Snow Melting On A Hot Tin Roof

Larkins Hall at The Ohio State University is an athletic complex. They’ve changed it since I went to school there, but it used to have a very steep metal roof. Its rough brick exterior and metal roof made it quite an interesting piece of architecture. I used to have to walk beside it several times a week to get to other classes. Whoever designed the building must have negated to think about springtime.

One particular day I was walking beside the building and I heard what sounded like an airplane whirring over head. The sound continued to gain speed until with a loud whoosh I watched ahead of me as ice, snow and icicles came down crashing in front of me. Suddenly I felt as if I was in a real life arcade game. The ice was melting and at the speed it was flying off that building I am sure it would have knocked someone out cold. In front of me and behind me the sections of ice blocks were loosening on the roof making their way down the metal makeshift luge slide and falling. It had the potential to be a very scary moment in time. However, I started to pray and soon found myself on the other side of the building.

Later I began to think how much life can be like walking under the snow melting on a hot tin roof. The vastness of choices in life can sometimes be overwhelming. To quote Dr. Seuss in Oh, The Places You Will Go!, “You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked. A Place you could sprain both your elbow and chin! Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in? How much can you lose? How much can you win?”

I have often look at choices in my life and wonder, “How does anyone live without having the guidance of the Holy Spirit? Life can be overwhelming and scary.

But I have good news for you. God doesn’t expect you to know everything. He sees your life. He knows what is best for you to do, and what choices are best for you to make. He knows down the road what choices could hurt you, and He knows what can help you. It’s not up to you to know everything. Isaiah 30:21 says, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." I have always taken great peace in knowing that if I follow what God wants I can avoid the ice cubes trying to hit me in life.

One of the most common questions I’ve heard over the years, is “How can I know what God’s will for my life is?” John 10:27 says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” God’s sheep know His voice. Rarely does God speak to you in an audible voice. Sometimes He can do this by something you’ve read in the Bible. Sometimes it can just be an unexplained peace. Sometimes, we can hear him like a bubbling words flowing from your inward man. John 7:38 says, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Sometimes there are directions God will show you in life that will not make sense to your own head at the time. But you must ask yourself several questions: 1. Does what your feeling go contrary to the Word of God? If the answer is yes, it’s not God. 2. Do you know that you know that you know, this is what God is saying? I always say that I want to live my life in such a way that I have little to no regrets, and if God makes his will for me very apparent, I‘ll run with it.

God wants to talk to His children. He wants to give them guidance and direction. He sees things five, ten, and even fifty years down the road in your life. He knows what is best for you. When you spend all your energy trying to fight God in what you know is him, your only frustrating yourself and frustrating God. There is coming a time where I see many in the body who are about to make the choice to follow God into some choices that may not make sense to their natural thinking. But once we know that we know it’s God. . .Dare to believe. God loves it when we trust Him. That’s walking in faith, and God loves it when His children choose His ways.

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