Cry me a river

Recently there was something that I really wanted, but unfortunately I did not get it. Earlier in my life I would have literally had a fit, stayed up worrying about it; I probably would have consumed an inordinate amount of wine and been in a surly mood for days if not weeks, and it would have driven me half crazy. Not any more. Hey if it is for you, it is for you; if it is not, it is not. Accept the cards that are dealt your way and move on. This of course is assuming that you have done everything within your power, 110% effort, to achieve the desired results. I would be the last person who advocates quitting or just meekly accepting ones lot in life. It sounds as if Im talking out of both sides of my mouth, but I would not want anyone to give up prematurely or throw in the towel before the final decision has been passed down. There will be times in our life when we fight extremely hard with all of our strength and wiles to achieve a certain objective, but in spite of our best efforts, when it comes down to the final decision-making time, we will not receive the news we wanted to hear.



Getting mad about this is like getting mad because it rains. It will not change the outcome. The same holds true for depression. Getting all depressed and teary-eyed about it will not improve the situation or change anything aside from making us sick. We may not like it, but we might as well look at it one of two ways: Like perhaps what we wanted is really not in our best interest at this time. Maybe there is something we do not know. For example, maybe God knows that giving us what we want at this time might harm us. What kid does not cry when mommy takes away some dangerous item that the child was using for a toy? It might also be a sign that we did not prepare enough, we did not work hard enough to achieve our objective, and when the next opportunity comes about that we should attack it differently. We should react to the news in a mature responsible way.



There is a third consideration that just occurred to me. Sometimes we do not get what we want and often it is in conjunction with an entire series of events cascading upon us in a landslide of tragic heart-breaking events. This could and often should be viewed as God directly intervening in our lives in an effort to draw us back to Him and to remind us that we cannot survive much less thrive without Him in our lives. Sometimes God must punish us. What loving parent does not punish a kid who refuses to quit playing with a dangerous item? Often in my life my troubles were caused by not keeping God my number one priority. He draws people to Him in a number of ways. Some alcoholics or drug addicts never quit their destructive habits until they reach rock bottom and they have nowhere else to turn but God. What person does not reach out to God when tragedy strikes? September 11th was a good example of that. Record numbers of people attended church after that tragedy.

Yes, I believe that we can bring tragedy down upon ourselves. This is not to say that every tragic event should be construed as God punishing us or trying to draw us closer. People die, and things happen and very often it does not have anything to do with us. There are other considerations as outlined above. Thoughtful prayer and sincerely trying to do our best is the best course.



God watches us constantly with eyes that never sleep. He is a loving Father with angels designated to help us muddle our way through life. Dont cry a river; perhaps you will be disappointed, but try and be happy, and always be thoughtful about the events that unfold in your life..





Psalm 91:11

For He shall give His angels

charge over you,

to keep you in all your ways.