When the going gets tough....

Summer is a busy season! Every week holds its own excitements, trials, and obstacles to overcome. The biggest obstacle for me to overcome each week is finding time to do everything! And sometimes it can get a little overwhelming. I start doing things with less energy and enthusiasm. I skim through the Sword Study, run through my verses quickly; to check it off the list. I start worrying about the local contest coming up in five short weeks - yikes! I don't have my verses perfect yet. I don't know all my cross-references. When my mind starts getting overwhelmed thinking about my to-do lists, many activities to get to, "Bible Bee worries," and countless other things, I need calm down. I need to be still and know that the Lord is God. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the Beginning and the End. He's my Savior and merciful Redeemer. There is no god like Him. He is the one, the only true God. When I start thinking about how great my God is, the things of my "oh-so-important" life don't seem that important anymore. I realize that my life is so insignificant, so little. I'm wasting my life by living for myself. My life is but for a moment; like the flower of the field which is here today and is gone tomorrow. What really matters? What am I living for? Am I living for the praise and glory of God alone? Or do I live for my own little kingdom that I've created for myself?

When I sit down to go through my Bible Bee materials with these questions playing through my head, I have a completely different perspective. Instead of feeling rushed, discouraged, and worried, I can come into the presence of God ready to learn from His Word. Why do I do it? So that I can glorify my King by growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. 

"To God Alone" by Aaron Shust is song that I have been blessed by as I consider these things. I wanted to share the lyrics with you all:

Can You take by the hand?

Can You use me as I am?
Break me into who You want me to be

When the time is finally right

Will You open up my eyes
And show me everything You want me to see?

This life is not my own

To God alone be the glory
To God alone be the praise
Everything I say and do
May it be all for You;
The glory is Yours alone;
Yours alone.


Take the offering I bring
You want more than I can sing
Can I give You every part of me?

Turn these pennies into gold;

Take this life I call my own
Until I'm running after Your heart.

I'm needing to let go.

To God alone be the glory

To God alone be the praise
Everything I say and do
May it be all for You;
The glory is Yours alone;

We will rise and we will fall

But You remain after all
You're glorious and beautiful
You're beautiful.

To God alone be the glory

To God alone be the praise

Everything I say and do
May it be all for You;
The glory is Yours alone;
Yours alone.

So, when the going gets tough, be still and know that the Lord is God. Let that thought change your perspective.

Broken pieces

I guess you could say I have a bit of an obsession. If I’m happy, I solve a Rubik’s cube. If I’m bored, I solve a Rubik’s cube. If I’m nervous, I will definitely be solving a Rubik’s cube. Last time I counted, I had about six or seven on my dresser. Since I couldn’t bring any Bible Bee study materials to the local competition on Saturday, I brought–you guessed it–some Rubik’s cubes.

I brought my very favorite one: the 4x4. It’s harder than the 3x3, and it’s even more fun. I haven’t been able to solve it for a few months...I have a suspicion that a friend may have rigged it when I wasn’t looking. Anyway, no algorithm I tried would solve it, so I finally decided to flip the cubes manually. When they called me for my oral round, I left the cube in the waiting room. Well, when I came back after the oral round and everyone was gone, I found it...broken into 57 pieces. No two pieces were left together. Probably some other contestants saw it on the table and decided to play catch and it a hit the wall...hard. I carefully scooped up the pieces and brought them into the other room. After a few minutes, I gave up–it was a mess!!

When I got home that evening, I laid all the pieces on the floor and sorted them out into by their color and placement. Then, I flipped them over and tried seeing how everything fit together. The 4x4 Rubik’s "cube" doesn’t even have a cube base; it is a sphere with X’s etched through it. How on earth did 56 square faces fit into a sphere? I slid the pieces through the sphere X’s. Some stuck, some didn’t. Why wouldn’t they fit? A few slides and clicks later, the ridges fit like puzzle pieces. Within an hour, I rebuilt the cube. Only 56 pieces had been laid out on the table, so there is still a hole. Unless I can find the missing piece somewhere, it won’t ever be a whole cube again, but I learned some interesting things when I was solving the cube inside-out.

• First of all, a rigged cube can’t be solved from the outside. The problem wasn’t with the outside of the cube; it was with the internal structure. No matter what algorithm I used, I couldn’t solve it by manipulating patterns. It needed to be broken and changed on the inside before the outside could be changed.

• Every piece fit together. When you look at dozens of pieces of plastic with weird curves etched underneath, they really don’t look like they fit together. But when you look carefully, you begin to notice patterns and shapes. Then, as you piece the problem together, you see the connection points. The pieces were made to lock together to form a whole. Switch one piece the wrong direction and the whole cube gets jumbled. Put ever piece in the right place, and you end up with a complete Rubik’s cube.

• One of the more obvious things was that ever piece had a purpose. There weren’t any "extra" pieces. The puzzle is broken until every piece is in place...you can’t have a half-solved puzzle and say it’s done (as evidenced by the hole left in my cube by the missing piece). Mr. Rubik designed each piece to have a purpose in the whole; he created the cube to be one thing. Even when we scramble Rubik’s cubes up, they are still whole–they’re just convoluted wholes. In the beginning and the end, though, they are perfect.

You probably see where this is going now=) Our lives are just like that Rubik’s cube! Man started perfect and got "rigged" on the inside. No human manipulation can put us back together again. But, after God breaks us, we can be whole. It takes divine intervention–a renewed heart–to be perfect again. Our problems in life aren’t accidents; they are planned for a purpose. Our problems and struggles in life shape us into being conformed to the true image of what we should be. And finally, we serve a sovereign God. God created and designed us with a purpose. Everything that happens is for His purpose and His glory. Every piece fits together for His plan. Whether or not we like the design of the pieces, He has it right. Maybe I didn’t like that my cube was really a sphere and I wanted to change it. That’s too bad! I can’t change what it was meant to be! Maybe we don’t like what happened...perhaps we weren’t satisfied with a test score or competition. Well, God works all things for good, and He has a purpose for that! Remember, it takes breaking for wholeness! We’re just a bunch of broken pieces. God makes us whole. None of our twists and turns are going to make things better, but His working–no matter how hard it seems–will.

Philippians 2:13–for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

After Locals...

Congratulations EVERYONE!
No matter how Saturday went for you, if you did your best, you are a winner! I know you've heard that many times are starting to think of it as cliche, but it's true. 
If you are really doing this for the Lord, then the outcome is in His hands. As you breathlessly await the results to be posted on Wednesday, trust Him.
Maybe Saturday was a disappointing day for you, and you don't feel like you were able to represent what you really know. Trust Him.
Maybe you shone on Saturday, and you have already set your mind toward Nationals. Hold on a minute!  Revel in the Lord and what He has given you in His word. Trust Him!
Maybe you are more nervous now than before Locals, and you can hardly focus on anything without thinking about how you did. Trust Him!
God's way is perfect! His Word never returns void!  
Don't be so focused on the Bee that you forget the Bible!  
Enjoy God these next couple days, just spend time with Him, away from the memory cards and the Sword Study, tell Him you love Him. 

And here's a thought: Await His appearing with the same anticipation with which you await the posting of the scores.