Refuel: Faith-Building Pit-Stops On Your Road TripSample

BOOK WITHOUT WORDS

When I was three feet tall and five years old, I’d ride my BMX bike ’til I’m dead tired and then lie on the floor and get busy with my most wanted book. It’s a book without words. Three hundred leaves thick, the book features pictures that are yet to be drawn. Every page is loaded with tiny black dots — with numbers beside them — that need to be connected. When all the dots are tied together with solid lines, the finished product is a picture of an animal or a thing, ready for coloring.

Imagine the pages with just the dots. At first glance, they make no sense at all. Without the lines that connect, they seem like a bunch of dark pimples on the face of a kid who just got into puberty. But thanks to the numbers, I could tell which dots to connect. From dot 1 to dot 2 to dot 3 . . . the drawing gets less brain twisting as I get more dots connected. Finally, at the last dot, the picture is revealed in full. Beautiful!

In life, it’s worthwhile to do some dot connecting. Where we are today and what we have become came from a series of life-dots in the past. I write this book today out of the many things God has allowed to happen to me in my past. All my experiences combined, the good ones and the seemingly not-so-good ones (car accidents, heartbreaks, lost jobs, business partnership flops), turned out to be a sequence that set me up to what I am now today. All these and more led me to my best life now. Here are nuggets of wisdom which you might want to take with you.

• God is a God of purpose.
• As far as He is concerned, there are no such things as accidents.
• He never wastes anything.
• He can recycle.

No wonder St. Paul said, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Are you in the middle of a “Why-did-God-allow-this-to-happen?” situation like any of these?

• Your boyfriend or girlfriend broke up with you
• Your parents are at the verge of breaking up
• Your family is experiencing a financial crisis
• You lost your job or can’t find one
• You’re a student and you failed a subject

I urge you to trust Him. Don’t freak out. Remember, it is just a dot. Your situation may be black, dark and ugly (just like a dot), but it’s just one small dot that God connects to others en route to that spectacular life He has planned for you.

One on one with God
Lord, today I choose to put all my hope in You. I may be in a difficult situation — but I know, God, that You have a plan. I believe that Your plan is best. And this difficult thing that I’m going through right now will be used by You for something beautiful. You hold the masterplan of my life — and I know that You can cause all things to work together for my good. I will not worry. I will be strong. In You alone will I trust. Amen.