About Me
- RvL
- I’m from New York but my driver’s license lists that my address is Ohio. My passport has a number of stamps in it. I’m the youngest of six, yet oldest son. I have a number after my initials, but not my name. I like music. I like coffee, beer and bourbon. I am a follower of Jesus. I watch bonus features on DVD’s. For four months each year my wife and I are the same age. “I pledge allegiance to a country without borders, without politicians.” I am an ordained pastor, but don't currently have a church. I’ve eaten raw horse meat. I’m fifteen inches taller than my wife, but I look up to her. I still prefer buying CDs to downloading music. I’m a night owl, who doesn’t mind getting up early. I like to play games. I moved to another country nine days after my wedding. I sometimes quote random lyrics. I believe in miracles. I prefer desktops to laptops. I like listening to audio books. I watch Buffalo Bills and Sabres games. I have five sons. I'm living life mid sentence.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Will It Control Me or Not?
Mother Nature was simply cruel today. This morning, while my wife was gone, I decided to open the doors and windows in our tiny apartment to air the place out. As winter progresses each year, a home starts to become more stale smelling. So today, since I was home alone, I decided to air the place out. It was a beautiful, sunny, spring-like morning, as I aired out the place while cleaning up around the apartment. After Tricia returned home we decided to go to a local restaurant for lunch. As we walked the 10 minutes to the little eatery, we both commented how it was a perfect spring-like day. The sun was shining, the smell of spring was in the air, and it was just one of those great days—especially after a long, cold, dreary winter.
Half way through our lunch I looked out the window and noticed that it was no longer sunny, but instead was snowing. The walk home, which remind you was less than an hour after we walked there, was miserable. No long was it spring-like, sunny and unseasonably warm, but instead it was cold, blustery and miserable. Then this evening we walked the six blocks or so to the little grocery store where we do most of our grocery shopping. The five minute walk, each way, was miserable. The wind was cutting, the kind that seems to go through however many layers of clothing you are wear, and the snow was coming down, covering the freshly frozen ice patches along the street. What appeared to be a perfect day, just six hours earlier, now had turned out miserable.
This got me thinking about how easily I sometimes let my circumstances affect my outlook. Did, in those moments, my life change at all? Did any prospects about my future vanish before my eyes? Have my circumstances ever caused the sun stop ruling the day, or the moon stop ruling the night? And has, or will God ever stop being God? No, no, no and no! But today, over a matter of an hour or so, the weather got colder, and instead of the warm sunshine the cold snow became the mood setter. And, like many of the curveballs I’ve faced over the past 29-plus years, I could have allowed this little thing to become a mood setter. Instead of taking things in stride, like I should—knowing that God is ultimately the one that orders my steps, I could have balked, and allowed it to get me in a bad mood. Today’s change didn’t really affect me, though. Today for some reason, I took the change in stride and went on to have a great day—in spite of the lousy weather. Now, having seen that the day turned out to be great after all, I wonder how many other times in life I could have voluntarily chosen to not allow the little things become mood setters, and how many great days I forfeited as a result of being susceptible to things outside of my control.
Half way through our lunch I looked out the window and noticed that it was no longer sunny, but instead was snowing. The walk home, which remind you was less than an hour after we walked there, was miserable. No long was it spring-like, sunny and unseasonably warm, but instead it was cold, blustery and miserable. Then this evening we walked the six blocks or so to the little grocery store where we do most of our grocery shopping. The five minute walk, each way, was miserable. The wind was cutting, the kind that seems to go through however many layers of clothing you are wear, and the snow was coming down, covering the freshly frozen ice patches along the street. What appeared to be a perfect day, just six hours earlier, now had turned out miserable.
This got me thinking about how easily I sometimes let my circumstances affect my outlook. Did, in those moments, my life change at all? Did any prospects about my future vanish before my eyes? Have my circumstances ever caused the sun stop ruling the day, or the moon stop ruling the night? And has, or will God ever stop being God? No, no, no and no! But today, over a matter of an hour or so, the weather got colder, and instead of the warm sunshine the cold snow became the mood setter. And, like many of the curveballs I’ve faced over the past 29-plus years, I could have allowed this little thing to become a mood setter. Instead of taking things in stride, like I should—knowing that God is ultimately the one that orders my steps, I could have balked, and allowed it to get me in a bad mood. Today’s change didn’t really affect me, though. Today for some reason, I took the change in stride and went on to have a great day—in spite of the lousy weather. Now, having seen that the day turned out to be great after all, I wonder how many other times in life I could have voluntarily chosen to not allow the little things become mood setters, and how many great days I forfeited as a result of being susceptible to things outside of my control.
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