Good morning,
I pray the day finds you well.
Life is what happens when you are busy planning life.
I was walking around one of the local lakes this morning after my workout. I'm retired, and I have time to walk around a lake after a workout.
Anyway, I was walking around the lake, pondering. Or was I pondering as I walked around a lake? Maybe, I will have to ponder where pondering goes in the sentence. Pondering can be quite dangerous, as it can lead to rabbit holes, and I end up in an Alice in Wonderland thought exercise.
As I walked, I started pondering the Book of Job.
Actually, the pondering started around my recent dermatology episode. I have had a number of well-wishers express concern and sympathy for the possibility of what might happen, or not. I appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers, but I was not pondering that as I walked around a lake.
I was pondering Job, how life happens when you are busy planning life.
You see, Job was busy planning life, building wealth, and security for his family. He seemed to be a guy who worried a lot. When his kids would have a party, he would pray to God for protection and forgiveness of the things that they might have done, things that Job didn't even know that they would have done, but just to cover his bases, he would perform a sacrifice for purification. Everything seemed to be going along just fine when all of a sudden, a series of calamities happened.
- Some people stole all the oxen and donkeys, and killed all the servants but one so he could tell Job what happened.
- Then fire came down from the sky and killed all the sheep and the servants who were watching them; only one escaped to tell Job.
- Then some other people came and stole all his camels and put those servants to death, all but one, so he could tell Job.
- Then all his children were killed by a huge wind.
Job was having a very bad day, but wai,t there is more.
- Sometime in the near future, all the book said is "another day." Job is afflicted with sores all over his body.
- His wife looks at him and says, "Why don't you curse God and die?"
Here, Job was planning life one day, and within a few days, everything was gone. And he was covered with sores.
I was pondering this while I walked.
I was pondering this when I stopped to take a drink of water.
I was pondering this while I almost got run over by a mountain bike (A nice on your left would have been nice, just sayin).
As I walked, I began recounting my life and how the trajectory looked more like a tree with many branches than a single straight line. If you want to have a good picture of a straight line, drive either I-70 in Kansas or I-80 in Nebraska. You can literally drive through the entire state without going through a curve. Now that is a straight line.
I told you pondering can be dangerous. I ended up back in Kansas for a moment.
Oh yes, the tree branch thing.
Here are some branches.
My sister had called me from a bar, and I went to meet her. Only to be confronted by some guy in uniform who wanted to beat me up, and I ended up in the Navy. I didn't see that one coming.
Or the time I was having a very nice day, and then went to the hospital for some tests, only to be admitted and wake up the next morning after emergency surgery to see the word "Lymphoma" on my wall chart. I thought to myself, that is a very big word, and it doesn't sound good. It was both a very big word and it wasn't good. I didn't see that one coming either.
Life is what happens when you are busy planning life.
When I look at life and the fact that if you live long enough, things go wrong, your warranty runs out, parts break, things go wrong.
When I look at my life, and the things that have happened, like a replaced shoulder, a replaced ankle, both of which come in handy at the airport. I always get patted down by TSA. If they do a really good job, I'll tip them a buck. One time, they did such an exceptional job, I asked if I could go through the line again!
What if I lose an eye? Yes, that would suck, but my kids are alive, my wife loves me, I don't have sores all over my body. I will still be able to walk around a lake and ponder things.
In the end, it is a matter of perspective.
So there.
Something to ponder.
Blessings,
Roger