Why Things Suck

 

 

Why Things Suck

Last Friday, I decided I better finish winterizing my home. One of the jobs was to spray this sealer all over a tarp that covered the swamp cooler I installed a few months earlier. The job would take me only a few seconds, so I didn’t bother with my climbing harness and rope. I set up a ladder on the low end of our split level home and climb up on the east face of the roof, which I easily walk up to the apex where the swamp cooler is. After a arrived, I grab the sealant and spray the tarp. As I’m walking around the cooler, I didn’t notice the slick frost covered surface I was standing on. The west slope never has been exposed to the sun’s rays at that point and were covered with a layer of frost. As I take my hand off of the swamp cooler, I suddenly felt myself accelerating westward and downward towards the edge of the roof. With nothing to grab on or scramble to before I fall off the edge, I focus my energy to straighten myself and take the fall upright so I don’t hit my head and hope I can just land on the ground without major incident.

Then I felt myself falling through the air, the wind speeding up by my ears as I accelerate towards the ground. When I land, I heard or maybe felt a loud pop in my left leg. I fall to the ground and curl up into a ball onto the frozen ground.  At first, I try yelling to my wife who is in the house, homeschooling the kids. After 10 or so attempts at getting her attention, I realize that she may not hear me. I look around, there is a faucet about two feet from me and a concrete collar to a sewer cleanout. No neighbors are out. I look down at my leg, and it is bent over at a 45 degree angle in the middle of my shin in a very unnatural manner. That is when I start to notice the pain and the cold. I was only wearing a tee shirt at the time and was laying down on the frozen hard ground, unable to stand up. Normally, I am a fairly athletic guy and able to get around, but this pain is downright debilitating. Just the idea of standing up was overwhelming to me, let alone hopping into the house on my one good leg. As I lay there on the frozen ground, I couldn’t help but think, “man this sucks”.

I suppose all of us have crap happen from time to time. It doesn’t seem right that any God who loves us would allow bad things happen to us.

Opposition

There needs to be an opposition in all things. If all we knew was happiness, then we eventually become “spoiled” or unable to find joy in the good things of life. We see this happen with certain college students, who had privileges most of us only dream about, complain about oppression. Whether if we are born with a silver spoon in our mouths or not, even being born at all and not aborted or sold into slavery is a sign of privilege to many.

I am curious about the other end of the spectrum. If I were born a poor negro child in the armpit of Africa, what would be my perspective of life? I would like to think that I would be able to find satisfaction in much smaller things. Watching some kid goats butt their parents or just having enough food in my belly for once would be real satisfying, even if it isn’t steak and potatoes.

Spiritual growth

We all know this concept holds true with physical exercise, that in order to grow stronger, we must do things to damage our muscles in small ways. This may be by running a mile, lifting weights that strain our natural ability, or stretching.

Spiritually, this may not come as easily. Spiritually, we tend to hold ourselves to lower standard than what we are capable of. This allows ourselves to atrophy in our behavior, similar to taking up a diet of pizza and Cheetos, we may allow ourselves to become complacent with a bad attitude, porn addiction, or any number of sinful behaviors. These stressful situations that randomly arise in life are tests, but they are also opportunities for exercise. A fatty will not be able to cope with a car breakdown in the desert, and a spoiled rich kid will struggle with many stresses in life that just come naturally to most of us.

I have found that trials in life tend to humble us. We become more relatable to those around us. One guy who lived in the last town we lived had no use of his legs. He had been stuck in a wheelchair since he was a teenager. I was the scoutmaster, this guy was the leader of the 11 year olds. Because of this, we commonly worked together in merit badges. One thing I noticed is he had a strong attachment with the boys. Despite his being in a wheelchair, or maybe because of his being in a wheelchair, he was quick to form relationships. I suppose people don’t think of us as threatening if we show some weaknesses.

Come What May and Love it

Yes, it sucks to go through trials. I’m certainly not happy that I have to sit in this chair and be dependent on others for the foreseeable future, but it isn’t the end of the world. I have been able to work with my kids homeschooling, which is a rarity for me. Also, my kids have the opportunity to serve their dad in a meaningful way. Yesterday, I ask my 13 year old daughter to make me a sandwich, she comes back with this total heart attack on a plate, grilled to heavenly standards.

When we have those trials in life, keep in mind that others have been through far worse, and we all can overcome them. Even with Christ’s story of the rich man and Lazarus, if things never seem to work out in this life, they will work out in the eternities.

Conclusion

When you find yourself laying on the frozen ground in excruciating pain with no way to get up on your own, keep in mind that it is never as bad as it could get. I could have just as easily landed on the faucet, impaling myself, and leaving my wife to raise our kids on her own. We are given trials for a reason, and even if we don’t see any good come out of it, good does come and life goes on, even if ours doesn’t.