Pebbles from God
Recently I was talking to a close friend who was having a rough time. A lot was going wrong for her and she was trying not to enter a state of melancholic depression. As we spoke over our breakfast she confessed that she had been having issues with her driving lately. God had dropped many ‘pebbles’ on her head and she knew that she needed to change her attitude towards driving in order to avoid the ‘brick’ next time.
a series of unfortunate events?
The first ‘pebble’ was dropped when she found herself in a car accident that may have been fatal for a pedestrian if a pedestrian was present. Luckily no one was injured. The Gardaí happened to be there and she got away with a warning and wasn’t fined. The next ‘pebble’ was dropped when she was exiting the motorway and hadn’t slowed down on time. Unfortunately this time she wasn’t so lucky and was fined by the Gardaí. There were other ‘pebbles’ along the way that included her getting a flat tire and a fatal accident happened at the same spot where she had had her accident and a pedestrian unfortunately lost their life this time. All these incidents may appear to be a series of unfortunate events but there were all signs from God reminding her that she is nothing without God.
When she was driving, she felt in control of herself and almost untouchable even invisible and with a touch of arrogance. The Gardaí may have been there as her guardian angels reinforcing that God is always around the corner, watching us. God is there to remind us that we don’t get to move at paces that we choose for ourselves; we don’t get to speed and break traffic rules as we like. God has set a pace and a speed limit for us – God gets to decide when things happen in our lives! We may like to be in control and set the rules but we will always be reminded that God is our father and creator and has the final say at the end of the day.
“God drops pebbles on your head before he drops the brick” – Oprah
This quote reminds me that I cannot do anything without God, we cannot do anything without God. When God notices that we are drifting away from him he drops a ‘pebble’ as a reminder and warning. If we ignore that pebble, another one follows. These pebbles represent the opportunities provided by God and can also be warnings that if we don’t reflect and change our course of action a ‘brick’ may be dropped the next time and the consequences may be detrimental.
After speaking with my friend, I took away three main points from her:
We should always pray to God and put him first in our lives
We should try to surrender our problems to God and release the load from ourselves onto him.
God is our friend, father and protector and we should turn to him first during the good and bad times.
I believe that focusing on the three main points listed above will helps us evade the potential of entering into a deep melancholic depression during our hard and trying times. When God sees a potential in us and we seem to be drifting off track, he brings us back on track.
suffering as grace
I grew up watching my mother live a hard and challenging life until she lost her battle to cancer. I just could never understand how her faith in God sustained it all. It was almost like the harder life got for her the stronger her faith remained. I recall asking her why God is making her life difficult and thus making our lives hard too in the process. I asked her how and when the suffering will end. She responded with shaking her head and then telling me that I should not view challenges and obstacles as suffering but instead I should accept them as a Grace from God and also as a privilege, because God wants me to get closer to him through the difficulties that I am faced with. Her hardships never drove her into a state of melancholic depression because she was deeply in the spirit with the Lord.
We must remember that when we choose to get close to God, it usually means that our lives will get harder (just like what happened to St. Paul). Perhaps God does that to remind us that we should always turn to him and always be in the spirit and not of this earth. I concluded the conversation with my friend encouraging her not to stop driving but to instead pray before she enters her car for a safe journey and to thank God at the end of every journey she has. She needs to include God in everything she does in order for her to avoid ‘pebbles’ and to never experience the ‘brick’.