Can Something Annoying Still Be a Blessing?
Read The Daily:
The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation. All of your works will thank you, Lord, and your faithful followers will praise you. Psalm 145:9-10
Post by Aaron Fields
I never thought a cheap backyard pool would reveal this much about my attitude. I was furious over that thing. The filter would not work right. The cover kept getting left off. I was outside fighting with pool chemicals like I was trying to solve world peace. At one point I was so irritated I told my wife I wanted to slice the thing open and flood the backyard. I went to bed angry over an above-ground Walmart pool, which honestly feels ridiculous now that I type it out.
But the next evening I walked outside and all three of my boys were in the pool together laughing, playing basketball, somehow not fighting for once. My wife was sitting there with me on the patio, and I remember telling her to take a picture because I knew one day this moment would matter to me more than all the frustration ever did. And it hit me how quickly I had allowed irritation to become the loudest thing in my life. The pool had problems yesterday and blessings today. Same pool. Same backyard. Same life.
I think sometimes I assume a blessing has to feel easy to count as good. But a lot of the best parts of my life come wrapped in responsibility, exhaustion, inconvenience, noise, and chaos. And somehow God still fills those places with moments I will miss someday. Maybe perspective is not finding a perfect life. Maybe it is learning to notice beauty sitting right in the middle of the mess I was complaining about yesterday.
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Prayer for the Day
God what are you showing me? What am I going to do about it?
God help me to see one person that I can serve through a kind word, random act of kindness, or simple gift today?
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Read The New Testament In A Year
Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone was moved away from the entrance. She ran at once to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, breathlessly panting, “They took the Master from the tomb. We don’t know where they’ve put him.” Peter and the other disciple left immediately for the tomb. They ran, neck and neck. The other disciple got to the tomb first, outrunning Peter. Stooping to look in, he saw the pieces of linen cloth lying there, but he didn’t go in. Simon Peter arrived after him, entered the tomb, observed the linen cloths lying there, and the kerchief used to cover his head not lying with the linen cloths but separate, neatly folded by itself. Then the other disciple, the one who had gotten there first, went into the tomb, took one look at the evidence, and believed. No one yet knew from the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead. The disciples then went back home. But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she knelt to look into the tomb and saw two angels sitting there, dressed in white, one at the head, the other at the foot of where Jesus’ body had been laid. They said to her, “Woman, why do you weep?” “They took my Master,” she said, “and I don’t know where they put him.” After she said this, she turned away and saw Jesus standing there. But she didn’t recognize him. Jesus spoke to her, “Woman, why do you weep? Who are you looking for?” She, thinking that he was the gardener, said, “Mister, if you took him, tell me where you put him so I can care for him.” Jesus said, “Mary.” Turning to face him, she said in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” meaning “Teacher!” John 20:1-16
Don’t you think his concern extends to us? Of course. Farmers plow and thresh expecting something when the crop comes in. So if we have planted spiritual seed among you, is it out of line to expect a meal or two from you? Others demand plenty from you in these ways. Don’t we who have never demanded deserve even more? But we’re not going to start demanding now what we’ve always had a perfect right to. Our decision all along has been to put up with anything rather than to get in the way or detract from the Message of Christ. All I’m concerned with right now is that you not use our decision to take advantage of others, depriving them of what is rightly theirs. You know, don’t you, that it’s always been taken for granted that those who work in the Temple live off the proceeds of the Temple, and that those who offer sacrifices at the altar eat their meals from what has been sacrificed? Along the same lines, the Master directed that those who spread the Message be supported by those who believe the Message. Still, I want it made clear that I’ve never gotten anything out of this for myself, and that I’m not writing now to get something. I’d rather die than give anyone ammunition to discredit me or impugn my motives. If I proclaim the Message, it’s not to get something out of it for myself. I’m compelled to do it, and doomed if I don’t! If this was my own idea of just another way to make a living, I’d expect some pay. But since it’s not my idea but something solemnly entrusted to me, why would I expect to get paid? So am I getting anything out of it? Yes, as a matter of fact: the pleasure of proclaiming the Message at no cost to you. You don’t even have to pay my expenses! 1 Corinthians 9:10-18