By: Dr. Harold Sala
I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 2 Corinthians 11:28-29
A bad day, said someone, is when you learn that your insurance policy covers falling off the roof but not landing on the ground. Have you ever observed, however, that how people respond when they hit the ground has more to do with how they view life than where their bruises are when they connect with terra firma?
Take, for example, a conversation I had with Jerry Poe, a plumbing contractor friend of mine, who tells about being called to locate a leaking pipe beneath a concrete slab in an apartment building. Taking a jackhammer, they broke up the concrete floor, found the leak and fixed it.
First, the leak was in the bedroom floor. Then it was in the little kitchen, then the living room.
Then the leak sprouted in another bedroom. Every time the whole little place was upended. Of course, there was inconvenience and damage.
Speaking to the manager of the apartment complex, Jerry commented about how gracious was the woman living there, who didn’t seem to be greatly upset by the inconvenience. The manager replied, “She is a Nazi Concentration Camp survivor and I’m sure that she considers this only to be a “minor inconvenience.”
Leaks in a concrete floor are—yes, “a minor inconvenience” compared to enduring life in a concentration camp, wondering whether or not you would live to see the light of another day, let alone live to see your grandchildren someday walk down the aisle to claim a husband or wife in marriage.
Fascinating to me is that those who have experienced great tragedies—say surviving a plane crash, or a desperate, life-threatening illness, or a rescue having been trapped underground in a mining accident—never seem to be upset by what bothers most people—computers not working, the water pipe under the concrete slab collapsing, or you missing your flight at the airport.
The issue is perspective, learning to assess how much stress something is really worth in relationship to the damage it does to your emotional well-being. When I was a boy, there was a shoe repair shop on Pearl Street that I would occasionally visit coming to or from school. The cobbler there had posted a sign that I will never forget, that said, “Don’t sweat the small stuff; it’s all small stuff.”
For a few moments, friend, make a list of what is creating stress in your life. Then ask yourself, “How many of these items caught God by surprise? How many of them are beyond His control?
And how many of them are death-threatening?”
If it is true that nothing happens apart from what a sovereign God has allowed (the difficulty confronting you), and that the Shepherd of your soul has promised to walk with you through the dark valley as well as over the mountain pass, why should you be upset by a “minor inconvenience” that you think is a major disaster?
When I set up an autoexec.bat for a computer operating with the CPM system—now made obsolete by Microsoft—I entered a line as a reminder that helped me keep those “minor inconveniences” in perspective. It read, “Remember, this too shall pass.” It’s good news, friend, to realize that when you are God’s child the worst you will ever have it is now—in this life.
When John Wesley was held up and robbed at gunpoint, he wrote in his diary that he thanked God that his life was not taken, and he thanked God his horse was not stolen and, yes, that he was able to get to his destination. Forget the insurance policy that covers falling off the roof.
Better to land on your feet with bruised feet and think of it as a “minor inconvenience.” Indeed.
Resource reading: 2 Corinthians 11:16-29
James Parmis Ministries - www.JamesParmis.com
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