Failing With The Lord.....?

Have you ever felt confident that the Lord was with you and yet you were unable to succeed with the challenge at hand?
The first chapter of Judges, verse 19 states that the Lord was with the men of Judah and as a result they were able to conquer the people of the hill country. It's what you would expect, right? But then it says that they were unable to overcome the people of the plains because they (the people of the plains) had chariots of iron. As if to say that the help of the Lord can only do so much but human innovation and military prowess ultimately rules the day. It just doesn't add up against all the other stories of scripture. "Chariots of iron"? That's it? The people of God were no stranger to being outnumbered, outsourced, and overpowered. Consider them facing the Red Sea while being flanked by the most powerful army of the day, and yet the people of God crossed over victoriously because the Lord was with them. I just can't hear the Lord saying this time; "hey I'm sorry, I didn't know that they had chariots of iron, I mean what do you expect from me?". There has to be a more fitting explanation.
I think there is. Iron may be the key. The people of the plains had chariots that were fitted with iron (the newest and toughest metal to date) and it proved to be their reason for a successful resistance. The big question is where did the plains people get their iron? Not from the plains. Deuteronomy 8:9 says that Canaan Land is a place where iron and copper comes from the rocks and hills. Although the people of God were in charge of the hill country, they didn't run out all the inhabitants like they were commanded by God to do. I wonder if the people of the hills kept the plains people supplied with iron. I also wonder if God's people had done all they were commanded to do concerning the people of the hills, would the plains people been able to outfit their chariots with iron in the first place.
I think the greater lesson here is to be careful not to charge God with dropping the ball on our behalf when things are going awry but instead to retrace our own steps to see if there are some areas (seemingly unrelated to our present problem) that we have left unattended that the Lord wants us to give attention to. I'm not saying that we have to be perfect in order for God to work in our behalf and I'm not discounting God's grace for our shortcomings but maybe the reason today's meal seems a little spoiled is because it has been made with yesterday's leftovers.

Living Without A Cushion

Today's speed of life leaves us with very little cushion. Many people feel overloaded! Most Americans live without any space ; No Margin for error or troubleshooting or just slowing down on purpose. Our days are packed so full of activity that any unexpected event can throw us into a frazzled wreck. Not only do we live with little or no cushion concerning our time and schedule but our finances mirror this predicament. An unexpected dentist visit or auto repair can have a ripple effect through our bills for several months. I thought that today's tech. advances were supposed to give us more time for the truly more meaningful things such as family and relationships. It seems to me that many people are more disconnected and disengaged with their loved ones than in previous generations. King Solomon said that he would rather have one handful with quietness than two handfuls with travail and vexation of spirit. Solomon learned that He could have anything; but he couldn't have everything.
How does adding a little "quietness" to your life sound?
I read a great article by the late Howard McClusky. A professor from the University of Michigan. McClusky said that there are two key factors in understanding your own margin or cushion. He defined margin as the space between you and your limits.
The first factor is Load: There are two parts to this LOAD: External Load; responsibilities, tasks, career, family and so on. The second part is an Internal Load; Personal ambition, goals, self expectation. The second factor is Power: The ability to carry your load. When determining ones power you must consider things like your physical, social(support from others), mental, economic, skills, and spiritual well being. Cushion is created when you have a little more power than you need to carry your normal load. Then the unexpected moments can be taken in stride in stead of setting off a domino effect of huffing and puffing, sighing and stress.
For those who need a little cushion the objective is to reduce your load or increase your power; or a little of both. The weakness to this formula of C=L/P (Cushion equals Load over Power) is that there are no set values. Every one's values will be different. What one person considers a heavy task may not be heavy to another and what one person draws great strength from may not be so valuable to another. So everyone has to assign value to their own loads and their own power.
My hope is that this post would cause us to take a few moments to reevaluate the speed and meaningfulness of our own lives and determine whether or not we have enough cushion for the moments when we hit an unexpected bump or two. Does the lack of cushion cause us to get stressed and distracted from the more important things in our lives?

May your cushions be enlarged!

Randall