FOCUSED ON THE OBVIOUS

John 11:32 "When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

The faith of this woman was great. She knew that Jesus had the power to heal and she believe that if He'd been there, that is exactly what would have happened. And yet, she totally misses the boat. She is focused on the obvious. She has probably experienced Jesus heal someone before, so she knows he is capable of that. But she can't see beyond that. "If only you'd been here Lord..." Mary's faith could only go so far.

I like what Jesus says even before he gets to Mary. "No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." He knew Lazarus would die. But He allowed it to bring glory to God.

How often do we have things in our life where we think, if only God had stepped in, I wouldn't have lost my job. If only God had stepped in, I wouldn't be in court. If only God had stepped in, maybe I wouldn't have been divorced. God allows bad things to happen. It doesn't mean He loves us any different. But He is in the helicopter, we are in the car. He knows that if He allows certain things to happen, it will draw you closer or someone else closer to God. That whole bumper sticker that said, "Be patient, God isn't done with me yet," takes on a whole new meaning.

I'm sure I've shared my push up story with you before, but here it is again. When I went in the Army, I had to be able to do 1 pushup to go into basic training. I trained with a Marine. Doing one pushup...please, cake. But I couldn't. I pushed out 15 or more, none to the drill segarents satisfaction. Bam! I hit the table and was shipped off to 2 weeks of 8 hour a day physical training. I was SO angry at God, but that two weeks ended up saving me from the Panama situation, going to Saudi Arabia and the LA Riots. I missed all of those wars by guess how many weeks...you guessed it...two. We can't focus on what is right in front of us, because that isn't the end of the story. God is the author. We just need to trust Him to write the best possible story.