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I don't think I will ever forget the day my dad brought home the most miserable excuse for an animal I had ever seen--a walking skeleton masquerading as a small quarter horse stallion. Watching Dad unload him from the trailer and lead him into the horse barn was painful. The creature could not lift his head above his knees. Every rib was prominent beneath a thick layer of dirt. His mane and tail were badly matted. But his sunken, lifeless eyes were the most heartbreaking of all. I could not quit staring at what neglect had done to this poor animal. When it came to pets and livestock, one of Dad's unbreakable rules was simple: if you own them, you take care of them. To do anything less was cruel and inexcusable. So seeing this horse in such miserable condition was quite a jolt for me. Even his name--Jack Flash--was a mockery of this poor, malnourished creature. I didn't believe he had the strength or will to fight for survival. But my dad, whose eyes were more experienced than mine, saw something within this little fellow I could not see at the time. Dad saw a tiny spark of life buried under all that neglect. Whatever else we can say about life, I believe we can all related to a simple truth: there will be seasons when life refuses to behave. Whatever the reason for these misbehaving seasons, their main objective appears to be how badly they can chew us up before spitting us out. In the process, our lives end up looking more like a trash heap than a treasure. It's not that we mean to go the trash-heap route. Most of us have had desires and dreams to be upstanding people who positively impact our corner of the world. We have goals to be the best we can be. Oh, but then that misbehaving season shows up. Whether through bad choices on our part or someone else's, we end up in places we had never thought of going. Then we buy into a lie, believing that it's okay to settle for less than whom God intended us to be and what He designed us to do. After all, since we willingly traded treasure in for a trash heap, why would God want to bail us out?