"God Bless the Broken Road. . ."

Man, I really need to keep up writing on here, and stop taking two months in between posts, so you'll have to forgive me if my writing is a little rusty.... Well, its June 30th here in Sydney, and I have two days of calm before the utter chaos of Hillsong Conference totally breaks free. (total UNITED reference there.)  Anyway, so I was thinking over the last few days, what to do when the situation you're in, is less than perfect . . . quite a bit less than perfect sometimes. . . but you know that where you are is right where you need to be.  Here's what I came up with. You can sit there, wallowing in the problems and frustrations that seem to be swirling all around you.  You can take it all in and complain, saying what you would change, and blame everyone else for doing a horrible job and making your life miserable.  Or. . . and this is a big "or."  Or, you can rise above the storm, looking down into the swirling chaos, and see the big picture. Yup, you'll see problems and things being done wrong, but there will be something good in there. . . there almost always is.  Its not your job to fly in and save the day. To be the superhero that the world needs.  My dad used to tell me every once in a while, when I'd try to correct his parenting (yeah right. . .) "Dont you try and change me and how I do things.  You just make a note of it and do it better when you're a dad."  That used to frustrate the mess out of me.  I would look back at him, and think  . . . not say, cause that wouldn't have been smart. . . but think, "how can you sit there and ignore this brilliant parenting advice that Im giving you right now?  I mean someone should come talk to me and write a book about these genius ideas, and you're totally ignoring them. . ." Yet, here I am looking back 17 years later (cause I only thought that when I was REALLY young and stupid. . . yeaaaa....) realizing that, whether he meant to or not, he was teaching me one of the most valuable parenting lessons ever.  The lesson that its not always your responsibility to change whats going on around you. That most times, even though you have the most brilliant ideas in the world, you just need to accept whats happening. You can change things when you're in charge. . . but just remember that the view from the hotseat isn't the same as the view from the outside.  So, when you're walking down the road, just remember that it is going to be a broken road. Its not going to be perfect, and things along the way will trip you up. But God blessed the broken road . . . and it will lead you straight to Him.