Perspective

Mondays with Michael 1.6

Forgive me if I have shared this story with some of you before. This happened to me when I was in college (somewhere between 6-10 years ago). I know I shared this story with some people back then, so if you are one of those, I apologize.







I was leaving my house one day getting ready to head up to IPFW and I was struck by the beauty of the sky. Now, I'm not the type of person who normally notices things like that, so it must have been extremely beautiful on this particular day. The sky was a beautiful deep, rich blue, not like the normal light "sky blue" that we are all used to. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. The sun was shining brightly. Everything was perfect! There was an extra bounce in my step as I walked out to the car. This was going to be a great day!







Approximately 1/2 an hour later, I was cruising along on 469 singing along to Rich Mullins. My mind was wandering (it does that a lot) and I wasn't thinking about anything in particular. And then I noticed the sky. The sky was dark and scary. (And to set the stage, I should preface this by saying that I am extremely afraid of storms.) My thought process went something like this: "Oh great, I'm probably going to have to walk to class in the middle of a thunderstorm! I'm gonna get soaked! Who knows, we might even have a tornado! Oh, man, we were supposed to have potluck tonight! Why is there always bad weather on potluck nights?" And then I remembered how beautiful the sky was when I left my house and that made me even more mad!







And then I remembered something else. It was so beautiful when I left and the sun was shining so brightly that I had put my sunglasses on. I took my sunglasses off and instantly it was a beautiful day again.







This made me realize something. It seems that so often in life we are walking around with our sunglasses on. We have a negative attitude about everything. And what if God had decided that it was going to rain that day? Who am I to argue with God? And considering God used a tornado to draw me to Him in repentance, who am I to complain if He decides to send another one?







This experience encouraged me to take off my sunglasses, to embrace all the beauty that God has so richly poured out around us.







And now, I would like to leave you with words of wisdom from two men whom I greatly respect:







Smokey the Bear always says, "Only you can prevent forest fires." Ok, maybe Smokey is only talking about wild fires in California, but lets look at the big picture. "Only you can prevent yourself from having a bad (or good) day."







The other piece of advice I have comes from someone I look up to a lot more than Smokey. My dad always says, "Make it a great day!" When we were younger, getting ready to leave for school or work, he wouldn't tell us to "have a great day," he would tell us to "Make it a great day!" No matter what happens, it is ultimately up to you to decide how to react to the situation. When someone says something to you that really hurts or makes you extremely angry, you still have a choice as to how you respond.







What kind of a day are you going to have today? The choice is yours.







Make it a great Monday!