Difficult Places

Solo Serve, to most people those two words don't have much meaning but for me, my brother and my two sisters, my best friend Jason and his brother and sister it has a meaning of maternal torture. We remember quite well those summer days in which our moms would get together and decide to take us kids who they might of thought were bored and go to Solo Serve a.k.a. "kid's torture chamber". Solo Serve was a material store, I'm not talking material like Home Depot or Lowe's, I'm referring to textile, fabric, and then there are the Simplicity Pattern books that our moms would sit and look at for what seemed as HOURS. This particular store was located at the corner of Military Drive and South Flores in San Antonio, just blocks from our homes. Why would two sane mothers take seven kids to a store like this is still beyond my comprehension. To us kids, it was not a place that we looked forward to stay what seemed to be hours upon time. It was not a place where we wanted to be, it was a difficult place for us.

Our poor moms, I have no idea how they kept their sanity with us in the store. We would run underneath the tables of material. We would play hide and seek and anything else we could conjure up in our little minds to keep us occupied for the hours upon hours that we were in the four walls of that place. I'm sure our moms gave us grace for all the tribulation we put them through, and if I got a swat or two or three on my bottom for misbehaving I'm sure I deserved it, it was not a place where I wanted to be and I rebelled.

The interesting thing is that our moms where there for a great reason, to get the material they needed to make clothes, to save money for our families. They had best interests of our families in mind for going to this place. To us kids it was not a place where we liked to be, we rebelled in our own ways yet the reason we were there was for our best interest.

I don't know about you but for me I find myself in places in my life that I don't want to be. I'm not necessarily talking about that A bad date where you find yourself sitting across a table wondering, "what am I doing here and how fast can I get out of this date". I'm talking about life, looking around and thinking, "This is NOT where I want to be in my life, This is not what I had in my mind." Maybe it is a difficult life situation or a spiritual struggle, but it's a place in life where we don't want to be, a valley in your journey. My reaction may vary from questioning God to reaching out to Him for solace and resting in His arms.

1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah
8 Come and see the works of the LORD,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shields with fire.
10 "Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
11 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. (Psalm 47 NIV)

As I read through the scriptures I see quite a few people that were in difficult places in their lives. For example: Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers, David being chased by King Saul, Job losing all that he lost, Jeremiah being thrown into the cistern, Paul being imprisoned and John exiled to the island of Patmos just to name a few. God was always faithful to them and His will was always soveriegn. He had His kingdoms best interest in the situations, and these men were faithful to Him during the difficult times.

I have an oasis when I'm in the "Solo Serves" of my life, and He tells me that He is my refuge and my rock, realizing that He has my best interest in mind when I am at those places in my life where I don't want to be. It's time to stop, breathe and be still to know that He is God, my comfort and my deliverer.

P.S. Mom and Jerry, God Bless you for taking us to Solo Serve. It gave me an insight to life.