No More Than We Can Bear

In the midst of starting back to our school routine, Asherel still sick but slowly on the mend, and the wedding trip out West looming in less than a week, I noticed a fire in the back of the computer.

I noticed the fire when the mouse on the computer stopped working and the computer crossed its ethernet arms and refused to talk to me.
This in and of itself would not be enough to put me over the edge, except that as I peered a little worriedly at the fire, I was teetering in my new high heels and my toes were a little sore. I know that women conquer the fine art of walking in heels every day and I was determined not to be bested by a pair of shoes. So I had gone online to research "how to walk without falling over or requiring any emergency podiatric intervention when wearing heels over one inch high". There is a surprisingly large number of educational videos on this subject, unlike the dearth of educational videos on "What to do if computer mouse stops working and back of computer appears to be on fire." One of the excellent pieces of advice (on shoes, not fire) was to practice walking in the high heels before the event so that one would develop the leg muscles necessary to walk in high heels. Who knew it was an athletic event? That site, which had step by step photos also suggested the athlete wear the heels for a week indoors first, and then graduate to a walk down the driveway to get the mail. If sufficiently able to navigate that task without mishap, the next step would be a trip to the grocery store.

"You are going to the grocery store in those?" asked Asherel, her face registering a mix of horror and bemusement.
"I have to. It is part of the training program."

Meantime, I shut down the computer and after hyperventilating, calmly called my husband, as well as the Geek Squad at Best Buy. The Geek who answered the phone listened politely as I said, "Do you all deal with computers that are on fire?"
"Is it under warranty?" he asked.
"I don't know. How about if I read you the serial number before they melt in the flames?"
Now in actuality, once I shut down the computer, the orange glow in the back did stop, lending some comfort, if not to my tottering toes, at least to my peace of mind that we would not burn down the house.
The Geek felt that while he could not diagnose over the phone, a computer on fire probably was not a good
sign, and recommended I bring it in. Shortly thereafter, one of my favorite computer experts and kind friend told me the orange glow was normal and shows that the internet was properly connected and sending signals.
And then in the nick of time, Matt came home and quickly fixed the computer. Not once did he notice or mention the fact that I was wearing sweat pants and high heels.

Our life seems to surge from one little crisis to another, and it would be so easy to just sit down and cry. Some struggles are certainly more life altering than learning to balance on high heels, or crashing computers, or even lingering illnesses on the eve of nonrefundable flights out west. So it was with great interest I read my verse today, "God is faithful and He will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing, He will also provide you the way out so that you may be able to endure it." 1 Corinthians 10:13. A dear friend going through a very difficult struggle once told me that verse is so often misused to construe that God will let us escape from struggles, or bear things that truly are unbearable, like the death of a child. Yet while God sometimes does not remove the struggle, He gives us the only eternal source of comfort and peace, Himself, through the struggles. In fact, the root of the word "way" used in this verse, in the original Greek, "ekbasis", connotes a way of escape- to go out, by foot- but with the added meaning of "completion". Jesus is of course described many times in the Bible as "the way", though the Greek root of that is slightly different, "hodos", and means literally a road or path. The struggle leads to competion. It is not my favorite method of arriving anywhere, through pain and blisters, but sometimes it is the only way, leaning on the arm of Jesus in our metaphorical tottering high heels.