This morning I was on my usual drive to my shop in Roseville.  As I got off the freeway I noticed a guy walking on the off ramp.  Just behind him about a block away was a car with it’s hazard lights on.  I would have stopped if………

As I continued my drive I started thinking (and listening).  But first allow me to explain a little on how I feel God speaks to me.  God uses  analogies. I will see a picture or see something visually and  God will give me an analogy to communicate  with me.  I share those analogies as encouragement or challenges.

As I continued my drive I started thinking about the guy walking on the off ramp. You typically don’t see people walking on off ramps, if you do it is a sign of trouble, most often.  As I looked in my rear veiw mirror I could see hundreds of cars in route to work.  They’re day has started off  better than the guy I noticed.  The question this time is how many of our family members, co-workers, or the person behind the counter at the market are walking on the off ramp.   They’re walking and we’re driving by.  We’re in route meaning we’re doing what we do and we’re not taking the time to pull over.  We’re not taking the time to ask the question: is everything o.k.

On Friday I had an off day.  It was a stressful day as the stress of owning a business in this economy and the funds needed to support my family aren’t there. There were people (friends) who noticed “I was walking on the off ramp”. They stopped and pulled over to ask the question.  It was appreciated!  It meant a lot.

My challenge to my readers:  Pull over and ask the questions.

I might have blogged about this sometime ago when I use to work for AIM.  However, the thought jumped in my mind once again.  What happens when at one time you had a conviction about something, and now you don’t.  Have they simply changed their mind or changed their ways?  Have they allowed sin to creep in and that alone changes one’s conviction.  Or….is it a good thing? Have they matured in their walk with the Lord where that conviction is merely not a conviction but a past thought.

My example would be on drinking.  What if you were totally convicted back in the day about having a sip of a drink.  And now you find yourself having a beer now and then.  What happened to change that conviction.  (And you must understand this is only an example).

I’m interested in your thoughts?

My wife and I have a treadmill that sits in our garage, unused.  Every time I pull into the garage or look at the piece of equipment I feel guilt!  Guilt that I don’t utilize a piece of equipment in my reach.

One of the things I don’t like about the treadmill is you run and run but don’t reach any destination.  Instead, you’ve ran in the same place without gaining any ground yet feeling exhausted.

This is the best way I could describe my mood today.  I feel like I’m running and running.  I’m exhausted, I’m tired, and I look back and I see I’ve made no progress.  Why?

Why do I try so hard and yet gain no ground.  Am I depressed?  Am I stressed? Do I have anxiety?  I don’t know.  I don’t know if I want to be considered one of those…depressed people. As a Christian should I be depressed even though I know who my Father is?  What if I say that this truth is really not uplifting my day?  Oh wait, the treadmill just moved up an incline and moving faster.  Now what?

Should I hop off, ah man, I can’t.  Now what?

Last year was probably the hardest year I’ve ever had.  Buying a Coffee Shop, Dog Dying, multiple mission trips/conferences, my mother passing away, being laid off from a missions organization, and now experiencing the hardest economic times in our marriage, the question is echoing in mind.  When is the Climb over?

It’s the end of August already and I’d thought going into this year would be a decent year, a year of growth.  But it’s this year the laid off’s happened and the shop I own is  a few months behind.  When I thought what else would happened, I was asked to “be an alternate” drummer on a worship team I truly enjoyed playing on.  So I guess in retrospect I was laid off from that as well.  So the question still lingers on; When is the climb over?

How much can one person truly handle?  Being a christian my whole life I know all the answers about trusting in HIm and so forth but it does not answer the question at hand.

As soon as I see a peak of light, a hope, something in life comes and gets in its way.  The hill is becoming hell.

I’m exhausted.