A Bridge over Troubled Water

It's easy to be joyful and happy when things are going good, right?  When you have money in your pocket and everyone's healthy and things are generally going your way, it is easy to whistle, smile and walk with a little pep in your step.  All it takes is for your car to break down, or a sudden illness, or an unforeseen event that brings bad news to change your entire perspective.  It might make us grumpy with the spouse, have short-patience with the kids, negative, ill-tempered, ornery and basically stuck in the mud.


Leave me alone!

Consider this from the Book of Ecclesiastes, which was written by King Solomon, the wisest of all men:

In the day of prosperity be happy,
But in the day of adversity consider—
God has made the one as well as the other
So that man will not discover anything that will be after him.  Ecclesiastes 7:14

God is in control - we aren't.  Sometimes I like to think I'm in charge - but I'm not.  While we make day to day decisions that may affect our circumstances, we're ultimately in His Hands and should have faith, count our blessings and thank Him in the good times as well as the bad.  It is one thing to say and yet another to actually walk through, I know.  In this life we'll certainly be faced with adversity.  We should rest in the fact that He is a loving God and we can learn lessons from our circumstances -the storms that blow through our lives.  He's promised He'll not leave us nor forsake us.  In fact, He'll be our bridge over troubled water.


Like a bridge over troubled water...

The bridge over troubled water in the picture above has an interesting little story.  During a hurricane several years ago, we evacuated and high-tailed it East.  Before leaving, though, I took precautions by moving everything that could fly around in the high winds into the garage.  Things that I couldn't move, I tied down.  One of those things was our trampoline.  When we returned, the yard was a wreck, with trees knocked down, shingles blown off, and limbs and leaves strewn everywhere. 

Now, our land has a low spot that becomes a rushing river directly through the middle of the property that would cause us to trudge through the mud on our many trips each day to the pasture and barn.  I looked and saw this stream flowing briskly.  As I surveyed the destruction, I noticed that the trampoline did not blow away; however, it was a mangled mass of bent up metal.  We were able to salvage the springs and the mat, but the rest was destined for the landfill - until I had an idea.  From out of the pile of mangled metal, I pulled out two pieces of crescent shaped trampoline frame, purchased a few treated 2 X 6's and metal screws and with assistance from my neighbor, built an arched bridge.

This nifty bridge has served us well for years now and keeps our feet dry!  When I pass over it, lots of times I'll think of our neighbor, who is now deceased.  He was a great neighbor who would do anything in the world to help me at any time.  I also think of the story I just told you.  The bridge stands as a testimony of the fact that from a mangled mass of debris caused by a storm, God, you, and your neighbor can pull a few scraps out of a junk pile of destruction and build a bridge, if you will, that will get you out of the mud, literally and figuratively.

Keep your chin up and keep pluggin'!