Let go off the handlebars!!!!

Sometimes everything seems to be going well in our lives. Our careers are ascending, a stable marriage, the kids are well adjusted, and there is progress every year both personally and financially. We live a "safe" life; not too many risks or chances.

Suddenly, here comes that infamous "curve ball" out of nowhere. An illness, a job loss, death in the family, financial ruin, or your partner walks out on you and tells you that after all these years he no longer loves you. Your entire world is now upside down. You have just landed in the middle of a category 5 hurricane with very little warning. Alone with two kids you are rowing against the current and both rows just shattered. Water is rushing in and the bucket just went overboard.

"I can't make it to shore. I can't handle this. I am going to drown. Why me? It is not FAIR. What did I do to deserve this?" Sounds familiar? If you are reading this and you had any of these experiences you can probably attest to the loneliness and despair you felt in the middle of that vast ocean. What thoughts crossed your mind? How did you cope with it?

And yet, you didn't drown. You decided to grab whatever was available and began rowing toward shore. You prayed for a miracle and the ocean became calm enough to allow you to see the lighthouse at a distance. A target to shoot for. A gleam of hope. A ray of light at the end of a dark tunnel.

All you had to do was to "let go off the handlebars" and trust that He would guide you to safety. The lesson was priceless. You learned that you didn't need your partner to succeed; that you could handle everything by yourself. The illness didn't destroy you but made you strong. The job loss was a blessing in disguise because it allowed you to pursue your creative side and open a business or pursue a dream, and the financial ruin gave you a fresh start without the constraints of the material world.

Is it hard to let go off the handlebars? Not really....just the first time, then you begin to trust Him.