Landmines

When everything is starting to flow and you feel like you are on the right track and feeling good about what you are doing and where you are, you can be certain that there is a landmine maybe even more than one in your path. You can jump over them you can step around them but eventually you will step on one. That is how this life works. I say it is how satan works. Some of those landmines can be self made and some of them can come out of left field. It’s all in how you put yourself back together and how much damage you allow them to do.

I had been sober for about 6 months and I got a Facebook message from a person I had never even met before but we had a mutual friend. This person said he had a package addressed to me that had mistakenly been delivered to his house. I was feeling kind of sketchy on who this individual was so I contacted our mutual friend to check him out and he was real. He wasn’t a scammer and didn’t have $3,000,000.00 he wanted to give me from the Nigerian government just because he liked my profile picture. I messaged him back and he had a whole case of wine from a subscription company from California and he was going to drop it off to me or I could come pick it up. A WHOLE CASE OF WINE!!!! No one would know. There would be no trace. I didn’t order it. It wouldn’t be on my credit card, I could hide it. I mean that’s a great big alcoholic present dropped right in my lap. I agonized over that decision. It was just me and this guy that would know. Was it though? God would know. All the hard work I had done in the last 6 months would be for nothing. The commitment I had made to myself and my family would be broken. The trust would be gone. This would not end here. After this I would be in that hole again and probably grab my shovel on the way down to dig deeper so it was going to take twice as long to get out. After many arguments in my own head, much like having those little cartoon angel and demon on each shoulder, I messaged him back and let him know it was not mine and there was a mistake. I also told my husband so I could be held accountable. Landmines, they just get thrown out there when we least expect them to sometimes coming from the most bazaar places that have to let you know something is trying awful hard to throw you off track.

I feel that way today. I am moving forward, I have good momentum and then an unexpected bomb drops on me completely out of left field over the weekend. Are you serious? I really questioned God and said “Why Now?” God answered through out the weekend by sharing with family and just reflecting. Why not now? Actually if there was going to be any time for a landmine now would be the time. If this would have been a month ago I would be curled up in a ball in the bed. If this would have been a month ago I would not be able to be there in the midst of everything like I need to be and do my part. God put all the pieces in place. He has been gathering and moving everyone and getting them prepared so everyone can be right where they need to be for such a time as this. A moment to soon or a moment to late and things don’t work how they are supposed to. We will never be able to avoid the landmines. There will be seasons where we spot them and are good at going around them and there will be seasons where it seems like every step we take is one explosion after another. What we will be able to do is let God get us through them. Let him clothe us in spiritual armor so that we may grow stronger and turn around and show others how to do the same.