Obstacles

I sit here and look at a beautiful bouquet of irises.  They have to be standing 2 1/2 feet tall in a gorgeous burgundy and white color.  We had a wedding here on Saturday and they gave Margaret and I the 2 bouquets of irises from the reception.

They are on the edge of my desk and block my view out my office door.  As beautiful as they are, I keep having to look around them to see who is coming in my office.  As they are creating an obstacle, it got me thinking.

Each day, I set out with a certain amount of things I want to get done or have to get done.  Many times that list grows during the day.  Sometimes when least expected, I have to quickly shift gears and do other things.  As a whole, most people do not like obstacles.  We don't like to change what we had planned to do and obstacles create unbalanced schedules and things have to get moved around.

But, let's look at obstacles in a different way.  When things don't go the way you planned or there is a bump in the road, perhaps it is for a reason.  As I look at these iris flowers, yes they are an obstacle but I also am reminded of the beauty that is God's creation.  I am quickly reminded of the beautiful, sweet wedding from where they adorned the tables.  Yes, they create a hindrance in my sight, but they are so pretty that I don't care.

Much of life is like that really.  We don't like things to get in our way of the end goal.  When that happens though, we have two choices.  We can mope and sulk about the obstacle and the frustration that it might cause or we can use the obstacle as an opportunity to change the way we are thinking.

Perhaps you are an athlete that is all of a sudden injured and have to side line for the rest of the season ...
Perhaps someone you expected to be at an event couldn't make it for some unknown reason...
Perhaps you really want to pursue career X, but for now you have to do career Y waiting for the opportunity to come about....

SO.... will yours be an obstacle or a new opportunity.