Marriage is a broad topic. The word itself has emotions tied to it like few other words. In a perfect world, every marriage would have the right soil. The seeds planted would be healthy seeds, and every marriage would end only after years of respect and love for each other as each passed on to the next world. In our perfect world the husband would be the spiritual guide and reference for the home, loving the wife beyond his own life. The wife would feel that love so deep that she would gladly abide with him, giving of her gifts to create a beautiful atmosphere of love and forgiveness, so that they become one in body and spirit.

2 Timothy 3:2
People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

Well, this is not a perfect world. Men are lovers of self and live for their own pleasure. Women work against the husband so they can get what they want. Manipulation abounds as each one struggles to live out their own goals, while the children are caught somewhere in the middle, having to choose which parent gives them the most attention, time and benefits. Then, at some point, marriage usually comes to an end; whether in actual divorce or just in their minds. Guilt is then the emotion that is left over and keeps coming back over and over, sometimes when it’s least expected. Tears are shed over the past relationship and all the failures and remorse over a love long gone.

John 2:1
On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

The very first miracle of Jesus was at Cana where a wedding feast was going on. Mary, mother of Jesus, came to Him and told Him the wine was out and that they needed more. Jesus said “dear women, why do you involve me, my time is not yet come” but, as mothers have a way of doing, she motivated her Son to act. She told the workers “do whatever He tells you to do”, so Jesus asked them to gather some stone water jars. These were not just any jars they were jars “set apart” for Jewish ceremonial cleansing. Jesus had the workers fill them with water, then He said pour some for the master of the banquet. The master of the banquet told the bridegroom, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till last.”

The wine process (I am no expert, but i have a friend who is) sometimes can take months. It involves numerous factors: the type of grapes used, amount of sugar, when to add water, storage temperature, etc. After the first couple of weeks you have to filter the grape skins off, then as time progresses you have to filter out the sediment. During all this the CO2 (carbon dioxide) gas has to be released to keep the process going. Some wines can take years to produce, it is all up to the experts and the tasters.

It is amazing that Jesus blessed a wedding with the first of many miracles that He performed. The next thing that is amazing was the type of miracle. He turned water into wine. I think the analogy and symbol-isms for marriage are too great to be ignored.

* The jars that Jesus used had been consecrated and set apart. – The bride and the groom are consecrated and set apart for each other in the marriage covenant.

* Grapes have to shed their skin and give up their seed to make wine. – We have to give of our most intimate self in the process of marriage.

* Jesus told the workers to fill the jars with water. – The jars were solid, the ingredients in wine become liquid. The marriage itself should be understood as solid. The relationship inside the marriage should be liquid, and able to breathe. Wine has to breathe as it lets off the carbon dioxide. This fermentation process goes through several stages and takes a very long time. The relationship in a marriage should have room to breathe as life changes. Also settlement needs to be filtered out to keep the relationship fresh.

* The master of the banquet said the best wine was saved for last. – The first years of marriage are the hardest, then, with age and maturity, the marriage overcomes a lot of hurdles. It is in this process that both parties have to resolve not to give up, but work through the tough times and enjoy the good times. There has to be forgiveness every day for things said and unsaid. With fermentation, the wine is sweeter and the bitterness is removed. Time is a great healer. The best years are when you can enjoy the fruit of your marriage.

Society teaches that men should sit on the couch while the woman cooks and cleans dishes. I believe the couple should work out the details of their own daily life and not what society says it should be. We all bring different gifts and talents into the marriage. There is always something neither person wants to do. I believe every marriage relationship is a thumb print, each one unique.

Work out what is best for your marriage. It is no one else’s business who cooks, cleans, or keeps the checkbook. How it was done in the parents generation was for their time, not necessarily yours. God has laid out His design for marriage so that our lives can be enhanced and we can experience true love on this earth. True love is not lust, not euphoria, and not one-sided. It is to be shared. It is a Godly everlasting love, the type of love that Christ has for His followers.

