A couple of years ago, my cat was violently playing with her toy and she crashed into the leg of my telescope. I heard a terrible crash and the noise of a very fearful cat running to the other end of the house. I set the telescope back up and tried to console the cat.
A month or two later, I tried to use the telescope and found that a black circle was in the middle of the image. I thought that one of the mirrors had moved in the crash. Nothing seemed cracked or broken, but I didn’t know how to fix the telescope. I considered throwing it in the trash. It had been gathering dust for the last two years, making me grumpy when I looked at it, reminding me that it didn’t work.
My brother recently came for a visit, so I asked him if he could look at it to see if it was fixable. He texted me:
“Checked your telescope. It is fixed. There was something in the way. Removed cover of the lens and found this inside . . . “
You are probably laughing, but I can explain. I have a friend who often comes to my house on Valentine’s Day and hides treats around my house. Usually, I find them quickly. And, who checks to make sure there isn’t candy sitting on the rim of the lens when you take off the lens cap? Lesson learned.
I almost trashed the valuable telescope because of a piece of candy! I thought the worst – that it was not worth fixing.
Have you ever responded this way to someone in your life? When people have hurt or offended us, we quickly react in anger. We refuse to forgive, understand, or even talk with them. We think the worst about them and decide that the friendship is not worth saving, so we throw them out like trash. We don’t think about asking God what He wants. We think He’s on our side and expect Him to back us up.
It takes courage to step back and think the best (instead of the worst) about a hard situation. It takes strength and patience to work at a solution and not just give up. It takes humility to ask God how He wants us to respond. I need to learn to think rightly about circumstances rather than think the worst. Do you?
If we do, God may send us a sweet surprise.
“I therefore . . . urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love” Ephesians 4:1-2.
