Orange Guppy Makes Senesi "Deadline" - Two Rails

I wish life always worked off the good script. Abby's orange guppy died within 14 days of purchase. We put "him" (died before we named him) in the freezer and traded him in on a new blue guppy that was actually alive. The transaction did not cost us a penny (except for travel expenses).

We often live with a situation comedy mindset. All of life's problems are really shallow and trivial in a situation comedy. Even then there should be a perfect, predictable rhythm to it. Happy. Crisis Introduced. Tension heightens. Crisis Solved. Happy.

My friend, Johnny Rumbough sent me a profound article from Rick Warren. In the article Warren addressed the rhythm of life:

I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you got to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys,I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or....... you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

Problems vs. Purpose - I don't think Rick's observation is shallow or trivial. Do you? Few situations work like the orange guppy crisis. Most are much deeper and don't resolve so neatly. To me, that defines faith in our heavenly Father. We all have great faith when the orange guppy dies before the 14 day deadline. When the deadline passes real faith begins.