What is the Solution?

When I was a youngster living in the state of Maine, the radio announcer would say, Potatoes, problems and people, that’s the name of the game here in Maine.” Not all people have potatoes, but all people have problems. The reason something is a problem for us is because we don’t know how to solve it. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but there are a lot of things we do not know nor understand. A lot. We are so easily worked over by an apparent problem because we aren’t smart enough to effectively figure it out. So what do we do? We learn to live with the problem. We foolishly conclude there are no possible solutions, so there’s no point in pursuing it any further. Then after we have lived a few years, we have quite a large backpack filled with bricks that we drag about with us day by day. It is no wonder we can’t sleep properly or sip the wine a little more than we should. We are stressed out man and we have to learn a different approach. We need to shift the onus of solving the impossible problems on our own to Someone much more adept at problem solving. The One who specializes in impossible. The One who has the solution. What is the solution?

There is a reason people are the way they are. They are unaware or at minimum vaguely aware of how this life was designed to be lived. No one ever told them or explained it in a way that made any sense to them. They sort of “trial and errored” the same way their parents “trial and errored.” Or, if they had the luxury of receiving some spiritual training, it was buried under a litany of rules and demands before it ever became accessible. In the end, you are left to your own devices and the problems started to mount. What a terrible situation that perpetuates itself year after year. If you are struggling or if you are suffering, it’s likely because you are doing something incorrectly in some capacity. I don’t mean making mistakes. I mean the mistake of thinking you were ever supposed to figure it all out. Life is spiritual. How cruel it would have been of God to dream up a fantastic, infinitely varied and beautiful creation including His crowning masterpiece man, then drop that man off to figure it all out on his own! The plan was that you would get to experience this breathtaking ride and eventually seek out the Source of it all. “That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though He be not far from every one of us:” Acts 17:27 And, He’s not hard to find! God never intended for you to do this thing alone. Life is again, spiritual. Some of your “problems” are spiritual as well. How could you ever hope to wrangle a solution to a spiritual problem with your human noggin? Some folks don’t even believe there is such a thing as evil. I can only imagine how much that same evil is making their lives suck. Most likely they conclude it’s all from God and, wait for it…….learn to accept it. I trust you see the futility. You were never intended to have to solve your problems on your own. There is a solution!

Remember when you were a kid and your parents did their best to solve or help you solve all of your problems? Remember when you wouldn’t put up with problems for 10 minutes, let alone 30 years? Well, following the same pattern designed by God, He is to be for you now as an adult what your parents were for you when you were a child. There’s a reason we call Him Father when we pray. (Or in my case, “Papa.”) When you have a need, and Lord knows you do, you were supposed to speak about it with your Dad. You were to tell Him what you needed and then He would take care of it for you and often with you. Same pattern, same result. There is nothing He cannot do and no problem He cannot solve. Often it’s not about His willingness, it’s about what you believe. People have more reasons why God won’t do something for them than they have problems. I suppose a worse hazard than not being taught about God is to have been taught incorrectly. This world is chock full of wrong teaching. They make God too difficult, when it is actually no more difficult to grasp than a parent caring for their children. Except God’s care has no limits. God’s solutions aren’t just workable, they are perfect. Wouldn’t you love a perfect solution instead of trying to make lemonade out of lemons all the dang time? Wouldn’t your life get immeasurably easier if you could just turn those things over to God? You ain’t solving them anyway, are you? Some problems you have lived with so long you have forgotten about them. And here is an important point for you to consider. It does not matter where you have been, only where do you want to go? It does not matter how far you may have fallen in life as His everlasting arms are always underneath you. And, IT DOES NOT MATTER how bad you think you are or how many “sins” you may have committed. What matters is, will you go to Him for the help you need or will you continue insisting on your human logic that cannot fathom how good true love really is? Your problems are not beyond solving. There is always a solution.

If I were you and needed some help, I would get some help. If all my efforts to solve an issue failed, I would seek higher. If I was exhausted from trying to figure it all out, I would gladly hand it over to Someone much more capable and powerful than myself. I’ve been there brother. Lived there sister. Now I know better. All my best solutions come from God. After all, He is my Papa.

Just some good thoughts…