1 John 4:7
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

As with other topics, I struggle with what to say about our real world. About half of marriages end in divorce. We see domestic violence in the news everyday and we have become numb to what marriage should be. Abuse of any kind should never be accepted or allowed in any relationship and the context of marriage is no exception. If I were the adversary of this world and I wanted it to fail, marriage would be my front-line of attack. Marriage is the keystone that effects every part of society. If marriage fails, it does not just effect the couple. It is the ground zero that creates an aftermath that pushes outward causing hurts, rejection and hate anywhere it touches. The effects are so long-lasting if someone does not resolve an ending, it will repeat itself in future generations.

1 Peter 4:8
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

When wine is in the process of fermentation and is attended and cared for, it will turn out sweet and will usually be sold at a higher price. If it is left unattended and not cared for, then it will become bitter and is fit only to be poured out. The qualities that are displayed by two people in a loving healthy marriage: forgiveness, love, a willingness to forget past failures, become the opposite qualities of a bad marriage or divorce: bitterness, unforgiveness and hate. God’s design and principles for marriage, when kept, can add wisdom and great blessings to our lives. If they are not kept and are violated, it can cause, deep emotional wounds. The way we respect and perceive our marriage will not only effect our lives, but will effect everyone around us. The best wines will last for generations.

The true miracle at Cana was not just the water turned to wine, but also the blessing of the celebration and covenant relationship of two distinct individuals, fermenting together as one.

Matthew 7:24
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock

In the late 1990’s I had the privilege, or burden, of being in charge of overseeing the construction of two public buildings. It was a great learning experience. Somehow, before this experience, I thought if you were going to build a house or building you just hired a backhoe and went to digging and, once you dug a trench of maybe two foot deep, then you filled it with concrete and started your building. Well, that’s not the way it is, especially if you have engineers and architects involved. One of the buildings was located in a place that had been filled in previously with fill dirt that was unacceptable for a foundation because it was too soft. That dirt had to be totally removed, 12 foot deep for a specified perimeter of the outside of the building sight. Then, approved dirt had to be hauled in to fill the void. As the dirt was being filled in, a heavy compactor had to roll back and forth over the new dirt. When the hole was completely filled a test had to be done to make sure it met a certain compaction standard. All this was done to insure that the building was on solid ground.

Genesis 2:17
but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

The Genesis story of the Garden of Eden tells about the original sin of man. This is the time that God the Creator became separated from His Creation. Before the sin, Adam and God had conversations, went for walks, and worked on Creation’s business. God had Adam to name every animal and species on the planet. Adam and Eve had clear instruction of their boundaries. They basically had free reign of the garden except for one tree, the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This tree was different than any other tree mentioned in the Genesis account. This was the only tree to bare two fruits “good and evil”. The lie of the serpent was that if they would partake of the fruit they would become as God, having full knowledge. Up until this point, Adam and Eve only knew the truth; no deceptions, no lies, just facts based on truth. Then deception was presented by the serpent, Eve took the bait, ate the fruit and Adam followed. Then, in that one act of disobedience, sin separated man from a sinless Holy God. Adam and Eve, realizing their spiritual completeness had disappeared, were now physically naked. Being ashamed, they hid from God.

Proverbs 8: 1- 11
Does not wisdom call out?
Does not understanding raise her voice?
On the heights along the way,
where the paths meet, she takes her stand; beside the gates leading into the city, at the entrances, she cries aloud:
“To you, O men, I call out;
I raise my voice to all mankind.
You who are simple, gain prudence;
you who are foolish, gain understanding.
Listen, for I have worthy things to say; I open my lips to speak what is right.
My mouth speaks what is true,
for my lips detest wickedness.
All the words of my mouth are just;
none of them is crooked or perverse.
To the discerning all of them are right; they are faultless to those who have knowledge.
Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.

