Finished Reading “Heretics”

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  "G. K. Chesterton, the "Prince of Paradox," is at his witty best in this collection of twenty essays and articles from the turn of the twentieth century. Focusing on  "heretics" - those who pride themselves on their superiority to Christian views - Chesterton appraises prominent figures who fall into that category from the literary and art worlds... those who hold incomplete and inadequate views about "life, the universe, and everything." He is, in short, criticizing all that host of non-Christian views of reality, as he demonstrated in his follow-up book Orthodoxy. The book is both an easy read and a difficult read. But he manages to demonstrate, among other things, that our new 21st century heresies are really not new because he himself deals with most of them." (Goodreads)

When It Can't Be Easy--It's Just Gotta Be Hard!

Ever had one of those days when it just can't be easy--it's just gotta be hard?

Like the time you loaded the dishwasher, and dropping a fork into the basket, it bounced out. Not only did it bounce out of the basket but it flew up, ricocheted off the cup rack and then came to rest down into the bottom of the dishwasher, getting stuck somehow in the heating element.

Or the time you opened the refrigerator and a jar of spaghetti sauce took a swan dive off the shelf and broke all over the floor? Days later you noticed a red spot on the ceiling and couldn't figure out how on earth . . .
 . . . what is that?
Spaghetti sauce?
How in the Sam Hill did spaghetti sauce got all the way . . . up . . . there . . . ?
Oh . . .

Or the time you were working on a project in the garage and you dropped the last screw that somehow manages to be found under the couch in the living room? Ok that never happens, but when things go wrong--it might as well! Right? Anything's possible. And if it did happen, you probably also found at least a dollar in change.

It's taken me many, many years to discover how right everything is, even when things go wrong. For example, gravity works exactly like it's supposed to: things go down. I will NEVER have a mess at eye level. I will always and forever stop whatever it is I am doing and have to do squats to clean or pick something up.

When things don't go as planned, then monotony has been broken.
A habit has been checked.
I lose the ability to do things my way (the way I've always done things).

There might be a better way to do things and that little disruption might be a sign to slow down, to think differently. To learn something.

Once we were traveling cross country when at the hotel one morning, I accidentally locked the keys in the truck (for the second time--on the same trip). Imagine my frustration: the time lost traveling, the expense of calling a lock-smith, etc. Once we finally got back on the road, we came around a turn and found a logging truck had lost it's load. I wondered--might we have been involved in a disaster had I not locked my keys in the truck? We were thankful for the delay! What's a few dollars spent and a late start in comparison?

So when things don't go as planned, step back and find the good:
  • The Universe is running as designed--that's good;
  • I'm still alive--that's good;
  • Got all my fingers and toes--that's good;
  • It could be worse and that "something worse" could be happening to someone else, so I'm fortunate!
  • I just learned a new skill! 

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