A friend, "Grace," sent me a note this week and shared that her grandfather used to say, "Life is not for sissies." I think he was right on the money with that statement; life is sometimes hard to deal with, but look at our choice of options.

Someone said, "You can tell a lot about the size of a person, by the size of the problems that upset him or her." What constitutes a big problem to you? If you had to judge what kind of character you had, or how big a person you were, by how you react to problems, what would you think of yourself?

Let me set this up for you. A couple of weeks ago, we got our natural gas bill from Vectren, our gas provider. To say the least, it was high. In fact, it was almost three times higher than our normal bill. Like the practical person I am, I didn't get upset; I just called and talked to a nice lady about the problem. She assured me it was because they couldn't get in to the house to read the meter and just estimated the bill. She had me go down into the basement and read the meter to her and said they would send me an adjusted bill.

Well, today, true to her word we received the adjusted bill. I actually had to read it a couple of times to make sure I was seeing right, but the bill said that we now owed $102,515.43 for last month's gas usage. No, you didn't read that wrong. It was for one hundred and two thousand, five hundred fifteen dollars and forty three cents.

I am just a little weird, because I just had to laugh! I showed the bill to my wife and she said, "I think we had better move!" I laughed because I knew it had to be a mistake and from experience I knew that it would eventually get straightened out.

How are you handling them?

Melody called Vectren Energy (the gas company) and talked to them this time. The nice lady called up our bill on the screen and said, "Oh, that can't be right." They made a special appointment for someone to come out and read the meter tomorrow and hopefully we will get the whole mess straightened out.

Someone once said, "You can tell a lot about a person's character by how he reacts to adversity." Now, I don't know if this incident fits into adversity — it might have for some folks — and I'm not sure what it says about my character. But, I did handle it.

I know that our world and our society have some problems. I know that each of us is facing some kind of problem in our own life. Sometimes it is a life threatening problem, sometimes it is a comfort problem, and sometimes it is a desire problem. How are you handling them?

Problems are a part of life. "Life is not for sissies." So, Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls." (Matthew 11:28-29) If you want to be able to laugh in the face of adversity, then turn your life over to Jesus and let him help you carry your problems — then you can call the gas company together!

 

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© 2004 Russ Lawson, Messages from the Heart. All rights reserved.

Title: "Life is Not for Sissies"
Author: Russ Lawson
Publication Date: September 01, 2004

The Way of the Heart: Desert Spirituality and Contemporary Ministry by Henri Nouwen The modern classic that interweaves the solitude, silence, and prayer of the fourth and fifth century Egyptian Desert Fathers and Mothers with our contemporary search for an authentic spirituality.

Russ Lawson is a former missionary to Africa and minister in Ohio. He now works with World Christian Literature Outreach and writes a weekly email devotional, Messages from the Heart. For more information about Russ, click here.

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