Boo!
Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor? There I was, backing my patrol car up to turn it around in our driveway and head out to work, and this tiny spider dropped down from the ceiling of the car, right in front of my eye ball! Naturally, it appeared much larger that close to my eye, so I swatted it aside in kung-fu fashion, sharply yelling out loud to nobody in particular, "Dang spider!" Only in yelling that exclamation out in an explosive utterance, did I force myself into a pollen-induced coughing spell that I barely recovered from before calling in to our Dispatcher on the radio, to tell him I was in service for the day. After I made my call on the car radio, I yelled out to the interior of my patrol car, "Dang pollen!"
Then as usual, while driving down the road towards my school, I got to thinking. Before leaving for work, I had just talked to my wife about getting frustrated with some of the bigger changes in life over the years. I'd just finished complaining about having the most annoying year regarding my health, in my entire life of forty-six years. And yet I know these things I sometimes complain about are only temporary. Somehow, some way, I have made it through those 46 years and counting, with the good Lord watching over me because the Bible tells me that he has this entire time.
I'm reminded of the verse about trouble in this world...
John 16:33 says "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
I find humor in the fact that I have fought criminals to the point where I had to use a Taser, I have gone through career and job transitions where I worried about the next paycheck, and I've worried and prayed over sick and suffering family members, yet some of life's little annoyances can occur, and I can have a bigger reaction to that than I do with the big stuff! Does anyone else find it funny, that we have much bigger things going on in this great big world of ours, and yet all of us can still be distracted by the smallest of pet peaves or annoyances? Maybe it's just me.
But then I remember what Christ also said about the birds in the air, and the fact that they don't have to ever worry about storing away food, or reaping a harvest - and God feeds them anyway.
In Matthew 6:26: 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Are you not much more valuable...that's the key, isn't it?
You see, I have hit a valley in my life, where sometimes the harsh realities of this fallen world make me worry; let alone the dang pollen and spiders! I am faced with the reality that I can't do many of the things I used to do. I forget my own teachings to my wife, all those times I have told her not to worry, because God has a plan. But when all of the sudden the worry creeps into your own thoughts, it is easy to forget just how valuable you are, to the Heavenly Father. Maybe I should remember my value to that great Creator, and appreciate the little bit of value something like the pollen provides to our plant kingdom...or the (dare I say it? Argh!) eight-legged arthropods that keep our food chain going every day, from the bugs they eat, to the animals that eat them. Maybe I need to just keep things in perspective, and stay a little more positive, because like Jesus said - He has overcome the world. This stuff is all temporary. Guess I need to make the best of it while I'm here.
Just another one of my random two cents for the day. God bless-
JEF