As we grow up we are given information by our parents, teachers, peers and all the other influences that effect our lives. It takes us a while to filter through all the information. I think its called maturity. At some point we figure out, that if we step on a crack, it will not break our mother’s back. Also, we usually discover that Santa does not keep up with our sleeping habits. The older we get the more we filter and understand what is true and what is not. When we go through school we are given information from our teachers and professors. We read text books and we do reports on all types of topics. Every idea is presented as fact, and we are considered backward or ignorant if we challenge any information.

There are thousands of books full of theories and hypothesis that are built on half-truths and lies. Some man-made ideas hide the truth of a Creator and deny the existence of design in our world. Art points to an artist and music points to a composer. If there is a design, a creative Being had to design it. I love to watch nature shows, but I always hate the propaganda that comes with it. The narrator usually tells how a species randomly evolved over billions of years to make it to this point, then in the next sentence, they will tell about the efficiency of the design. Men are still hiding from their Creator through deceptive means and blind theories.

Diamonds and oil are just two examples of some of the deceptions in our world. We are told that diamonds are very rare, but in reality, they are not that rare. They are just controlled. A handful of people only allow a limited number of diamonds on the market each year so this keeps the prices inflated. We are also sold as fact, that oil is running out; yet research shows the earth produces it naturally, deep in the earth and under the oceans. The God that creates life has also provided the resources and energy to sustain that life. Man, for the purpose of greed, profit and power, manipulates those resources through deception.

If we look at the sources we listen to and read such as TV, magazines and the internet, we are absorbing a vast amount of information every day. Do we ever stop and think about the motivation of the sources of these articles or who or what can we trust? We usually gravitate to the sources that present articles or news that we agree with, but does that make it truth? Since Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, our spiritual completeness is overridden by our physical desires, and our filters of good and evil are distorted. All of our beliefs are based on something. Does that something pass the compaction test or do we need to dig it out and replace it with Truth?

Philippians 2:12
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed–not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence–continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

The Bible and Godly wisdom should be the only ingredients that make up the foundation of our belief system. But, even some of the things we have been told about the Bible can be distorted. We all come to the Bible with some type of mindset. There are around 2000 different religions or denominations in the world, each with a particular intention or prejudice about the Bible. Out of those 2000 different faiths, someone has to be getting it wrong. We can not solely base our beliefs on a religion, denomination or preacher. We can not simply believe just what “mama and them” believe. We have to base our belief and understanding on the actual Word of God, without prejudice. We can’t treat the Bible like an “all you can eat buffet” to just pick and choose the truths we like.

In a perfect world it would be great if we never had to apply any filters or, if we could trust each source to deliver the truth. We have to do the hard analysis, look at our life and consider the information (fill dirt) we have accepted in the past, as we built our life’s foundation (it may be too soft). We may have to dig it out through repentance and refill the void with material that will compact and hold up through life’s struggles. Jesus told the parable of building on the rock, not just so children could sing about it in Sunday school, but so we would build our lives on it.

The Rock = Truth
Truth = God’s Word (Bible)
God’s Word was made flesh and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus Christ the Messiah.

When I was around 9 years old I got a “do it yourself” transistor radio kit for Christmas. It came from Radio Shack and in the box was a circuit board with all the components and the instructions you needed to wire it together. I would like to tell you that I assembled the radio and it worked great, but actually I lost some of the parts and eventually it got thrown away. But, as I have said in past blogs, I have learned more from my failures than my successes. As I looked at all the components that it took to make that radio work, I realized everything that plugged in the wall had inner working parts. So, from that point on, if my family had something get broken, I would ask for the item then I would go outside and take it apart. I would undo all the screws of the outer shell, open up the case and just observe. There were circuit boards, gears, a whole array of parts. I could not wait till something tore up so that I could see inside to observe how it worked.

I am not a social scientist nor a psychologist, but something as a whole has changed in our world. It’s not just this generation coming up with some new fad or a new math that we don’t understand. No, something is different on a new level.

As I have researched and read, I have tried to understand what is different. The word that keeps coming up is “Post-modern”. I wanted to give you a brief introduction to what I feel is the sociatal shift that is taking place. There are volumes of books on this subject, so it would take more than this blog to get a thorough understanding. But, If you will allow me, I will simplify and explain the concept in the next several paragraphs to the best of my ability.

