Becoming Content

Get ready for some serious hard thinking here, folks... Yes, it does occasionally happen!

I was walking out to my car after a high quality work out and I walked by a set of parents putting their kids in the car. There had been a birthday party of some sort at the gym that day, so lots of kids had been walking out with balloons in tow. As I walked by the family, I saw the little girl's balloon take off into the sky.

Immediately the little girl started bawling inconsolably. I smiled a little bit because what seems so upsetting to her, isn't something worth crying and screaming over. Quickly I realized that I was smiling at someone's misfortune and her parents were watching me, so I shot them a "oh how sad" look and moved on to my car.

I drove away finding myself to be a bit more pensive about the situation than normal. I began to think that some day that little girl will lose her favorite doll and losing a balloon won't seem nearly as bad. Some day that little girl will move away and lose her friends and that suddenly, the loss of a toy, doesn't seem as difficult. She'll lose friends, she'll lose her first boyfriend, she'll get rejected, and it seems as though each new thing is the hardest thing to deal with until something worse comes along.

I kept thinking about how serene the elderly are, because they realize that a lot of things aren't worth crying over. At least out of sorrow, that is. After all that they've seen and all that they've endured, I can imagine it's hard to phase them with something new. After 70-80 years of loss, rejection, and pain, they seem to be pretty content and pretty appreciative of the times that aren't particularly sucky.

I'm sure there's a moral to live by within this all, but I'm still waiting for the caffeine to kick in. Maybe it's simply to know that as bad as things get at the time, know that God will get you through it and things can always get worse. The Lord won't take you where the Lord won't protect you!