Not Seeing The Whole Picture

The angel of the Lord went further; and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn to the right hand or the left.

When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam; so Balaam was angry and struck the donkey with his stick. 

And the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?”

Then Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a mockery of me!  If there had been a sword in my hand, I would have killed you by now.”

The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden all your life to this day?  Have I ever been accustomed to do so to you?”  And he said, “No.”

Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand; and he bowed all the way to the ground.

Numbers 22:26-31

I don’t know about you, but I get frustrated when things are not going the way I think they should.  I may not be hitting my donkey with a stick, but I am prone to running my mouth and saying some not too nice things to try to get things to go the way I think they should. 

Like Balaam, I have tunnel vision, looking only to accomplish that which I think needs to be done. And, like Balaam, I have discovered that sometimes I am not seeing the whole picture and what I want to get done is not what God wants to get done, and I need to shut up and let God do it His way. 

Trust God in all things.