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A Bad Day
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I should have
known how it was going to be by how it started. I dropped the
shampoo in the shower. Then when I got through shaving and
doing all the other stuff you do to get ready, I caught my
foot in my pants and did a St. Vita’s Day dance all over the
bathroom floor.
I have to take several pills every morning. I dropped the
little plastic cup I had them in and they spilled all over the
floor. Even after I found my glasses, I couldn’t locate them
all.
I bit my lip at breakfast (that means I have three more times
to bite it before it gets well). By then I was almost afraid
to get the car out of the garage. But I left the house
courageously and started for the office. Every light was red.
Every truck and pickup in Harris county was not only in front
of me, but poking along at a snail’s pace. Then when I
turned onto Spencer, a lady in front of me, who was putting on
her make-up and talking on the cell phone at the same time,
swerved in front of me, almost taking off my front fender. I
restrained myself, saying, “What difference does it make?”
By then I knew what it was. “It’s a bad day,” I thought.
They come, you know. They just come. And the more you try to
do something with them, the more confusion and chaos you
cause. You just have to endure them until you can take some
Tylenol PM and go to bed (assuming you don’t trip over the
bedspread as you get in). But even after you recognize what it
is–and you can usually do that pretty early–you still have
to endure it.
The phone was ringing when I got to the office. It was a
fellow who has decided that I am the world’s champion false
teacher just because I’m friends with somebody who is
friends with somebody who taught error before he died. He kept
pushing me for some sort of email debate on the “questions
facing the brotherhood today.” I was not able to convince
him that I had little to do with “the brotherhood,” that I
was just trying to do my work here and help all of us go to
heaven.
That wasn’t enough. The conversation got heated. And I got
louder and louder because I felt the sting of his ridiculous
assertions more and more. I didn’t lose my temper, but
brother, was I one the edge! I finally took all I could take
and told him off–so much so that after the conversation
ended and about 20 minutes had passed, I called him and
apologized–not for what I had said, but for the vehemence
with which I said it. He responded poorly. It’s hard not to
get angry again when somebody tells you you’re going to
hell. Oh well, I did what I could, albeit maybe not with the
love and meekness I should have exhibited at the beginning.
But that wasn’t the end of the bad day. I went to lunch. I
had seen a TV commercial for a new sandwich with low-carbs for
$2.99. It was a special they were running. I ordered it–I
thought–asking for the new low-carb pita bread. When I got
to the register to pay for my sandwich the lad told me the
price was $4.76. “How come?” I asked. “Because you had
the pita bread,” he said. “Do you mean that it’s $1.77
for one piece of bread?” I asked, as kindly as I could. “I
guess,” he said, “that’s what the computer says and I
have to do it that way.” (Isn’t it interesting how
machines now run our lives instead of our running the
machines?)
Well, enough, it didn’t get any better. One little bad deal
after the other came. My pen ran out of ink. I couldn’t find
a post-it note. I lost a whole chapter on the computer and
never saw it again. It was the pits, that day was. I once
wrote in my journal, “Lord, please don’t come today–I
don’t think I’m ready.”
Bad days are part of life. How we handle them is important.
Some suggestions? Sure.
Use the bad days for good. Bad days help us. Bad
days, if they are reflected upon properly, teach us good
stuff. For instance, I got a good dose of humility out of that
bad day last week. When I got to thinking about it, I had too
much pride in almost every instance. “Pride goeth before
destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall,” said the
wise man (Prov. 16:18). And “Only by pride cometh
contentions” (Prov. 13:10). There are lots of things that we
can learn from bad days–that life is short, that we need
more knowledge so as to make better choices, that friends are
more important than progress, that character is better than
money, that excellence is more excellent than success. Bad
days teach us good things.
Use the bad days to draw closer to God. When
everything is good, when there are no cars in your lane and
nobody is on your back about anything, when things are just
fine, it’s easy to forget God. We dare not. When a bad day
comes, we should use it to make sure that when we have a good
one we don’t forget who we are, and from whence we are come.
Thankfulness can certainly come of out bad days. Prayer is
closer when things aren’t right. God is more important when
we need help. Brethren have a greater value when we’re down
and out.
Remember, the sun will shine again. “In the day of
prosperity, be joyful, but in the day of adversity,
consider.” Good advice from Solomon, the man who saw life
from every angle (Eccles. 7:14). We need to rejoice at all the
good things we have. There’s a time for that, a time to be
glad and enjoy all our blessings. But when things are not
good, we need to reflect, ponder, meditate. That’s good for
us, too. Bad days come, but so do good days. And for those of
us who are His children, we have a blessed assurance that the
sun will shine again, even if we must endure the most horrible
day of all.
Oh, by the way. I sure had a good day the next day. But I
doubt I learned as much.
Dee Bowman
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Copyright (C)
2009
Southside Church of Christ
All rights reserved.
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