The Maze of Life

Have you ever felt like life is just one big maze that you cannot find your way through? You know there is a way through this crazy thing but it seems there are countless dead ends...and you seem to find all of them. It would seem that just when you feel things are going right, you hit a wall. That job doesn't pan out, the relationship you thought was "the one", isn't, the health issue you're dealing with doesn't seem to be getting any better. You're overall outlook on the future seems to diminish a little more with every passing day. As a result, you find yourself simply meandering in the maze of mediocrity. You're tired of trying anymore. You’re convinced this life is as good as it gets. Ever had one of these days? Ever had one of these weeks, months or years? I certainly have. How do we get back on "track"? I want to give a few ideas that will help when life just doesn't seem to be working out for us.

I think the first thing to do is re-trace our decisions. Where ever we are in life, pleasant or unpleasant, may be as a result of a decision we made. If we're in a rather unsatisfactory place in our life, we may have made a poor decision. Everything we do as individuals is decision based. The down side to this is a bad decision will result in a bad consequence. Ah, yes, those pesky consequences. Don't you wish we didn't have to worry about those things? Well, we do. The really bad thing about bad decisions is that you don't get to choose the consequence that follows. The poor decision dictates the consequence. It would be nice to eat all the "junk" food I wanted and say, "My consequence is going to be health and wellness." But guess what, it isn't. The poor decision to eat poorly already dictates to me what will be the consequences of that poor decision. I'll be over weight and miserable trying to tie my shoes. :) The point is decisions should be carefully thought out in relation to the likely consequences to follow.

I understand that not all of our struggles in life are as a result of our own poor choices. Perhaps you're going through something right now that is the result of someone else’s poor decision. This can be a very difficult situation to work through; especially if that person is close to you. I think the thing we have to remember when someone else’s bad choices negatively affect our lives is to take a long look in the mirror. Yes it hurts and yes it's difficult to deal with but haven't we all been on the other side of this before? I mean at the very core of the matter rests the fact our bad choices sent Jesus to the Cross to die a substitutionary death that wasn't His to die. It was ours. The point is someone always pays for bad decisions. Ask God to help you forgive and to give you power to get through this ordeal...my guess is God will be there for you even if the other person isn't.

Then, preparation precedes blessings many times. I don't think this is always the case but I do believe that in many situations, we have to position ourselves for blessing. I guess this would run parallel to making good choices but I think there is another aspect involved. Keeping God in slot #1 in our lives is a good way to prepare for blessings. Jesus said, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these other things will be added to you." Matthew 6:33
I believe God wants nothing more for us, His children, than to bless us by leading us to the fulfillment of our dreams. I think the prerequisite is that God does the leading. I have an "older" gentleman in my church that once told me, "95% of the time when people's lives head toward ruin, they've gotten in front of God." We've begun trying to lead God in the way we want Him to go rather than submissively following in the way He wants us to go. Are you following Him or are you trying to lead Him? Success and blessing comes to the follower.

What do you think? Any advice on this crazy thing we call life? Would you add something that has helped you in your personal struggles?