Time out!

So...we had one of those moments...you know, those moments where your life could have been in the "Calgone take me away" commercials. The kids and I had met one of the college athletes I mentor at Braums for ice cream. Everyone had their icecream and we are all sitting in the booth chatting and having a good time. My youngest, Case (3), crawls up into my lap and just whines a little bit. He then begins to start coughing and  as I reach for the cup of water, he pukes all over him, me, table, booth, floor, and I am pretty sure I saw some on the ceiling. I had never seen so much throw up come out of a little body. The college girl, Brianna, gets me some paper towels and i could tell she could go at anytime, and then my Chloe starts gagging too. I had Brianna take Chloe out of the way while I am trying to calm a very sad and scared little boy and clean us up in some way. It was crazy...and about that time...something is hitting me in the face...its my 8 year old spitting spit wads at me through his straw. "Really??!!, do you really think this is a good time for that?" came out of my mouth and Oh how I wanted a timeout...a timeout from life at that moment.
Can you relate?
I find myself asking God this same question..."Really?!, do you really think this is a good time for that?" What I am really saying in that question is, "God I don't think there is a good time for bad times.
Oh, but His ways are not our ways...His wisdom is not our wisdom...His thinking is not our thinking.
One of my favorite women of the Bible is Esther. Esther was a Jewish woman who was chosen to be the Queen to King Xerxes right after the King had banished the first Queen from the Palace because she refused to come to him when He sent for her. Dang, that would be a hard role to fill...talk about walking on egg shells with the hubby. Well, there was an evil guy who was the King's most powerful official named Haman. Haman came up with an evil plan to kill all the Jews because he didn't like Mordecai, a Jew who refused to bow down to Haman and who also happened to be Esther's cousin. Are you still with me? This IS in the Bible and not an episode of Days of Our Lives...promise.
Mordecai asked his cousin, the new Queen to help him and their people..."Don't think for a moment that because you're in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for such a time as this?" Esther 4:13-14
Um... we are put into certain positions or circumstances for such a time this...time to show my children how to act in a stressful situation, time to show the patience that I had been praying for, time to show the character of Christ, time to see the goodness of God even in the worst of times.
What we learn is that Esther didn't ask for a timeout from this time in her life...she used the position and the time she was given to bravely ask the King for help and he did! Esther and her people were saved.
May be you would like a time out from your marriage and God wants to use this time to bring you both closer to Him. May be you would like a time out from your job and God wants to use this time for you to trust HIM.
What if we looked at life through the same eyes as Mordecai and Esther and ask ourselves "What if God has placed is in this season of life for such a time as this?" There is always a good time for God to teach us life lessons and some times he uses bad times to do it.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, "For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven."
There are times to win and there are times to lose
There are times to be with loved ones and there are times to be alone
There are times to have icecream and there are times to throw up icecream
And Yes, there is a good time for bad times...just ask Esther
Afterall, "God has made everything beautiful for its own time." Ecclesiastes 3:11