I don’t pay much attention to politics. When I do, I just end up getting frustrated and stressed. My tolerance for chaos has always been quite low. I’m not sure why. Maybe it has to do with being raised by older parents. My mother was 40 when I was born, and my father was 53. My brothers and sisters were mostly grown and gone. My closest brother is 5 years older than me, but we didn’t always live together. My sister is 14 years older than me, and my oldest brother is 18 years older; I felt more like an only child.
Growing up in a small agricultural town, my world and worldview were pretty small. When I grew up and got out into the world, I tried having a larger worldview. I was, after all, in the Air Force. I had a need to know what was going on not only in the country, but in the world. I was almost sent to Turkey during the Desert Shield Operation. I had orders to go there for a year, but I was already in the process of getting discharged. My commander made the decision to not pull me back, so I did not have to go. It was a very scary time for me. We had already avoided military conflict in Panama, and now Iraq invaded Kuwait with the intent to overthrow the Kuwaiti government and make the country part of Iraq, to which our government responded by sending troops over to Saudi Arabia to help protect that country from Iraq. My commander had every right to stop my honorable discharge, but I believe that is was by the grace of God that I was not required to stay.
Trying to stay current with everything going on created a lot of angst and unsettled feelings. There were so many things that may or may not have a direct effect on me that I had to learn to focus only on what was within my ability to influence or change. That type of thinking is what got me through the last 25 years. But today, it’s not quite enough.
This year seems to hold a tremendous amount of potential for big and amazing things to happen. I have a strong sense that it is up to me to be ready, willing, and able for these amazing things. My life is busier than it has ever been. There are so many things I want to accomplish this year, and all the resources of time, money, and energy feel strained. There are days when I really feel discouraged. Thankfully, I have days in which my energy towards these goals are very high. The highs and lows pretty well balance out to keep things on an even keel. But that’s not where the momentum of progress comes from. The highs have to outweigh the lows.
This past week had nothing of particular interest happen, but some subtle things caught my attention. While at work as an electronic technician on Wednesday, an unusual series of events took place. Some of the equipment I maintain is located outside, literally in a field. I had scheduled to take a system offline to do some preventative maintenance on it. I had scheduled just enough time to check the system thoroughly, with little extra time added on for complications.
As I got started checking the equipment, I realized that I needed to move my vehicle closer so I could plug in my maintenance laptop. In the process of moving the vehicle, I ran over a bolt sticking up out of the concrete. It punctured my tire, of course. As I am looking at my tire going flat, miles from any help, I thought about how this would impact my ability to finish checking the equipment; another part of the system I was working on was in another location, requiring me to drive to there to finish. Did I have a spare tire? Yes. Was it easy to get to? No. Did I have time to change the tire myself? No. Did I have coworkers that could help me? Very likely one of them had time to help. Was this a huge embarrassment to admit that I was careless and now in a bind? Oh, yes.
I didn’t have time to worry too much about any of that. I called my coordinator and explained everything. He graciously sent someone to help so that I could keep working. That kind of teamwork is not unusual for my shop, however, due to the fact that everything worked out so well, there was really nothing to stress about. As a matter of fact, there were several instances that day in which other people stepped up to help me when unplanned problems popped up. Before the day was over, I had a sense of how well everything worked out in spite of the fact that I really never had time to stress about the problems. I had an almost surreal feeling that I was just an observer in the events of the day, instead of a participant. Emotions were not really tied to anything that had happened. Gratitude was the strongest emotion that I felt. At the end of the day, the state of my world was just fine because I accepted reality without piling worry on top of anything that was not the way I wanted it.
Some may look at my life and say that the state of my world is gloomy and uncertain. Others may say that the state of my world is above average and amazing. I say that my life is truly blessed and as long as I realize that no matter what is going on in my world, God has my back, I can say that the state of my world is just fine. It may not be ideal, but nothing stays the same for very long. And as long as I am willing to view challenges as an opportunity for positive changes, and invest my energy in moving forward I know that wonderful opportunities are going to come my way. I just have to be willing and able to see them.
Phillians 4:6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
