Noah's Ark on the open water
If It's Not One Thing...

If it’s not one thing, it’s another, or two, or a gazillion…

Sometimes, we feel like Job of Bible fame.
One day, one after the other, he hears from the bearers of devastating news.
Or Paul, when he outlines his trials, from tossed in the drink or beaten nearly to death.

Noah hears from God, and 100 or so years later?
The ark is ready, the door is shut, and the deluge begins.

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, in the seventeenth day of the month,
in this day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up,
and the windows of the heavens were opened up.
And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
(Gen 7:11-12 MKJV)

And God remembered Noah, and every living thing,
and all the cattle which were with him in the ark.
And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.
Also the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped,
and rain from heaven was restrained.
And the waters returned from off the earth continually.
And after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters had gone down.
And in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month,
the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.
(Gen 8:1-4 MKJV)

I asked ChatGPT to give me some rhyming words about this, and I updated it to fit my wording. I wonder if artificial intelligence can give me some better words to think about this issue or another.

“If it’s not one thing, it’s another,
One storm is replaced by yet another bother.
The sun shines bright, then clouds appear,
Life’s twists and turns, both far and near.

Yet through it all, we learn and grow,
With faith and strength, the way to go.
For in every trouble, there’s a plan,
Guided by grace, held in God’s hand.”

How do you live when it seems like one problem after the other prevails? You get up and face life again until you grow weary of the effort. Again. And always, again. You never give up. You keep moving forward.

I want a pilot to do that if there’s a problem in the cockpit, and I want my family to do the same, even when it seems the tide is swelling higher than we can overcome.

I love this quote from a founding father; if you think about it, they faced so many barriers to success.

“In matters of style, swim with the current;
in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”
~Thomas Jefferson

I’m standing like a rock in a river of currents that want to overwhelm my life. Not me…

Thank you for reading.
Please share with others.
It helps me get my book written!

(Below, you may find other topics similar to this one. Please read on!)

By Michael Gurley

Making Sense of Life, One Thought at a Time!