More Than You Bargained For

Good morning all,

I would like to start by thanking everyone who called, texted, liked, shared, or commented via social media in response to my most recent television interview.  I am humbled that God brought me through a raging storm to help calm the gales that are throwing some off course like a satellite that has collided with a meteor in outer-space.  In the fiery order of actual events and violent agents of destruction, answers are lurking in the shadows and all life is compelled ahead on it’s path.  I want to ask you today.  What happens when the winds start to subside and the ship swallowed up by the Tsunami is now as calm as lotus flowers and water lilies floating endlessly in a pond?  The job promotion comes through, the wayward child all of a sudden comes home like the protocol son, the health report that was once as dim as a candle trying to fluoresce a sports arena is now shining like silk in the sunshine.  I look back to my destructive days, and what I now realize, is not only was I addicted to drugs and alcohol, but I was strung-out on chaos.  Foolishness ordered my steps like a marching band in a Macys Thanksgiving Day parade.  When the sun would start to shine, I would duck for cover like Punxsutawney Phil does every February 2 (Groundhog Day) if he sees his shadow.  But, unlike the groundhog who would just retreat to his hole, I would relapse into a world of self-pity, self-denigration, and self imposed pain.  Success, at that juncture in my life, was more than I bargained for.  I was so used to things going wrong, it became my norm.  We hear the word dysfunctional thrown around like Frisbees in a park on a Sunday afternoon. Sometimes when things get out of kilter in our families, we rush to use that generality to rationalize the behavior.  It is sometimes defined as not performing normally, or acting outside of social norms.  A wise man told me long ago that if you are looking to fix your problems, “you need look no further than the mirror.”  In Hebrews 11:1 the Bible declares, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  Remember, the bigger the mess, the bigger the miracle.  When I went from walking to riding the bus, it was a blessing.  When I went from waiting on the bus to riding my bicycle, it gave me more freedom and flexibility and when I was able to buy a car, I was exposed to more opportunities.  What was different you might ask?  I was now grounded in the word of the truth and had come to the saving knowledge that these were blessings and not bargains!  So when God makes a way out of no way, when he opens doors that you thought were sealed off like Fort Knox, when you or a loved one is delivered from an addiction, be prepared because there’s going to be more than what you bargained for!