Thursday, September 3, 2009

The ongoing struggle to be a human being

Chapter One: Some days you feel like Snow White or Prince Charming. Everything is great. You are on top of the world. The rabbits have made a gauntlet for you to walk through, and the birds are loaded up on the tree branches singing your favorite Kool and the Gang song. Other days, well they are like kissing your sister. I don't know that I have ever really done that, but if you have a sister, you kind of understand the idea.

These are days when there is nothing wrong, but you feeeeeeelllll like there is something wrong. These are days when someone can pull you out of the dumps with a simple reminder. These are days when you can turn a corner without too much trouble. Heck, with a little luck, by the afternoon, you have mastered your worries and can hear the birds sing.

Then there are those days when it seems that you are constantly fighting against so many things. Brinkman wants me to hear the birds sing? "ha! Show me a bird and I will choke it! These are days when there seem to be so many problems that instead of joyful prayer, God gets the Psalms: "where are you O God?" "why did you leave me?" "please destroy my enemies." These are the days when you wonder why everyone else wins the pageant and you didn't even get invited to the show. Why are the Chiefs 2-14, and what happened to the first place Royals.

Momma told me there'd be days like this.

Go to the medicine chest. Not for pills. Go to the medicine chest and pull out some real help. Sit with a friend. Did you know that true friends will still love you even when you spend the entire evening telling them your problems? Your honesty actually endears you to them. What else is in the medicine cabinet? Go read the Psalms. Fall in with the Psalmist and hear his struggle to be a human being and find God. Mostly, in my medicine chest, there is a little fortune from a fortune cookie that says, "get up and keep going." I think my Dad gave it to me when I was a small boy. Pull out that fortune. Read it, and follow it. Get up and keep going. Things are going to get better. The sun did finally come out at Camp Granada, and when it did, they were able at last to hear the birds sing and realize that it is a beautiful day in God's world.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your words of wisdom and lessons in life. Every day when we wake up, each of us has the choice to hear the birds sing and may have to intentionally make that choice to have the attitude of contentment.
Thanks for the reminder.