All These Things Are Against Me!

There is something invigorating about being out in the garden on a cool foggy morning.  I mentioned yesterday about the late season hot spell that we had been experiencing.   Well, last night as I went out with the dog so that she could do her thing before bedtime, I stood on the patio and stared up at the sky.  I broke out into a big smile when I noticed the fog layer coming in over the nearby mountain ridge.  That event was the sure sign that the heat was over and that we would rapidly be returning to our normal fall weather patterns.  This morning when I peeked out the blinds I was greeted by a grayish-white sky and cooler temperatures.

So, after breakfast as I went out to water a few of the vegetables, I could not contain myself from puttering around the garden.  I was pretty tired when I originally got up, but quickly gained energy as I cleaned out any spent flowers and dying debris from our four Geraniums plants.  I always have to smile when I work around the Geraniums.  When I worked in the Garden Department at The Home Depot in Oklahoma, we literally received truckloads of Geraniums throughout the spring and summer months.  Those shipments would always cause me to chuckle as I recalled the ease of which my Mom would cultivate shoots from her Geraniums, and therefore we always had an abundance of them for free.  They have to be one of the easiest plants to start and grow!  The main difference between here and Oklahoma though, is the extreme cold winters there, compared to our temperate winter months.

I can remember one spring when we had received our first few truckloads of summer color plants.  We were absolutely jammed with customers that weekend as everyone wanted to add some life and color to their drab looking dormant yards.  Later on that next week we had a late season snow storm blow in that killed all the summer plants left at the store, as well as in everyone’s newly planted gardens!  A co-worker and myself spend one night as the storm was coming in, trying in vain to cover up the long rows of plants at the entrance to the department.  It was actually kind of funny as we raced back and forth attempting to get the plastic sheeting to stay down as the 40-50 mph winds came blowing in!  But by the following weekend we received another shipment and all the customers came back to give their gardens a second chance!

Our customer’s resilience is like the sermon we heard last night.  In Genesis chapter 42 we read about a time when the Patriarch of our faith Jacob was feeling down and out.  He thought that he had lost his favorite son Joseph, and had another son being held captive in Egypt as ransom for the Pharaoh’s second in command’s request to have the only other son of his beloved wife Rachel also brought to Egypt.  Jacob was beside himself and was ready to throw in the towel as he proclaimed, “All these things are against me.”  (Genesis 42:36 NKJV)

Have you ever been there?  I know that I have!  The Apostle Paul also faced numerous horrendous situations, but he had a different attitude about him.  In the midst of his trials and tribulations he stated: “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”  (Romans 8:37 NKJV)  There is another translation that says, “In all these things Jesus… has established us as invincible champions through His provision for us!”  Now that’s an attitude to cop!  The Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl made the statement that “The last of human freedoms is the ability to choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances.”

The way that you look at the problems in life is up to you!  Someone said that “You can be up beat, or beat up!”  Paul said that he was more than a conqueror in the face of trouble.  It would seem that there was trouble all about, but he didn’t let the trouble have him!  The way that Paul could stay cool, and it will work for us as well, is that he kept his focus on God’s love and God’s care for him.  You see, God’s provision is abundantly more than enough!

Jacob had a history of blessings from God throughout his life, but when problems hit close to home he forgot about God’s love and His care, and His provision.  I’m sure that we all have those areas in our lives that are extremely important to us, those very-close-to-our-heart areas like family where it is tough to deal with when difficulties strike there.  That’s what happened to Jacob and he very nearly fell apart!  But that doesn’t have to happen to you or me.  The choice is up to us and the key is dwelling on God’s love, His care and His provision for us… even in the toughest and seemingly most impossible situations!  Don’t allow fear and/or hopeless thoughts to rob you of your attitude!  Stay in charge of your attitude and allow God to do “exceedingly, abundantly above all” for you! (Ephesians 3:20 NKJV)

Have a terrific day!  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”