God's Recipe for Lemonade

It may sound kind of corny to think of God making lemonade, but I believe that we can learn a great deal from the old addage, "if life hands you lemons, make lemonade." It's not easy but if it was easy - it wouldn't be life. Let me give you a little background to what I'm referring to:

The past three days have been pretty difficult around here. My life, most likely just like yours, has been very hectic and has dealt several unexpected blows. I can't go into all of the details but the high (or low) points are that critical relationships aren't always valued by all as lifelong, people hide things and keep secrets that really shouldn't be kept secret and those things that should be secret for some reason are the things that we end up sharing. Many people around me are hurting and others are just confused (myself included) by the vast amount of "bad-stuff" present in our lives.

Then to kind of top it all off, I woke up this morning - after only about 3 hours sleep, tops - and the sun was nowhere to be found. It was a typical central Ohio day with cloud cover, a little fog and plenty of cool humidity in the air. It's amazing how a lack of sun can affect your day - but it sure did mine. I was on my way to a meeting and was stuck behind every slow driver in the area. I ended up being late to the meeting by only five or six minutes, but I detest being late so that was not a good thing. Then the meeting I was at evidentally didn't make very high on the priority lists of the others asked to be present because there were only three of us there: the host, the presenter and myself. That's pretty sad, but that's a whole different topic.

So I hope you can see the lemons in my life the past few days. Granted my lemons might be nothing compared to yours, but they still make life flat stink sometimes. I was praying and praying that God would somehow make things a little better. I prayed for a little "sugar" for my lemons. Not sure exactly what that meant, I decided to go on with the rest of my day.

Finally it hit me - only two things in life are constant: God's love for us and His Son's death/resurrection for our sins. The Bible promises that God will not allow us to suffer through more than we can bear with HIS help. It sure seemed like God had taken a lunch break the past couple of days, but then it really struck me square between the eyes - John 3:16 is what it's all about. This is the "sugar" for our lemon-filled lives.

We have a couple of options when life deals us a "bad" day. We can complain about it and make everyone around us miserable, or we can sprinkle a little "Jesus" in our lives. The choice is really up to us as individuals. If God has promised to give me no more than I can bear, that means that He knows I am stronger than I often give myself credit for. So today, maybe God is inviting you to spice up that lemon-water life a little. He just might be shouting words similar to Emeril (you know the famous cook on the food network) - God just might be inviting us to "BAM" our lives with the sugar of Jesus and His love for us.

Today, if you are living in a vat of lemons remember something a good friend once told me...today you might not be strong enough to live what God has put before you and that's fine. This is simply your opportunity to invite God to "live this one for you today." Maybe Jesus can sweeten our lives with the "sugar" of His never-ending love.

So the long and short of God's Lemonade Recipe is a stinky point in your life and a whole lot of God's love. I pray that you will be able to enjoy the new life that God has given you - BAM!!!