Top of the world to ya mate...

For those of you who live in "normal" areas of the country, you know, places where the weather does not change every minute and 45 seconds, this will still apply as you read on. But here in the north west corner of Allegan county, in Fillmore township, in the state of Michigan, we live in a wind tunnel.

You think I am perhaps exaggerating a little, well maybe a little, but it gets windy here. Our home is on a small hill, we are surrounded on 4 sides by fields and not many trees around, think Iowa.

We had a bad cold front blow through this week, along with it came 50 MPH winds. Up until now, our home has stood fine, no real damage done, but this storm for some reason maybe was a little worse I don't know, but I got home the other night for my supper break from work and there was a roof shingle on my kitchen counter. My wife said, "oh yeah, that was laying in the front yard."

"Oh just great" I said, "you know what that means?" " I am gonna have to go up on that roof and fix it cause once a shingle goes, more are sure to follow" Kind of like when a guy starts to lose his hair..unless there is immediate action, you are looking at a total loss!

So yesterday, I finally had some time to try and get on the roof. My roof is not normal however, for some reason we designed it with a very steep pitch, I think we did it cause of the weather we have out here, lots of lake effect snow, etc. It works cause we never have any snow on our roof. But it's like a 45 degree pitch, so getting on the roof is not for the faint of heart. I was going to go up there a few years ago and put some Christmas lights on the dormers, "think Chevy Chase". I got the ladder up there and crawled up and before I even got to the top of the ladder I turned white and said...nope, not worth dying. It looks like Mt Everest when you get up there. I don't mind heights as long as I am safe and somehow secured or strapped in, but when it's just you and a set of Nike's, forgetaboutit.

Well, I had no choice this time, I had to get up to the dormer which is where the missing shingle was from. If I just left it, my house would be bald after the winds of winter. So I got the ol ladder, my Nikes, some roofing nails and a hammer and headed up. Well when I was about to step on that roof, I realized...YOU ARE ABOUT TO DIE. My leg started to shake and I knew I was never gonna make it, it was really too steep to be safe...I was not imagining it, the roof was too steep, I could not do it.

Well, like I said, failure was not an option here, it was do it somehow, or call a roofer and pay out the nose for a five minute job. I don't like to pay other people large amounts of cash as a rule.
After a few minutes I began to think, well, you have no choice really, what can make you safe on this roof. I began to think about mountain climbers, what do they do? Well they rope themselves to the rock and each other.

I grabbed a rope, climbed up into the attic and crawled to the dormer window. I tied the rope around the roof voist and threw it out the window. Then I headed back outside and up the ladder, I tied on end of the rope around my waist and climbed up on the roof using the roof as an anchor. Well, I was still pretty nervous, but in the back of my mind, I knew that if I did slip, I was going to go only so far cause that rope was going to stop me. Well, I dropped the hammer...off it went down to the ground. That is beside the point really, I went back up the ladder and back on the roof, and each time I had to go up and down the ladder for various reasons, it got easier cause I knew my rope, once secured around me would hold me and keep me from falling. Well, the job got done and I hope my roof problems are over for now.

The point...well as I was sitting around today, the thought struck me, my walk with God is much like my adventure on the roof yesterday. For a long time, many many years of my life, I have been living without a rope, trying to live life on my own, make it myself, trusting in myself to get over hurt feelings, get through trials and hard days, overcome one kind of sin or another. You know what, it does not work, it's dangerous and hard. There have been COUNTLESS times I have slipped right off the roof.

It is such foolishness to try to go through life on your own, falling time after time. There is no reason for it when there is another way, a better way. Trust in the Lord, he is your rope, he is the firm foundation. There is no reason to go up there, out there every day by yourself, God wants you to hold onto him, pull yourself up and wrap himself around you. You will still slip and fall, I slipped up on that roof, if I did not have my rope around me, I may have landed on the rocks below, but I grabbed that rope and held on. And each time I had to get down and up that ladder again, it got easier cause I felt safe. You know what I am getting at?

I have for a few months now been trying to trust God more with my life and my hopes and dreams. I want God to use me, but I am trusting in his timing, and in his plan. If God wants my at my current job for the rest of my life, I have to say, thats's ok cause it's his plan, his roof and his rope.

I would like to say to anyone reading this who may be struggling with trying to make things happen themselves, whether it's a job, or a change of address, health problems, marriage problems, any problems, God wants you to trust him. Grab that Bible, it's your rope, and your lifeline, read it, pray, even for 10 minutes a day, find the time, cause if you keep trying on your own, you are gonna keep falling...on your own.