Just when you think…We use this phrase a lot. “Just when you think” you have gone too far. This statement referring to directions and thinking you are lost. “Just when you think” things can get worse. “Just when you think” you can’t take any more, hear anymore, or hold anymore. Just when you think…

There are people I know who have lives much busier and fuller than mine. On the outside they seem so put together, so totally in control. I on the other hand am inside out. Chaos and confusion, lack of focus, juggling to keep one more thing in the air. Those of you who know me know what this looks like, daily.

Tonight or this morning is the first opportunity I have taken to do something’s I have needed to do. Have I been distracted? Why yes, yes I have. “Just when I think” I am focused and on task, a distraction arises. My son wanting to do his homework, then not wanting to do his homework. My daughter with recently brace released teeth, commenting on how funny they feel. The other daughter frustrated by a disappointing evening. A “Just when you think” you are out for a good time with your fiancée moment that turns into a return trip home, alone.

Back to the computer, back to pictures, back to…”Just when you think” I can get down to working, the puppy poops in the corner and it stinks, screaming to be cleaned up or burn my nostrils.

 Is  there a point in life, longer than thirty seconds when “Just when you think” doesn’t happen? When you can sit and relish in the ah, phew, catching your breath moment. Let me know, please, there is hope, right?

In all seriousness, I know those moments exist. I have experienced them,for a few moments. We have so much pulling for our attention, for our time, for all of us that we get lost. We get overwhelmed, buried alive, suffocated. “Just when you think” you can’t take another step, another breath, another question, or direction that my friends is when we need to truly hang on to the other side of “Just when you think.”

The other side? Yes, the other side. Just when you think you can’t, think about all that you can. All you can do, all you do have, all life would be without the interruptions, the questions, the concerns and the poop. In all that, we learn. We learn how to focus on the task at hand that will make a difference later. We can learn how to make someone else feel amazingly special when we ourselves feel like the poo on the carpet. “Just when you think” you can take anymore, think, the more may just be what you need.

A change, an opportunity, just the thing to push you to be better. In trials, we gain endurance; we grow, stronger and wiser. “Just when you think” what you are going through doesn’t matter and is just a waste. Look around, who is watching, who could use the encouragement that what they are going through isn’t as bad as what you seem to be going through? Who is it that sees your struggle and helps you out? Our lives touch so many others in ways we don’t even know, nor may never know.

“Just when you think” you make no difference in this world is when you may make the biggest difference. “Just when you think” you can’t, know you can and that you are not alone.

Amen