Rage or calm?

I just returned from my vacation. It was a mixed bag. My boat engines are a mess and I ended up leaving my boat in the Bahamas for repair and flew home yesterday afternoon. The boat trip over was rather dangerous and harrowing to say the least with huge raging seas and stormy weather combined with engine failures. That of course ended any hope of catching the large number of fish that were envisioned being hauled into the boat prior to departure. All in all that was a pretty miserable experience.

God always has a ray of sunshine burst through most any storm cloud however; and the time spent with my wife, kids, grandkids, in-laws and outlaws was excellent and an outstanding time was had by all. Had the boat behaved we probably would have spent most all of that time fishing and little time in family fellowship and relaxation. Albeit it sounds kind of weird, but after all is said and done, I am actually kind of thankful for the boat engine problems as it allowed me the family time of which one cannot ever get enough.

I was reflecting that much of life is identical to this vacation experience. Try as we might, we can’t always get what we think we want, but what we think that we want is not everything that we actually need, and cannot be appreciated until we experience it. My fishing partner and I spent months planning this “fishing” trip. I spent “mucho dinero” on rods, reels, lures, gasoline, dockage, home rental, and the like and many long hours planning this trip, pouring over charts, rigging lures, and loading my boat for the voyage. It all was for naught thanks to some faulty engine parts. We envisioned catching hordes of fish but it was not to be. Our reaction to the situation was not to get furious at God and all creation and rage in despair, rather just to make the best of it and that we did. Getting mad about it would be as useless as getting mad because it rained. The rain is not affected by our rage and will not stop because we sulk. The only thing affected by our rage is us.

In the end I suppose this is the best approach to all of our problems in life. Just make the best of every situation and look for that ray of sunshine God has provided and let it burst forth in our lives and be very thankful for everything that comes our way.

Eph.4:31
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger,
clamor, and evil speaking be
put away from you, with all malice.