Life is harder when we forget who has shown up in every hard time

​I have been through some hard things in my life.

So have you.

The biggest risk of those hard things, for me at least, isn't the impact they might have on my future, the biggest risk of them is how easy it can become to forget that God has shown up in the middle of every one of them.

I can get so focused on how hard life is that I forget how frequently God has shown up in the hardest parts of my life.

Which is every time.

There's a story in the bible. The disciples are fretting among themselves about forgetting to bring bread along on a trip. And they start worrying that Jesus might be upset about this. Jesus, overhearing this, says:

"You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?"

I wonder how many times God says that to me, "do you still not understand?"

I wonder how many times I get so focused on just how hard life is that I forget there's no explanation for me being here experiencing my current hard times outside of Jesus showing up in every hard time before this one.

I wonder how many of my hard times are hard for that reason alone, that I've forgotten Jesus.

Hard times can make us anxious about what's going to happen next. Maybe that's because hard times can make us forget we already know the answer to that.

Five loaves fed five thousand.

Seven loaves fed four thousand.

Divorce resulted in financial hardship; God showed up with financial opportunities.

Alcohol nearly destroyed my life; God showed up and showed me the path to talking to people about the destructive nature of alcohol.

Relationships have been challenging and at times destructive in my life; God showed up and opened my eyes to his healing centered design for relationships.

The disciples thought, oh no, we forgot the bread.

That made them anxious.

But for them the real problem wasn't that they forgot the bread, the problem was they forgot Jesus.

If your like me, you're prone to that same forgetfulness. Maybe this week if you get anxious, like surely I will, we can encourage each other to ask, am I anxious about what is about to occur or anxious because I've forgotten who has always shown up in what's already occurred.

Jesus said, "do you still not understand?"

Help me Lord, this week, more often than I am prone to saying it, say yes Lord, I understand.