Burr!

Winter

We are into the cold days and nights of winter. This coming weekend and through the next week or so local weather forecasts are calling for very cold conditions. Everybody has their own preferences when it comes to weather. In reality the weather is going to be what it is going to be regardless of what we want or wish for. However, our attitude can play a big role in how we deal with changing weather from the hot and humid dog days of summer to these bone chilling cold winter nights.

Goldilocks

When I was in High School I learned a poem from our ag teacher, Mr. Todd Prothro. It went like this:

People may falter, but their bold;
When it's hot, they want it cold;
When it’s cold, they want it hot;
Always wanting what is not!

Through some quick searching on the internet I found that it has been published more often in another form:

As a rule, man is a fool;
When it’s hot, he wants it cool;
When it’s cool, he wants it hot;
Always wanting what is not!

I personally prefer Mr. Prothro’s version, but that may just be nostalgia. The point of the silly little limerick is that people tend to not be content or satisfied regardless of the circumstances. This is maybe an even more prevalent problem in our day as we have become accustomed to so many comforts and conveniences. 

In some ways, we have become like the mythical character Goldilocks. We want everything just right. The problem is that everything is never just right. If we spend our lives seeking out the just right conditions we will miss out on all the wonderful moments that often are so great because they are not just right.

We must be on guard against the tyranny of perfection. I don’t just mean in critiquing the weather but much more the people that we have been blessed with in our lives. You and I are not members of the perfect people friend group because we are not perfect people. I might also add that whoever you think is in the perfect people friend group they are not because they are not perfect people either. The people the Lord has placed in my life, especially in our local church, are not perfect but according to His purposes they are perfect for me.

Enjoy

So what should we do when things are not to our preferences, or honestly even when they are, we should rejoice in the Lord. Remember Paul told the Philippians from prison that they should rejoice in the Lord always (Philippians 4:4)! The Scripture also tells us that this is the day that the Lord has made and we should rejoice and be glad in this day (Psalm 118:24). There really are elements to be appreciated about all the seasons.

I’ll also challenge you that many of your best days probably were not perfect days. Instead many of the days with the best stories and most meaning are the days when you overcame adversity to accomplish a goal or succeed in a task. In the classic film, “Ol’ Yeller,” Fess Parker playing the father character says to Travis, the coming of age young man, “You can’t waste the good time fretten about the bad. That makes it all bad.”  So no matter what comes to us, may we rest in the Lord for His day is called “today” (Hebrews 4:1-13)!

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