Be Ready

What do you do when nothing goes as planned? The overly simplest answer is: "be ready for anything." The best way to do this is to tell yourself this, first thing in the morning: "be ready for anything." The practice sounds trite but once you make a habit of it, one finds one is ready for whatever comes your way. It's a simple reminder that anything can happen, and it usually does.

My plan for Monday was to get up and go about the day, as usual. Instead, first thing Monday morning I got my coffee and began to prepare myself for the day, including getting my thoughts aligned, per above. Then came the news: something is wrong with the downstairs toilet. Boy was there ever something wrong.

Now, I had every opportunity to blow my stack through the day but I kept returning to "be ready for anything." Just the day before, on Sunday, I had just taught a lesson in from the Old Testament book of Job--you remember the guy--he lost everything then broke out with sores all over his body while being "comforted" by three of the worse "friends" a guy could have. The heart of the lesson was this: there's more to the picture, so step back and get a "view from above." See, there was more to Job's situation than anyone knew (at the time). So I went through the day reminding myself that:

1. Freaking out accomplishes nothing 
2. Someone, somewhere was having a much worse situation that a clogged toilet, so why complain? 
3. There's much more to the situation if I "step back" away from it and view it as an outsider and 
4. I could not control the situation but I could control my response. 

With these in mind, I also kept reviewing points from the lesson I taught just one day previous:

1.  Life is not formulaic, predictable;
2.  Many (all) of life's problems have an explanation, whether we like that explanation or not;
3. Weigh and measure the words of friends without getting derailed by their in-sensitivities or errors (see video, below);
4. Trust God is working behind the scenes and our suffering has purpose.

So how did it all work out? Well, besides getting things flowing the way they should, I learned . . .

1. . . . some things work and others don't (aka,"creative failure methodology")
2. . . . some projects take a little longer. Be patient. 
3. . . . some things come with "satisfaction guaranteed" refunds, so I'll be getting some dollars back (always read your labels for "this product will work or" statements)
4. . . . to do things I've never done before, like how to run one of those big ol' 75' 1/2" augers from Home Depot. 

I learned that when one is flexible, one is not broken.