If we are to understand post-modern, we have to think about it in the context of pre-modern and modern. Because wisdom and Biblically based ideas are my focus in these blogs, and for the sake of limited space and time, I will mainly relate these concepts to Christianity and the Church.

John 1:4
In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Pre-modern:
Around the 16th century most of the world lived in the feudal system; whatever class of society you were born into was the class you lived and died in. There was no opportunity like Bill Gates, where if you invented something, you could change your circumstances. Education was only for the wealthy land owners and ruling class. The Catholic church was the only choice of religion and, if you were an atheist or heretic, you were stoned or burned at the stake. The Word of God, as translated by the Catholic Church was the authority over science or reason. The true Word of God was only in the hands of a few. Creeds were said so that the common people would be able to repeat and understand what they should believe. The church services or mass was centered around communion. It was taught that the elements of communion, the bread and the wine, once blessed by the priest became the actual Body of Christ. The thought of church was to elevate the believer in a God-ward direction. This explains the architecturally impressive cathedrals the high church atmosphere, with liturgy conducted in elevated language and music on a grand scale.

Matthew 4:16
the people living in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.”

Modern:
With the advent of the reformation by Martin Luther and others, along with the printing press, plus King James authorizing a translation of the Bible that could be understood in english, the common people now had their own copy of the Bible. This brought on new interpretations of scripture that had been suppressed. Now a person could think outside the established religions. The Church of England became separated from The Catholic Church. Then came different denominations branching out of separate movements based on theology and understanding. Also, agnostics and atheists were no longer burned at the stake or stoned. The church was no longer the standard bearer of society. Copernicus formulated that the earth was not the center of the universe, but actually rotated around the sun. Music changed, major scales were now more common as baroque and classical music made the way for more modern music. The age of reason had dawned. Now decisions were made by scientific method and tested facts and science and reason would now take authority over scripture. The church service now became centered around the sermon instead of communion. The preacher now delivered sermons based on the quest for truth and fact, according to their particular denomination.

2 Timothy 4:3
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

Post-modern:
Well, after hundreds of years of science and reason, the world still has famine and hunger and there is still no cure for the cold or cancer and many other diseases. The answer to life’s greatest questions are still unresolved. The colonization brought by the British Empire and the Americanization of countries through missionaries and economic investments only took away the original cultures without leaving any lasting answers. The countries buying into these systems sold their souls for capitalism and profit, and lost their old way of life. So, with the perceived failure of free markets to solve the problems of the world, and with individual cultures not wanting to lose any more of their uniqueness, the modern world ends, and the post-modern world begins. Now reason and logic is replaced with social justice and fairness. Healthcare and any other supposed need is put in place, regardless of cost or logic. The church service is now mixed with new music and old hymns, liturgy and music shown on power point, high formal church in casual clothes.The sermons are motivational speeches to help everyone feel good about them-self. Denominations and association based on beliefs are diminishing. Acceptance of any behavior or lifestyle overrides Biblical precepts. Theology has given way to quick sound bites of individual verses. Only the good sounding verses that can be displayed on a refrigerator magnet are accepted. The hard truths and teachings are left unsaid.

The reason I write this is to illuminate the subject. I do not have it all figured out. I just wanted to loosen a few screws and take the cover off so we can observe the workings inside. Certainly through the ages changes were needed. Every change has not been bad, but not all changes were good. God is sovereign and He is bringing this world to an eventual end. It will be up to Him to judge it righteously.

I share these ideas only as a reporter, but I did want to make a few points. There is a world out there that has lost it’s way. We as followers of Christ say we have the answers, although we have not done a good job of communicating those answers. If just simply building another church building or adding another church service would get the job done, the whole world would have already followed Christ. The methods that worked in the pre-modern or modern eras will most likely not work in a post-modern era.

1 Corinthians 9:22
To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

There is something missing.

