I used to HATE it when this didn’t go my way. It’d get me down, depressed, and oh, so pissed off.

Praise the Lord, I’m no longer bound to the emotional savagery that
washes over you when it seems everything in life is conspiring to drown
you, and crush you.

See, I live by a different paradigm, now. My goal is NOT to advance
myself, and to make sure I’m #1 on everyone’s list. It’s to advance the
cause of Christ! So, like my friends from Skillet,

 Quote:

I’m a beep, I’m a vapor
I’m just a blinking light
I’m a beep, I’m a vapor
And I’m about to evaporate

And the future’s robbing my soul
I’m face to face with my futility
And my life is slipping away
Inhaling my mortality

And I feel my skin’s just a shell
Underneath is my reality
I breathe dimensions unknown
It conquers my mortality

It’s a mad world will it ever stop?
Will the madness end?
While my body decays my soul does not
Death is just the beginning

And the future is robbing my soul
Inhaling my mortality

‘Vanity of vanities – all is vanity”, says the preacher
– and I’m inclined to agree with him. Everything I’ve ever set my heart
on, save God, has been systematically dismantled, bit by bit. I know
why, too – I still claim ownership over my own life, in many respects,
and count my worthiness in other’s esteem, much too often.

God’s solution, as usual, is to pare my life down to it’s essence – He asks me, like Peter:

 Quote:

15 So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,
“Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him,
“Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.”
16 He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love
Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to
him, “Shepherd My sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son
of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the
third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all
things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Tend My sheep.

– John 21:15-19

That’s all that matters, folks.

Not job, not significant other, not children, not hobbies, not skill, not esteem – just read this.

 Quote:

23 And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, “How hard it will
be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 The
disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus answered again and said
to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 “It
is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich
man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 They were even more astonished and
said to Him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Looking at them, Jesus said,
“With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are
possible with God.” 28 Peter began to say to Him, “Behold, we have left
everything and followed You.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there
is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father
or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, 30 but
that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age,
houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms,
along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. 31 “But
many who are first will be last, and the last, first.”

Yeah, I’m some religious nut. You betcha, kids. I stand on the promises
of God. I don’t need man’s affirmation, I need God’s. “Whom God loves,
He chastens”, though, is also something that comes to mind for a
Believer. God destroys you, in order to build you up. Doesn’t sound
like fun?
Oh, it isn’t. You Jesus was kidding, above, when He says “Children, how
hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God”? Heck no. I wouldn’t trade it
for anything in the world, though.

Cause despite the “refining” I’m going through right now – like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – I’m FIREPROOF

Job 13:15 – “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”