Stupidity...

Late yesterday afternoon I found myself multitasking by emailing some picture files to my father-in-law while setting up my new laptop in the bedroom so that my wife and I could participate in a live stream service from Oklahoma, and running back and forth to the kitchen to make sure that my wife was doing okay.  After hitting the attach button on my desktop to transfer one of the Sea Ranch files to my email, I hurried into the bedroom next door to see how the laptop was doing only to notice in dismay that it wasn’t starting up properly. 

That instantly got me frustrated as the computer isn’t even a week old yet!  Following the utterance of a few complaints, I noticed that my wife had come up behind me and I proceeded to tell her why I was not a happy camper!  At that point my only thought was of all the trouble it was going to be to have to package up the computer and send it back to New Jersey!  But it was the look in my wife’s eyes that silently told me to calm down and trust the Lord.  She didn’t have to say a thing… I knew exactly what she was thinking!  So, what did I do?  I humbled myself under the mighty hand of God (and under the mighty watch of Piper!), so that He could exalt me (by telling me what to do) at the right time, and I cast the care of the situation to Him because He cares for me and for my daily dilemmas.  (I Peter 5:6)

I had gotten myself so worked up that I couldn’t even get the laptop to turn off.  After casting the care to Him I calmed down and instantly remembered another way to turn off the power.  Then when I turned it back on a self diagnostic screen came up and fixed the problem.  At the same time I remembered that I had tried to load a new program the previous night and had to cancel it mid way through its elongated loading time.  I’m sure now, that it was that action that had probably caused the computer to not shut down properly and therefore had affected that afternoon’s start up process.

You see, it all had a logical explanation, but my immediate response of hitting the panic button set all logical reasoning aside.  My imagination went directly to the worse case scenario and it was down hill from there!  Thank God for my wife!  Who says that she can’t communicate?  She knew exactly what I needed and as usual knew exactly how to get that information to me!  Over the years I have become very aware of her sensitivity and accuracy in hearing from the Lord.  I’ve probably learned more from her when it comes to listening to the Lord than through any other experiences or sources.  It is exciting and encouraging to see that her Spiritual side is still active, perceptive and right on target!  I only wish that mine was working yesterday so I could have saved myself from much undue stress and frustration.

I think it just goes to show that the enemy of our souls knows exactly how to push our buttons!  After it was all done, I slapped my hand down on the glass table in our bedroom and began to laugh at my stupidity and the simplicity of the answer.  I also thanked the Lord for His faithfulness and the reality of His promise to never neglect us or abandon us.  (See Joshua 1:5)

What lesson can you take away from my experience of yesterday (besides taking an opportunity to laugh with [or at] me…)?  I guess it would be the railroad track safety logo of STOP, LOOK and LISTEN.  In other words, before you lose your cool and get irritated over nothing, STOP for a moment and remember WHO you are as a believer!  Then take the time to LOOK to God for His direction, and LISTEN and follow what He has to say.  Believe me, it will save you a lot of sweat, undue frustration and rise in your blood pressure!  So, stay cool today by staying in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What and how am I expecting to stay cool today?