Something that we feel in our spirits, something deep inside our soul. A place, a person. Our spirit longs for fellowship; yet we are never filled. We feel less empty when family is around, but the empty still haunts us. We miss our loved ones that have died. We miss things past. Our soul sometimes feels hollow. This world brings dissident chords: chords that are left unresolved, the whys , the pains, the conflicts, the continual stress that is life. Yet, in our spirit, we know it should be better. There has to be a place we can find rest. We see art and it can bring us to tears. We hear music and it can stir our souls. We see a great movie and we can lose ourselves, but these feelings do not last. They seem obscure and, then, they’re gone.

All this pain I wonder if I’ll ever find my way?
I wonder if my life could really change at all?
All this earth could all that is lost ever be found?
Could a garden come up from this ground at all?
Michael Gungor, “Beautiful Things”

The kingdom of Judah had it all. King David had established Jerusalem as a viable kingdom, rich beyond imagination. His son Solomon followed him, and then the kingdom was enriched with his wisdom that was known throughout the world. Solomon was given the task to build and dedicate God’s temple. When Solomon prayed the prayer of dedication for the temple, fire came from heaven and consumed the sacrifice on the alter. This was a rich, Godly heritage that would be cherished forever. Then, as stories in history usually go, in the next several generations the kings and the people forgot God and His blessings. King Manasseh was so evil that he actually started a practice of sacrificing children to Molech, a Canaanite god of prosperity. Even though Manasseh later repented, this ritual would haunt the kingdom. Later, God declared His judgement by sending King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to come and take captive the Jewish people, pillaging the best of Jewish culture, economy, and strength, then totally destroying the temple and taking most of the people captive.

Psalms 137
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, there we wept, when we remembered Zion.
We hung our harps in the willows in the midst.
For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
But how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a strange land?

Through all of the stories of history about man’s days on earth, there was always someone messing up and losing what was had. Adam in the Garden of Eden, Noah after the flood and Samson with Delilah. Even the Kings of Israel were no exception. This world is about missing pieces; pieces that can never be found. The songs of Zion were the overt reminder to the captive people of Israel of what had been lost.

Growing up our family had a puzzle board. We would get large 1000 piece puzzles and put them together on the board. We kept the board under the couch when we were not using it. It never failed, after days of working on a puzzle, that we would come up with at least a couple of pieces missing. Being the youngest in the family, somehow it was always my fault that the pieces were missing. We have all lost pieces, and the world is full of people looking for what’s missing. People look in every direction trying to find something to fill the void. We were created for a better world than which we live. We were created as spiritual beings clothed in Light to live in paradise. The longing of heaven is instilled in our souls.
Heaven is where we were formed and created; once complete, now incomplete.

Romans 8:22
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

The Book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible. It tells about the life of Job and all his losses. I believe that Job had more missing pieces than anyone that has ever lived. Being the oldest book in the Bible, Job would not have had access to any scripture, and his friends were of no help, yet Job kept his faith in the Creator. Where did his hope and faith come from? His only Bible was nature; the vast galaxies of stars in the night skies, the continued renewal of the seasons. He paid close attention to the designs of nature that pointed to the Designer . It was this reason that he could come to this conclusion when he said ” I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;”

All of nature gives us a glimpse of heaven, just as music, the arts and good movies give us a glimpse of what could be. We will never be complete in this world. But I believe in the world to come, we will be able to forgive and be forgiven. There will be no more sorrow and no more pain. We will be reunited with our loved ones. All the questions left unanswered will be answered.

Our Redeemer sends us His promises of a better world with every breeze that blows through the trees, playing the harps of lost people seeking a better place.

Psalms 90:12
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

When I was 45 years old my father was 70 and my grandfather was 91; both in seemingly good health. I saw life as a long path that was going to last forever. Then, within a matter of months, my father died then, a few months later, my grandfather died. So, I was still 45 but now I was the patriarch, the oldest male with the most life experiences in my immediate family. There was no more father’s advice, no wise owl to ask the hard questions to. I then begin to think into the future to consider how long I would live. If I were to die at 70, like my father, I would only have another 25 years. I wondered, if at 45 if my father had known that he had only 25 more years to live, would he have made any changes?

