Just Keep Going, Part 1

Laney and I checking out the John Deere!

 Well, I have reached the end of my rope.  The end of my rope?  Nope, not the end, just a different strand, a different texture, a different thickness, but certainly not the end. My rope does not end till God gets His pocket knife out and cuts it off.  That is when it will end.  At that point, I will officially be at the end of my rope.  But even that is not the end. Really, just as I said before, the rope just changes.  It looks a little different.  Because of what Jesus did for me on the cross, the rope just changes color, texture, and I imagine that the energy that I will have to exert to move along this new rope will be nothing.  

You see, we are born and we start moving along our rope.  At this stage, the rope is smooth and easy and it is supposed to be.  Babies can not handle the texture and size of a big twisted pro-manila, no, I imagine theirs is more like silk and no thicker than their smallest finger.  That first rope is smooth on their soft sensitive skin and most parents would not do anything on purpose to hurt their new baby.  But God is a genius.  He created us to start our children on a path that has ups and downs so our children will not be helpless in navigating this life. Then at some point, we as parents inadvertently put in their small hands, ropes of different sizes and textures.  We take away the silk rope that is soft, smooth, and easy to hold.  We give them ropes that will create cuts, blisters, callouses.  Ropes that will make them bleed.  Why do we do that?  Because Jesus told us in John 16, that we will have trouble.  There is no getting around it. Those cuts and blisters heal and those callouses that form allow us to move forward with less pain than before.  Here is an important part; if you move along that rope without Jesus, those cuts, blisters, and callouses that form will cause your heart to also become calloused, hard, and cold.  But if you know Jesus and have a relationship with him, then He will prevent your heart from becoming like your hands and you will have the ability to keep going and have the strength to bring others with you.

There is no way I can type out everything and keep your attention, as I take you through events that have happened over the last two weeks. So I am going to attempt to divide this story up and within each post, point out where God has been.   I said to myself, "Anthony, God is teaching you something here and maybe you can type it out and tell it in such a way that someone might be helped by you going through this."  We shall see.  Lord willing, we shall see.  Maybe I am going to tell this story a little differently than before.  Have you ever wondered what would happen when you put your foot down and tell the world that you are not going to do something?  Well, I did and I am satisfied so far with the outcome, even though it is not what I wanted.   

My awesome Niece Heather and Nephew Heath!!