Bad Day (note NOT the worst day ever!)

 

Yesterday we focused the camera on our life to see the ingredients of what goes into the dish of a good day for you.  Today, we are going to flip the coin and I ask you to describe a bad day recently.  Again, I am not asking for the terrible, horrible, no good, awful, very bad day (Yes, that is the title of a children’s book, thank you for picking up the reference).  

Let’s be clear there are bad days…

then there are bad days…

then there are “Oh my word, make the rollercoaster of life stop because I am woozy, and the whirlwind is too much and just wanna it to stop.”!!  

Try not to go to the extreme here of returning to the most painful day you had in the last week.  Rather, I want you to direct the camera of your mind’s eye to a day when things were just “off” kilter slightly.  You were a bit grumpy.  You yelled at the coffee barista because he said, “Coffee ready for Lest…is there a Lest here?”  I mean seriously, I spelled my name for the cashier!  Remember there is motion to your emotions, there is an energy that is within you and that you set a destination toward and direction.  Sometimes, our emotions, for reasons that are not always logical or linear, set their sights on “Grumpy-ville,” population, “Me, Myself, and I…no one else is welcome right now.  Thank you very much!”  Just as yesterday it wasn’t about a “perfect” day, but a “good” day.  So, today, I want you to think about the day when the scale of life tilted slightly toward just off.  For me, a bad day can be when I start to run late in the morning ~ not that I have a time clock to punch, or I spill coffee on my shirt.  I start to focus on the heaviness of life or that things are not getting “better” according to my agenda and timeline ~ and I really need God to answer for the lack of progress.  Or I read an email, emphasizing a word that the other person did not intend.  Or I let lose my sarcastic side on some unsuspecting person.  This is not end of the world stuff, this is a reminder that I am human size.  This is a reminder that I am not Superman who can leap over buildings in a single bound, solve all the church’s challenges, and come home to make a five-course meal for my wife.  Nope.  Just a featherless biped trying to navigate this world.  When has there been a bad day recently for you ~ what were the ingredients that went into the stew of that day?  May you find yourself even chuckling at bit as you look in the rearview mirror of your life, because blessed is the one who is able to laugh at themselves trusting that grace and love can hold/enfold even the brokenness of a bad day when the coffee was spilled, the traffic was bad, the project took an unexpected turn, and you burnt dinner so you just ate right out of the ice cream container from the freezer ~ because after all dairy builds strong bones.  Blessed be those who can be open to God’s presence in the valley of a bad day.  Amen.