Higher temperatures where I live have made sleep difficult, and as a result I’ve been generally more fatigued than usual. Earlier this month I drove home from work in a car that had been sitting in the sun for several hours, to join my family in an outdoor grill dinner and firepit. While the circumstances weren’t ideal, in hindsight I should have been more appreciative of the blessing such an opportunity was, as time with my family always should be. As it was, I allowed my exhaustion to influence my demeanor and expressed frustration in my discomfort. I can only hope I didn’t impact the others’ experience by a significant degree.
As time went on, I became better acclimated to out little celebration and was able to engage in a more positive manner. My mother noted the plants needed to be watered, and set to remedying the need; when she was done, I took the opportunity to make a pun about the hose settings by pretending to threaten her with a jet, only to “mist.” My sister, however, judged the humidity oppressive enough to warrant intentional reception thereof, and made supplication that it should be delivered as such. I jokingly objected that this would invalidate the pun, and we had a bit of a back-and-forth over the hose.
While we were cleaning up, I happened to notice an unusual bird song from a nearby telephone pole. The bird in question seemed to be rapidly varying his patterns, and while I felt I recognized many of them, I could not recall hearing such a striking delivery before. My siblings and I continued to listen to the bird for some time, wondering what kind of bird he was as he cycled through dozens of different calls. The bird’s elevated position and the position of the evening sun made it difficult for us to get a clear sighting of the creature, but with later cross referencing we determined him to be a Mockingbird; these avian impersonators were gifted of God to imitate the calls of other birds, and seemingly took pleasure in showing off their collected repertoire from time to time.
In spite of relatively mundane struggles in life, I’ve found there are always things to appreciate going on around me. Granted, my life is not nearly so difficult as that of many other people around the world; it would behoove me to be thankful even without such reminders. However, by virtue of knowing the God from whom all such blessings flow, I’m also confident that the greatest sufferings are yet allocated providential alleviation equal to their magnitude; Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produced endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produced hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:3-5) May God continue to impress this upon me, that I may be less prone to complaint and more inclined to thanksgiving and praise!
Be joyful. TTT