form in my mind about planting, fertilizing, and growing the best lawn in the neighborhood. In an instant expectation energized my thoughts and burst into images of how my garden would be arranged and how the decorative flowers would bloom into glorious colors.



It amazes me how our world is ever changing. Each season brings with it a difference that demands that we change how we dress to how we live our lives.

This is also how God deals with people in this world, in an instant everything can change. These changes occur from how we handle each year of age to how we handle the tragedies of life.

2 Corinthians 4: 16-18, "For this reason we never become discouraged. Even though our physical being is gradually decaying, yet our spiritual being is renewed day after day. And this small and temporary trouble we suffer will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory, much greater than the trouble. For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever."

When we are aware of how our environment changes then we go through the seasons of life and accept the climate differences. This is the way it should be when we are challenged in different life experiences.

If your boss offers you a promotion with more money you gladly accept the challenge. Even though it comes with higher demands on your time and energy. If your family is growing and you need more room without hesitation you begin the process of buying a bigger house that fits within your budget.

This is how it should be when we are facing sicknesses of all kinds, relationship failure, tragedies and anything that forces you to stop doing what you have been doing and change. We must embrace these challenges and grow the way God wants us to grow in order to gain spiritual goals that lead to higher levels of advancements for the kingdom of God.

A drunk driver crosses over the center line and hits a car in another lane. He is unhurt, but the occupant of the other car is paralyzed. A child crosses the street and is struck by a car. That child has a head trauma and loses his sight. In an instant life can change and we must rise to the challenge and overcome our pain through spiritual goals attained through holding onto our Christian values.

2 Corinthians 5: 5-7, "God is the one who has prepared us for this change, and he gave us his Spirit as the guarantee of all that he has in store for us.

So we are always full of courage. We know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord's home. For our life is a matter of faith, not of sight."

Many people try to run from life dramas and they saturate themselves with alcohol and drugs to deaden their pain over a failed relationship, job loss, or disaster that has occurred in their lives. They allow Satan to trap them with phobias that will make them unable to function as normal people.

Phobias give them irrational fears over what should have been an easy and achievable next step in the sequence of life. Weaknesses stop them from going forward and keeps them in one place not ever being able to change and move onto the next spiritual level.

This is the reason why our world is filled with mental illness that shows itself in multiple personalities. People who went through horrific traumas, coped by splitting into different people who handled what they suffered in different ways. This is the reason why people become depressed and commit suicide.

We must embrace the spiritual part of our lives. Because we know that in an instant everything can change. When we run to God, He gives us the ability to function even when our emotions want to lock us up and keep us where we are at right now!

1 Corinthians 6:4-7a, "Instead, in everything we do we show that we are God's servants by patiently enduring troubles, hardships, and difficulties. We have been beaten, jailed, and mobbed; we have been overworked and have gone without sleep or food. By our purity, knowledge, patience, and kindness we have shown ourselves to be God's servants-by the Holy Spirit, by our true love, by our message of truth, and by the power of God."

As Christians we gain understanding and faith through the stories we read in the Bible. We use this knowledge with our life experiences to gain the strength we need to patiently endure. We grow through the tragedies of life because we know that we will be rewarded in the perfect world to come.

When God is a positive influence in our lives we embrace the evils that were forced on us and use them as testimonies to help others who have suffered as we have suffered. Being positive in the face of difficulties helps us to break down the barriers of fear.

I Corinthians 6: 7b -10, "We have righteousness as our weapon, both to attack and to defend ourselves. We are honored and disgraced; we are insulted and praised. We are treated as liars, yet we speak the truth; as unknown, yet we are known by all; as though we were dead, but, as you see, we live on. Although punished, we are not killed; although saddened, we are always glad; we seem poor, but we make many people rich; we seem to have nothing, yet we really possess everything."

Believing in God and trusting that He has our best interest in mind will give us strength. Just like the seasons in this world are ever changing in an instant we need to be able to make the adjustments that are demanded in life.