Forgiving All This Rabid Incompetence

"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."   ... Ephesians 4:32

Uh-oh! Another re-run post. But really, it's been a long day and it's not even over yet. (Don't ask.) So here you go, a post--and a lesson-- from out at the farm.


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So yesterday I walked out to our newspaper box and found no newspaper. Sigh. I came inside and complained to Tom, then he called the newspaper office to tell them our paper hadn't arrived (9:00 a.m. by now). The guy told him he wasn't sure if we would get one that day, and if we didn't, we'd receive a credit.

So we pretty much wrote it off for the day. And complained to each other, once again, about the incompetence of Today's Society and how you can't count on anyone to do the job right anymore,yada, yada. You know. You've probably heard that refrain at your house a time or two, as well.

Alas. Just before noon I went to check the mail and saw the newspaper had arrived! So I carried it inside, but as I reached the door, I thought, "Hmm... that headline looks familiar."

Turns out, it was a copy of last Wednesday's newspaper. Good grief.

So Tom and I sang that "Is The Whole World Incompetent?" song yet again.

And then I began to laugh. And laugh. Suddenly I got this picture in my mind of some 1930's sarcastic newspaper man, with a green head visor, speaking into the phone. "Hey Kid. You forgot to deliver the paper to the L_____'s. So get over there."

Then the kid says, "But I ran out of today's issue."

"Aww, just take 'em any old issue. They'll never know the difference."

Heh. I told that to Tom and he laughed too. (Yet he still wanted to call and complain.)

But you know? This is a prime example that Life is just too darn short to stay mad.

It's not worth the churning stomach and frayed nerves to stay angry at strangers. Or friends. It's not worth the internal poison to remain mad at our spouse or our kids or our neighbor. Or the FDA or politicians or the weather.

It's just not worth the negative energy eating away at our emotions and making us sick. 

Sooner or later all that stuff catches up to us on the inside and the outside--anger shows up on ones face, you know. Most likely we've all met someone with anger crevices dug deep into their face.

And oh dear... may you never see that person staring back at you from a mirror.






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In case you missed it, here are updated photos of our new fireplace.

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Oh, and I saw this idea over at Facebook. Is it clever or what?

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