It's easy to love and worship God in a time of triumph or blessing. Is it as easy to say that God is good when our entire world seems to be shaken to it's core.

I just made an entry about how encouraged I feel to be part of a creative community while attending the Willow Creek Arise Conference. I still feel encouraged by that time. However, last night that started to be a smaller concern in my immediate outlook. As I was driving to Chicago to meet up with my church's graduating Senior class, I started having trouble with my car. It would sputter and not drive very fast without a lot of effort. I was lucky to get back to Schaumburg where I was staying. It's about 25 miles to the city one way.

Right now, I am sitting in a chevy dealership awaiting my diagnosis. At this point, I've been told that 2 cylinders are dead and much more damage could be imminent. Talk about a bummer. I had to miss my last day of conference worship and encouragement that would have undoubtedly left me excited and energized to go back to my ministry.

Instead, I am staring down the barrel of a possible engine overhaul. It would be very easy to stress out and worry about it. Add this to the already shaken ground I stand on with my Church being in the Red with giving for the entire time I have been on staff after I moved my family thousands of miles across the country and you have a recipe for disaster or defeat.

Luckily, God has given me much to be thankful for. I have a great family, an awesome wife who supports me and loves through all my failures and 2 beautiful children. Money and things will always be a stress in life, but the Kingdom of God is at hand. I am taken care of by a Creator who loves me through all of my ugliness and failures. I serve a Mighty God who has taken me from the pit of anger, rage, unforgiveness, deception and bitterness. I serve a God who has turned me from all of the normal responses I would have to a time like this and made me look at life from a healthy perspective. I won't say that I have arrived because I still find myself tempted at every turn to go back to my old ways, but I recognize the growth and maturity that God is doing in me. Not by my own power, but through his divine purpose in my life and in His Kingdom.

So I say praise God in the midst of feeling like my world is strained and my finances are looking difficult. Praise God for his Goodness and Grace in a sinner's life like mine...