I was having my regular morning jog one fine day, totally focused on my destination when all of a sudden I found myself sprawled across the gravel path! Laying there with the wind knocked out of me and realizing my hands were all scraped up, my glasses were broken and I had the beginning of a knot on my head, I gingerly got up. Glancing around quickly to see if anyone had seen the undignified sight of me, I begin to try to jog again. But it was clear after only a few paces that I needed to stop and access my situation.  After all, I was bleeding and I was covered in dirt!

Ever have a day like that? If you are like me, you''ve had entire seasons of life like that.  Life appears to be going along fine and dandy and suddenly, without warning, something happens to rock our worlds.  At first we try to go on as though everything is the same. We look around to make sure no one knows how much we''re suffering or see our shame. After all, shouldn''t we have known this kind of thing could happen? But as much as we try to move forward, we realize we need to stop and access what''s happened.

It''s when we take time to pause that we discover God in the middle of our unexpected circumstances, in the middle of our failures and in the middle of our personal suffering. We say "God why did you allow this to happen to me? I had a plan for my life and my plan didn''t include this! Besides, what good is it anyway?"  As we begin to search for answers in the middle of that situation that has sent us sprawling, we come to realize that even when life has given us a one-two punch, we can still get up and keep going.  In fact, we can even learn from our failures, our suffering, and our unexpected circumstances.  And we can caution others who may be traveling down the path we once were on. Come to think of it, in some cases, we can even choose a different path to take going forward. So much can be gained if we pause long enough to let God teach us the lessons that will come from life''s bumps and bruises.

The very thing that may be present in life that caused the fall, or the sorrow, or the suffering can become our story. Not necessarily what defines us but the very thing God will use to grow us up and develop our character to depend on Him through faith. Jesus said it this way, "Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world."  (John 16:33)

When you find yourself stumbling and taking a fall, pause - grab hold of God''s hand and let Him show you the way up to a better path.

"For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith."  (1 John 5:4)