S05E052, How Many Fingers From Disaster? Andy B 2 Minute Video
In the Film series, Ice Age, there is little sabre tooth squirrel. He always gets so close to being to safeguard his precious nuts, when disaster strikes. If I’m honest he’s my favourite character because he never gives up trying. Everything gets thrown at him. And, yet, he just picks himself up and gets going again.
Sure, he suffers some typically calamitous disasters that requires the odd bit of hospital treatment.
But, he keeps going!
We’ve been through times in our life when we need an extra 20 or 30 fingers to fill the holes in the damn that is collapsing around us – just as we plug one gap in the towering wall of doom over us, another hole appears.
But, there is a solution to this and it is not to grow more fingers, but to stop trying to stop disaster from happening. Because, sooner or later, we’ll run out of fingers to plug that damn!
This isn’t about giving up.
This isn’t about not trying.
This isn’t about allowing people to get hurt because there are plenty of things that we need to keep doing in order to protect something or somebody.
However, it is most certainly about getting the right help! And that means pausing, and inviting God into what we’re doing.
Does life seem like more than you can handle? Then don’t try and handle it on your own, but to God who promises to walk with us through the flames and the flood.
Isaiah 43 v 1 – 2 (NLT)
“But now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you.
O Israel, the one who formed you says, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.
I have called you by name; you are mine.
When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.”
Just a thought...
Andy B
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Transcript
[00:00:00] So another Andy B Two Minute Video. And I was thinking about the film series Ice Age. I don't know if you've seen that film. There's this wonderful little ball of trouble called Scrat alright. He's a, like a sabertooth squirrel. And, in one of the opening sequences, you see him trying to sort his nut out. It's usually to hide it. And, unfortunately, he puts a hole ine effectively an ice damn.
[00:00:33] So he, he puts his paw into the hole thinking, oh, this isn't very good. And as he does that, another hole starts pumping out water. So he puts his finger in that, and then his two feet, and eventually he puts his mouth in and he goes blowing off cuz the water pressure flies him off the side of the mountain, the ice cliff.
[00:00:50] Do you ever feel like life is a little bit like that, that scene where you're just trying to get through life. But, as you try and sort one disaster out, another [00:01:00] one props up.
[00:01:01] We have it with finances, don't we? As you try and save money somewhere, inevitably you spend money elsewhere. So you try not to put the heating on because you can't afford it. And what happens nationally? Well, we see the NHS having to deal with lots of people with respiratory issues, pneumonia, infections in the lung, and all the rest of it because they're so cold.
[00:01:21] Somebody has to pay. If it's free, somebody has to pay. Free is never really free, unless it's the Gospel Message. But maybe you are so busy running around being reactive to these problems of life.
[00:01:36] There is another solution to be proactive, but sometimes it can batter us so much we feel like, yeah, that's great Andy, but how am I ever gonna be proactive, I'm just reacting. That's where going before God, taking a moment to hush and pause, buys you time. And it buys you time because when you're spending time with Jesus Christ in prayer, He's gonna honor that and He's gonna help [00:02:00] you.
[00:02:00] It doesn't mean to sail. Your problems are gonna disappear!
[00:02:02] We've been in some crazy times where you feel like you can't breathe with the amount of difficulties you've got facing you. And when we take time with God, we have peace. The problems are still there, the difference is our attitude and our heart are different. We have a different approach to it because now we know that, as we face those difficulties, God is walking through them with us.
[00:02:26] Our time is precious. We need to be really careful with how we use our time! And, rather being reactive and being made to run around, sometimes we need every day to take a moment to hush and pause and pray, to go before God and say, Lord, please walk with me through my life.
[00:02:44] Protect your time.
[00:02:45] Spend it with God.
[00:02:46] Just a thought.
Andy B, 03/02/2023