James 4:14
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

As we all grow older, we have points that make us realize something is different. It could be the graying hair of our parents , an illness or tragedy, or it could be a birthday; either ours or our children’s. Everyone of us, at some point in our lives, realize that we are not going to live forever. God sends to each of us distinct moments that become significant. They are surreal moments that seem suspended in time, just waiting for us to get there. They are moments that reflect His hand on our lives. They let us know that we are on course, or they give us a wake up call to start paying attention. It is at these points that God is showing us that we need to number our days.

In the movie “Groundhog’s Day” Phil Conners is an arrogant, egocentric weather man, played by actor Bill Murray. Phil gets stuck in a time loop on Groundhog’s Day, waking up on the same day over and over. At first he takes advantage of it, robbing an armored car, kidnapping the groundhog and just living it up. Then, after many days of repeating the same day over and over, he begins to realize that it’s not a joke and that there has to be a greater purpose. So, in order to impress Rita, his producer, he starts on a course of self-improvement. He stops being so self absorbed and starts reaching out to help others. He starts analyzing every moment of that day, understanding accidents he can prevent and seeing the needs of people around the city. Then, after days on end of improving himself (including piano lessons) he sets his course to help others. Finally he gets the day right, breaks the pattern and wakes up in the next day, now a much more humbled and better person.

No matter what our age, life continues to present us with a full array of situations that test our motives and abilities. It is in the failed tests of life’s situations that we look back at our actions or words with disgust, regret, or even guilt, but, if we continue to live, God in His sovereignty over our lives, will set up a do-over. This time it will be a bigger audience, maybe with different people or different circumstances. We will recognize the test even if those around us do not. The question then will be, did we learn wisdom and understanding from our last failure, or do we need to advance to an even bigger test? These tests come through people or situations and will keep showing up till we get them right.

In order to try to get through life and through these tests, we have to understand wisdom. Wisdom is seeing life through God’s eyes, understanding life the way He understands it. There was a popular song as I was growing up in the early 70’s, “Walk a Mile in my Shoes.” The meaning of the title and the song was basically: if you want to understand me and my actions, then go where I go, do what I do, see what I see. So, in order to apply our hearts to wisdom, we have to “walk a mile in God’s shoes”. We have to be able to look through His eyes and see what he sees.

Our lives now are deluged with the logic and thoughts of this world. We are offered so many wrong opinions, disinformation and a continual flow of stupidity. People justify every wrong decision one after another. Shows on tv are propped up with lies and deceit, and we take them in like they are our best friends. Usually after something bad happens to a person, following months of their horrible choices, they will ask the question “where was God when I needed Him?” In a large percentage of our homes in America, He was laying on the coffee table with dust on the cover. Wisdom is a journey that some people never start.

John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The Bible is His Word. He sent this Word to past generations. He also brought it to our generation to be used for our time. God created the universe, designed our world, prescribed our lives before we were born. So, if we are applying ourselves to seeing through Gods eyes, then the lens we should be using is His Word. Wisdom comes through experience and learning. We have to look at each trial as an opportunity to discover something new about God and about ourselves. Sometimes that could be a negative attitude that we have developed, or maybe it could be a gift or talent that is locked up inside us. Each trial is there for our benefit; God working His eternal plan through our daily lives.

2 Corinthians 4:17
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Ecclesiastes 3:11
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

The more we get to know God and allow Him to work in our lives, the more we begin to understand His eternal and spiritual nature. His goal for our lives is to develop our inner being (spirit and soul) to the point that we become a living translation of His Son, Jesus Christ. Through our numbered days of tests and conflicts His eternal wisdom is our only resolution.

Only in the movies do we get to live the same day over and over again. Our days are numbered, let us apply our hearts to wisdom.