Not much bugs us more than a friend's relentless expression of misery....unless it would be our own relentless misery. Not many, but a few, seem to enjoy (as if they thrive) being unhappy. I'm sure you may have just now seen their faces flash across your memory screen.
What these don't understand is that each of us may select the misery meter at any given moment; yet we choose not to. It isn't a question of whether all humans have excuses to fret. The question is, How shall we choose to handle these nagging menaces of the mind? The good news is that we do have options.
I like Virginia Satir's observation. Most people prefer the certainty of misery to the misery of uncertainty. Uncertainty leaves us with questions while we prefer to live in a certainty world. We want things fixed, figured out, and nailed down; so says Sue Monk Kidd. These two authors indicate that fretters would prefer to be miserable than to encounter the struggle (misery) of learning what might be a possible solution.
How one is to win over this burdening process is to enjoy the travels of not knowing. Think about entering first grade while worrying as to how being a graduating senior would look. If one chooses to be obsessed with burden over such a matter, basically the next twelve years would be miserable. Each of us would advise the six-year old to enjoy first grade. Life will unfold.
The way to win over misery is to let life unfold. It will anyway, so why not enjoy the ride with the windows rolled down and the wind blowing in our faces?
In Matthew 6, Jesus urges us to take it a day at a time. Therefore, do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Anxiety is cured by the Son of God. An anxious Christian is an oxymoron; one who lives in constant inward conflict.
We can count on troubles. Each day has enough troubles of its own. And, what we can just as certainly count on is that God has us covered. Covered to where there will be no injury? No. Look at His own Son upon the cross. Yet, God has the better way waiting for each circumstance; note His Son arising from the grave.
Troubles aren't eliminated just because one has faith. They simply serve to make us vulnerable to a bigger and brighter picture of what can and will be! No one is exempt from the temptations of misery. The winners are those who opt for the newness of life day by day.
A problem with those who live in self-bemoaning misery is that they live as in the grave before they get there. The solution is to live in those very moments as if we are resurrected into new life now....because it is already here!
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