I had a lovely 4th of July weekend filled with bike rides, good friends, time at “the” lake, and fireworks. I hope you did too! But there have been many times lately that haven’t felt so delightful.
No, this wasn’t my golf ball, but it might as well have been. It’s a perfect picture of how I feel sometimes.
A picture of how my day, or my week, or my month feels sometimes. Can you relate?
In our family a good attitude and an absence of complaining is one of our highest values.
On a long family trip through 3rd world countries about 12 years ago we started using the phrase “It’s better this way…” When a flight was cancelled, or one of us got sick, or we had to wait hours in line, or got a flat tire, with as much humor as we could muster we’d say “But it’s better this way because…” and then we’d stretch our creative muscles trying to finish the sentence. Not gritting our teeth and saying “Praise the Lord”, but genuinely trying to find the good.
I’m pretty good at this game, being by nature a glass-half-full kind of girl, and usually seeing life as a gift not a sentence.
And when I’m having a bad day, week, life, I KNOW all of the “spiritual” answers. “In all things give thanks.” “His strength is perfected in our weakness.” “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him.” I KNOW I live an incredibly blessed abundant life and should never complain!
But some days I just want to say, “My ball is up in a tree and life sucks.” And because God is patient, and gracious, even though my whining may be ridiculous, I think He’s ok with that.
We have some great examples of this in the Bible. Cranky “toddlers” having a bad day, who feel safe enough with God to vent.
Elijah is one of them. He has the incredible privilege of partnering with God in a razzle-dazzle fire and rain miracle, but in the next minute is hiding under a tree and whining, “I’ve had enough! Take my life!” Translation: Life sucks.
He’s a prophet for Pete’s sake! He’s supposed to be all “spiritual”. But he’s not. Like a toddler with no filters he’s honest about how he’s feeling. And God doesn’t strike him dead.
Instead He sends an angel to give Elijah a snack and a nap. Kind of like what I used to do with Katy and Maggie when they were 2-year-olds and were just overwhelmed, over-tired, and couldn’t understand why every answer seemed to be “no”.
So some days maybe it's ok to say “Lord, it feels like life sucks right now. Tomorrow I’ll try to have a better attitude, but I’d really appreciate it if for today You’d just give me a little snack and a nap."
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment