Encouragement

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What To Do With The Kinks In Life
©
by

Stephen A. Peterson


It was Monday, April 18, 2005, a beautiful spring day in Central Oklahoma. This was also the day when it was my turn to water my wife’s newly planted vegetable garden. When I turned on the water to water the garden, nothing happened. The water just would not come out—not a drop of water. Looking around, I noticed a bend in the hose. After I straightened the hose out, a powerful shot of water came forth from the hose so necessary for my wife’s growing vegetable garden.

Like the garden hose, my prayer is often time that way, as well. It is though my prayer to the Lord can’t get through. This is in spite of the fervor of my prayer. I wonder often if anyone else feels the sort of frustration I experience with prayer.

When I step back and consider my own prayer life, perhaps God can’t hear my prayer because of the kinks in my life. While watering the garden, I recalled a game I officiated a month earlier. An interested parent from high in the stands was letting me and the other official have it. Although I never responded, in my mind, I wanted to tell the woman that she was and is an idiot and a bad influence on the young children and players listening to that sort of language and rage. At the end of the game, this parent stayed in the field house until we were on our way out. When she saw us go towards the exit door, she announced at the top of her voice that we were both idiots. Then she moved to block the exit. I looked this woman in the eyes then said, “May God bless you and forgive you for your travesty.” Amazingly, this woman just looked at me and allowed us to pass without further incident or statements. Right away, it felt as though the Living Water of Jesus Christ started moving within me. I don’t know for certain but I’ll bet the present of Christ moved into the heart of that belligerent woman because the knot or kink within her soul was opened with patience and kindness.

So when there is a kink or blockage holding up the free flow of Christ’s unconditional love and goodness blocking Christ in your life, search yourself, find the kinks in your human love relationship—even with the most angry of your critics. Removing that which blocks Christ-like actions. Who knows, it could lead to a sudden rush of living water in a person’s life.

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