June 15, 2021 – Click here to listen
I told one of my sons yesterday that his mother and I had never been happier than we are right now at this stage of our lives. We are enjoying life to the hilt and we are most definitely standing on one of life’s peaks.
He was delighted to hear that and then inquired about my health. I told him I was rapidly losing my eyesight and blindness was approaching much faster than anticipated, then I told him that the recent epidural I had on my spine did not work and the sciatic pain was excruciating at times and that it looked like I was headed back towards spinal surgery on my ailing lower back, and then I told him I was headed this week to the dermatologist to get several cancers and wannabe cancers removed.
After we hung up, I mentally reviewed our conversation and became acutely aware of how paradoxical that our call had to sound. On the one hand I’m telling him I’ve never been happier in my entire life and then I list a string of medical maladies that would probably depress most anyone reading this.
For those of you wondering how I’m able to pull this off, I point to that great philosopher and sausage peddler Jimmy Dean who once said, “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”
My wife and I were having a conversation about valleys and peaks yesterday and I mentioned the adage that states we are always either standing on a peak, or descending from one, or in the deep dark valley, or ascending to a peak.
I once owned a mail order business and we were heavily reliant upon receiving COD payments collected from UPS to satisfy our cash flow needs. One day we received an enormous envelope just filled to the brim with checks. I was whooping it up and in a celebratory mood when my right hand guy “rained on the parade” with negativism and said, “Well all that means is that tomorrow we will get a pitiful amount in.” I grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him and told him, “Man when you’re standing on the peak basking in the sunshine enjoy it to the hilt, there will be plenty of time to complain and whine when in the valley.”
Old Jimmy Dean was right about not being able to change the winds. If it’s blowing hard and pushing giant waves up offshore, I cannot go fishing. Getting mad about it is as useless as getting mad because it’s raining. We can’t stop the rain or change the wind. So I choose to be thankful for what I can do and not what could have been.
I read somewhere that God does not cause all of the storms in someone’s life – on occasion the storms are the result of a person’s own making. But there are times when God brings storms into people’s lives for his glory and their eternal good. The only way to be helped in a helpless situation is to rely on someone stronger who has a remedy for the situation and that someone is God. The Lord does not just take someone out of the storm; He takes them where they need to go.
He has taken me to that place.
Philippians 4:11
“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”