A close friend of mine sent me this WhatsApp message, which read, ‘Your problems might be as big as a ship, but God will give you a solution as wide as the ocean!’ I pondered on this awhile this morning, and slowly realized there was a lot of truth in this. We often talk about ‘failure being the stepping stone to success’ but have we ever thought of a problem being the key to an enormous solution?
For many years I walked in the park with a dermatologist friend. Something he told me was that the skin often revealed huge problems that the body was hiding inside, and proceeded to give me examples of cancer and other illnesses, including stress related sicknesses which showed itself through boils or other skin problems. In the opening of that little problem, came the sorting out of a major issue. Likewise, most problems that come our way, hold the key to oceanlike solving! But here comes the tough part; as soon as we see the little problem, or the ship sized problem, we run away from it, whine or cry!
There lived a man who retired from his job and felt quite secure with the small pension he received. He felt that since he had a house of his own, and his wants and that of his wife were few, he could live quite comfortably on the small pension.
He spent his day, having a drink in the afternoon, and two which became three drinks in the night, with his wife quite fearful that it would become four soon. One day the man noticed a huge crack in one of the pillars in his house and calling for a contractor, found the very structure of his house was in danger. His home was something he thought of as ‘permanent’ in his mind, and suddenly found out ‘permanent’ was not as permanent as he thought.
He called for an estimate and prayed hard that night, that he would be able to meet the cost. He was astounded at what the contractor quoted. As he wondered what he would do, as it would mean dipping into his savings and spending a chunk of his retirement money, he got the idea of getting back to work.
He started a consultancy, and with hard work, coupled with his immense expertise it became a roaring success. He got his whole house done, even built another floor, but more than that, found he was enjoying building his new business. His drinking stopped completely. There it was; he prayed for a small problem to be solved but was pointed a solution, which solved a bigger problem. So let’s look at problems in a different way, that even as we pray, expect God to show us an ocean of a solution..!
