¶ Welcome to Starting Right
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mac . I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day . So grab your cup of coffee , sit back , relax and let me help you start your day
¶ Brenda's Rock Climbing Adventure
right . I've got a new story for you today . It's about a young woman named Brenda who was invited to go rock climbing and , although she was scared to death , she went with her group of friends to this giant granite cliff .
She looked up at the cliff completely filled with fear , but she put on the gear , took a hold of the rope and started to climb up the face of the rock . Well , she got to a ledge where she could take a breather and as she was hanging there , the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens .
Well , here she was , on a rock ledge with hundreds of feet below her and hundreds of feet above her . Of course , she looked and looked , hoping that the lens had landed on the ledge , but it just wasn't there . Here she was , far from home , her sight now blurry .
She was desperate and began to get upset , so she prayed to the Lord to help her find it when she got to the top of the cliff , a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens , but there was no contact lens to be found .
¶ The Miraculous Ant Discovery
She sat down almost in tears with those who had already made it to the top , waiting for the rest of them to make up the face of the cliff . She looked out across the range of mountains , thinking of that Bible verse that says the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth .
She thought , lord , you can see all these mountains , you know every stone and leaf and you know exactly where my contact lens is . Please , god , help me . Finally , they walked down the easy way to the bottom of the cliff and at the bottom there was a new party of climbers just starting up the face .
One of them shouted out hey , you guys , anybody lost the contact lens ? Well , that would be startling enough , but you know why . The climber saw it . There was an ant moving slowly across the face of the rock carrying the contact lens .
Brenda's father was a cartoonist and when she told him the incredible story of the ant , the prayer and the contact lens , he drew a picture of an ant lugging a contact lens with the words Lord , I don't know why you want me to carry this thing . I can't eat it and it's awful heavy . But if this is what you want me to do , I'll carry it for you .
¶ Carrying Unexpected Burdens
Sometimes we don't understand why we go through the things that we do . We believe God is with us , we believe he's guiding us , that his hand is on us , and yet we find ourselves often carrying loads that we didn't expect , that we don't want and that we somehow have to deal with .
And at that point we have choices to make whether to get upset with God and the situation we're in , or to realize that maybe God is trying to do something . Psalm 138 , verse 8 , says the Lord will work out his plans for my life , for your faithful love , o Lord , endures forever .
I think it would probably do us all some good occasionally to say God , I don't know why you want me to carry this load , I can't see any good in it and it's awfully heavy . But if you want me to carry it , I will . You see , god doesn't call the qualified , he qualifies the called .
And if he's called you and you find that you have to carry a burden of some kind for a while , god qualifies you to do that . He gives you the strength , the wisdom and the understanding to do it , to be able to get through that valley that you're going through .
The other side of the valley will be reached because God is giving you what you need to get there . And we need to remember that sometimes we go through difficult , trying , hard times , because it's not just about us . It's about God's plan for the people around us , maybe even people that we will never know until we get to heaven .
But God uses those difficult times in our lives to qualify us , to help us become
¶ God's Purpose in Difficult Times
more and more like Him , so that His plans can be fulfilled in the people and the world around us . So when you're going through tough times , hang on , don't give up . God will work for you and in you . He's not going to abandon you , and sometimes he may do a miracle to help us find what we think we've lost .
And at other times he may ask us to carry something that we don't know why we need to carry it . And yet God has got a plan and a purpose in it all . Have a great day , my friends . We will talk again tomorrow . Thank you for joining us today and I invite you to join us every Monday to Friday , right here at Starting Right with Danny Mac .