So many of us know the old expression, “They just love to rain on your parade!” You know the ones!
There are people who always see the darker side of even the brightest moments, that can take down the mood if we pay attention to them. Sometimes, the expression speaks for itself; “Sometimes people brighten up the room by entering. Others brighten up the room when they leave…”
One time, I was at a natural history museum, and the guy who was standing next to me says, “I sure am glad Picasso wasn’t a taxidermist.”
What’s amazing is that there are some folks that won’t be believers in Christ; not because they feel they can’t be forgiven by Him, but they can’t forgive themselves. It’s a weird way of thinking, yet prevalent.
Yet, God has a way of reminding us that pessimism can be just a plague of the heart. What we need to do is realize that there WILL be times where things will not always go as planned. There will be times when people “rain on your parade”. But OUR job is to allow God show us that HE knew everything ahead of time, and that we should appreciate all occurrences that come before us.
I had the occasion to rejuvenate the mailbox of a wonderful friend. It required the disassembly of the metal housing and faded red flag. The cracks in the 4X4 wood structure had to be scraped and filled with caulk, and then painted. The house numbers were all faded, and had to be refinished. When I got everything back to looking restored, I went in to bring the homeowner out to see if it matched his expectations. When we came out, I found a bird of some species flew onto the top of the post and relieved himself of the fermented reminder of what he previously ate directly onto the mailbox….. (You can probably fill in any suitable reaction here)
But we laughed. We DIDN’T get upset. Life is like that. There are some on this planet who do the same similar things to people all around us. No matter how well we do a job….. No matter how much meticulous time we spent doing something RIGHT….. No matter how much prayerful thought we put into a ministry or relationship…… Answer: There will be those who never see the good side. It is our job to be prayerful and see why our Lord has allowed such an episode to cross our paths. We NEED to see the benefit of that situation to grow into a positive state of mind, and not to fall victim to a cascading decline into remorse, regret, and despondency.
“Lord, please give is the wisdom and vision to discern the optics of any situation, and rely on YOU to interpret our reaction(s). Lord, help us to recognize the lessons we can obtain from trying to see things through YOUR eyes. And we will be blessed with insight from Your guidance when we see from Romans 8:28 that, ‘And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.’ In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”