Skip to main content

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day...

            Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.      (I Chronicles 16:34)        


            A week from now is Christmas. As week ago, I began saying, “Am I coming down with a cold? Nahhh.” Four days ago, I admitted that I had a cold. Mark Twain supposedly said that visitors are like fish. After three days, both stink. I’m either on day four or day seven. That means it’s like one of Alexander’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Days… except it’s not. It’s more like being pecked to death by ducks. Every “bite” is insignificant – more an irritation than an injury. Perhaps almost every bite. There choir’s anthem tomorrow is a song I wanted to sing. It’s not likely to happen. That bite hurts.

            It's 4 pm and I was supposed to have this blog written this morning (yesterday to you.) But I don’t even have a passage from Scripture. And part of me says that I should be writing something upbeat about next year. It’s “bad business” to be down in the mouth. Another part of me says “Be vulnerable. Everyone has bad days.”

            But it’s not a bad day. I’ve gone to work feeling worse than I feel. I’ve led worship with laryngitis. It’s not like I have COVID, or Cancer, or Rabies. But… fish and guests. So I wonder what Jesus would think of my illness and my attitude. I’m not demon possessed. I’m not at death’s door. I haven’t suffered with my problem for 12 or 38 years. It’s just a stupid head cold, and I’m old enough now that my body doesn’t kick them out the door on day three.

            I gave myself permission to putter for the past several days, but… guests and fish. So now I’m whimpering and wishing someone would give me a bowl of chicken soup, but knowing that I’d be embarrassed if they did. I don’t need no stinkin’ soup. What I need is a TARDIS so I can suffer to my heart’s content without losing time.

            But that’s not the way God works, and when it comes down to it, I may grumble and growl, but I know God is good and his way is best. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more