Climb the Curve

Isaiah 42:25  

“…It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand; it consumed them but they did not take it to heart.”

As parents we are on a steep learning curve.  The learning curve where the more we learn, the greater the cost it would seem.  We are put in charge of our children that are a blessing from the Lord and we all start out on the bottom of that curve.  While we are climbing the curve, we make decisions that we are sure are filled with all the wisdom and understanding we can muster at the time.  After making these we then we realize that the learning curve has bitten us in the rear once again. 

We drilled some wells in South Texas a while ago.  They were shallow oil wells, 2500 ft deep.  We had researched all we could on reservoir and trap style and how to complete these wells.  All good research.  Intelligently, we proceeded forward with the knowledge we gained by our research.  All was good until we realized something was wrong.  Nothing major, maybe some minor things to adjust at the surface and we were hoping to get our production back up and going.  Well here is where the learning curve bites down hard.  We drilled 4 wells and completed them all the same way.  What we did not account for was that the carbon dioxide in the formation water that was producing along with the oil, was eating holes in the pipe making our oil well’s downhole completion look like Swiss cheese.  This was a mistake we did not realize until time had revealed it to us.  Hence the learning curve.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars later, we fixed the problem with stainless steel down hole screens and the wells went back on line. 

I tell this oil and gas story to help illustrate the point that some issues seem to only be revealed in time.  It is when these issues arise we have to try our best at understanding them and figuring out what we should do in the nasty now and now to fix them with the Lord’s help.  Like the verse says, “it enveloped them”.  These issues always seem to completely envelope us.  They say that the learning curve is steep for a reason. You see, we only climb the learning curve when we have a problem, understand it, and solve it.

When you are a boy they say chicks dig scars, well we may have some life scars that we don’t want to show but we can throw them at the feet of our Lord Jesus and ask for Him to help us understand why we went through them. It is best to humbly submit to the Lord whatever you are going through instead of using the wisdom of ourselves and this world. You don’t want to let the problem moments go down into your heart where they can fester and become a root of bitterness. You have to learn to let it go, Jesus paid for it on the cross.

With all this in mind, can I tell that in these hard times we are called to climb the learning curve. It is going through hard times like these that will set us apart, grow our resolve, and faith in Christ.  In the oil and gas world, we can now go into the same area and be confident what we use to complete future wells will that last a long time and not get eroded full of holes right under our noses. 

Use the hard times to climb the curve and seek to understand what the Lord wants us to learn from those moments instead of choosing to be blind and deaf to His ultimate guidance.  

Prayer: Father, help us to humble ourselves before you and look inside to see if there is any unclean thing or part of me that has not submitted to you. Help me to grow closer to you while continuingly casting off the crowns of life I used to hold dear. I choose today to cast them at your feet. I choose not to be blind and deaf in the times of hardship. Even though I may be enveloped, I will still lift you up and praise your name. In Jesus name, amen.