Grenades of life

Hearing from several friends who have had a rough week, I'm reminded of a story I heard a few months ago from a gal in my Bible study. She was visiting her son at the military academy he attended for 'parents weekend' that they turned into a sort of boot camp for the visiting family members. The parents were then able to see the kinds of things their sons were challenged with in their time there.

One of the activities was launching paint-filled grenades at a stationary tank. This mother was a bit intimidated by the huge grenade launcher balanced in her small untrained arms, but a cadet was there to assist and encourage her. She had five chances. The first grenade hit the tank with a huge orange splash of paint, and she felt pretty good about herself. But the other four all fell short, splattering on the ground all around the foot of the tank.

She was greatly discouraged by this until the cadet assisting her spoke up. He said, "No, ma'am, you did very well! It isn't the direct hits that matter so much, but the ones that impede the tank's progress."

Isn't that so true of our lives? I know that I go through times where there is so much garbage going on around me that my thoughts are constantly dwelling on it. And isn't that exactly what the Enemy wants? We may not always take a direct hit, but we get so bogged down and distracted by the "grenades" that are landing all around us. I admit that I often end up looking at the hole left by the bomb's blast, or searching the sky for where the next one might come from. He wants us to lose our focus on God and instead fix our thoughts on the joyless circumstances around us. That's so easy to do!

Instead... Hebrews 12:2 "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus...."