Life often comes with unexpected surprises. While many are exciting, an equal number are anything but! It is easy to feel like life is plotting against you. Overwhelming deliverables, expectations that are beyond anyone’s ability to meet, and obstacles driven by events outside of one’s control are just the beginning. As I sit looking out the window on my non-flying airplane (sitting absently on the tarmac for mechanical reasons), I wonder if it is just not my day.
I will like to think that I am the only one facing the turmoil and chaos. The rush for the service agent as the second delay was announced tells me that this is clearly not the case. Conversations on my left and right reflect the impact playing out in their lives. A couple cannot get started on their vacation. A consulting of five cannot get to their client to make an important presentation. Lives are being disrupted. The ripples will play out for some time into the future.
Whatever the trauma caused this morning, it is nothing in the larger scheme of things. Life and death matters are confronting the innocent. Bad fortune haunts everyone equally. Forces out of our control are striking at heart of our values and priorities. It almost seems ok to give in and give up.
Others before us have faced equally daunting events. The best among them have an attitude that seems to remain focused on what is most important. One on trial, shackled and bound, responded to a sarcastic remark perfectly. A writer records the details.
“Paul, still in chains, said, ‘That’s what I’m praying for, whether now or later, and not only you but everyone listening today, to become like me—except, of course, for this prison jewelry!’” (Acts 26.29)
In context, the inconveniences of my life are just that. Today I get to write my history. I hope I will, with a sardonic reference to the delays and changes, act with compassion and hope. There is nothing preventing this chapter from being written except my choices. Everything is within reach.
