Sometimes, I wonder why I even try to, well, try. When I was working at a church in Knoxville, TN, our church was located one block from a Texaco Gas station with a mini-mart. One afternoon, our deacon chairman happened to be doing some work at the church and told us he was walking to the Texaco to get a snack. Just a few minutes after he left, it started raining. Feeling bad, I hopped in my car and drove to the station to pick him up so he wouldn’t get caught in the rain. I got there as he was checking out, and he declined the offer, having thought to bring an umbrella. So, I got in the car to leave. As I was backing up (Since someone else had illegally parked in front of me), I didn’t notice the concrete post that was about two feet tall just behind the right side of my car. I turned the wheel in order to get out, and cracked my bumper on the post. The chairman came out and saw what happened, and so I offered him a ride one more time. Can you believe that he still turned me down?
At another point in my life, I was helping one of the dads at my church coach his daughter’s U8 soccer team. As practice finished one day, we were kicking goals while waiting on parents to pick up their kids. The girls asked if I could kick it from midfield. Being a U8 field must have made me forget that I’m really not that good, because I tried. As soon as I committed to kick the ball and had my leg in the forward motion, one girl saw her dad and took off across the field to get to him. I knew it was going to happen before it did. SMACK! The ball hit her square in the gut and knocked her over. Fortunately, she just got the wind knocked out of her, but I was devastated, and felt horrible for the rest of the season!
At another point in my life, I was helping one of the dads at my church coach his daughter’s U8 soccer team. As practice finished one day, we were kicking goals while waiting on parents to pick up their kids. The girls asked if I could kick it from midfield. Being a U8 field must have made me forget that I’m really not that good, because I tried. As soon as I committed to kick the ball and had my leg in the forward motion, one girl saw her dad and took off across the field to get to him. I knew it was going to happen before it did. SMACK! The ball hit her square in the gut and knocked her over. Fortunately, she just got the wind knocked out of her, but I was devastated, and felt horrible for the rest of the season!
Recently, we finally bought a house, and the both of the bathrooms needed updated light fixtures. I managed to replace the one in our boys’ bathroom in just a manner of about ten minutes, with NO problems. Unfortunately, when I got to the Master bathroom, it didn’t work out so well. After a good 6 or 7 hours of wiring, flipping switches, re-wiring, throwing shoes and other reachable items, and re-wiring yet again, I got desperate and called some friends. Luckily one of our good church friends brought over a voltage meter. Turns out, the wiring for the bathroom was backwards, and I wouldn’t have known about it without the meter. It’s always the simple things…
After these events, and many others like them, it should have come as no surprise when we had a leak in our sink this past week. We discovered it on Thanksgiving day, and I promised not to even attempt until Saturday when the family was gone. Without going into too many details, let’s just say that I visited Home Depot twice, and Taylor Do-It Center once. I fixed the leak in the original spot, but created a new one. On my second trip to Home Depot, the third trip of the day, I was pulling in and saw a car in a close spot pulling out. I stopped to let that car out, and they, in turn, waited for the people walking to get by before backing up. I waited just about a minute and a half, and as I finally had a clear shot, I pulled forward in time to see that a white convertible Mustang with Royal blue racing stripes had pulled through the other head-to-head spot, and pulled into the spot for which I had been waiting.
I pulled forward enough to see who was there, and two college-aged girls were in the front seats. I saw the driver look at me, and I kind of made some motions with my hands while mouthing the words, “Come on! I was waiting for that one!” She looked back at me and shrugged her shoulders and gave a goofy grin, which I took to mean, “Too bad sucka! You lose and I Win!” All she had to do was put it in reverse and back up. But, nope, she and her friend got out laughing (at me, I’m sure) and walked into the store. I eventually found another spot, but I was fuming after the day I’d had. By the way, I had one of my sons in the car with me. Which is good, because at this point, I might have lost my cool completely if I’d been alone.
Finally parked, I reached up to grab the interior door handle, and two things happened when I pulled it. The first was that the door opened. How nice and predictable in my day of madness. The second thing to occur was that the door-handle snapped and bent awkwardly backwards, dangling by a small thread of plastic. Just what I wanted! A “Dukes of Hazzard” style Camry where I had to either climb in the window, or roll the thing down, reach outside and pull the handle out there to get the door opened. It was NOT the greatest day of achievement for me.
HOWEVER, in the midst of all the failure and frustration, my wife mentioned something to me. She pointed out that in spite of all the bad luck and irritation I seemed to have heaped on me, I kept it together pretty well. I have been known to allow my frustration to get the best of me from time to time. I have actually thrown things across the room and pounded on walls as if they were the very culprits causing all my trouble. But this time, before I even started, I decided that no matter what, I was NOT going to repeat past tirades. The words from my wife reminded me that I didn’t get to that point. There was one cabinet door that got a one-time smack, but other than that, I did okay, and I felt pretty good about it.
There are not a lot of deeply spiritual lessons here. I’m sure there are Pages of teachable moments that my moments of “trying to help” create, but on this occasion, I simply say this: Sometimes, when you think about your tendency to blow it, and you decide ahead of time that this time you will keep it together, you set your attitude at a higher point than before, and it can stay there. Our emotions do not control us—we choose to give in. Maybe next time I’m facing a potentially frustrating situation, I’ll remember this and somehow add some length to my otherwise short fuse.
After these events, and many others like them, it should have come as no surprise when we had a leak in our sink this past week. We discovered it on Thanksgiving day, and I promised not to even attempt until Saturday when the family was gone. Without going into too many details, let’s just say that I visited Home Depot twice, and Taylor Do-It Center once. I fixed the leak in the original spot, but created a new one. On my second trip to Home Depot, the third trip of the day, I was pulling in and saw a car in a close spot pulling out. I stopped to let that car out, and they, in turn, waited for the people walking to get by before backing up. I waited just about a minute and a half, and as I finally had a clear shot, I pulled forward in time to see that a white convertible Mustang with Royal blue racing stripes had pulled through the other head-to-head spot, and pulled into the spot for which I had been waiting.
I pulled forward enough to see who was there, and two college-aged girls were in the front seats. I saw the driver look at me, and I kind of made some motions with my hands while mouthing the words, “Come on! I was waiting for that one!” She looked back at me and shrugged her shoulders and gave a goofy grin, which I took to mean, “Too bad sucka! You lose and I Win!” All she had to do was put it in reverse and back up. But, nope, she and her friend got out laughing (at me, I’m sure) and walked into the store. I eventually found another spot, but I was fuming after the day I’d had. By the way, I had one of my sons in the car with me. Which is good, because at this point, I might have lost my cool completely if I’d been alone.
Finally parked, I reached up to grab the interior door handle, and two things happened when I pulled it. The first was that the door opened. How nice and predictable in my day of madness. The second thing to occur was that the door-handle snapped and bent awkwardly backwards, dangling by a small thread of plastic. Just what I wanted! A “Dukes of Hazzard” style Camry where I had to either climb in the window, or roll the thing down, reach outside and pull the handle out there to get the door opened. It was NOT the greatest day of achievement for me.
HOWEVER, in the midst of all the failure and frustration, my wife mentioned something to me. She pointed out that in spite of all the bad luck and irritation I seemed to have heaped on me, I kept it together pretty well. I have been known to allow my frustration to get the best of me from time to time. I have actually thrown things across the room and pounded on walls as if they were the very culprits causing all my trouble. But this time, before I even started, I decided that no matter what, I was NOT going to repeat past tirades. The words from my wife reminded me that I didn’t get to that point. There was one cabinet door that got a one-time smack, but other than that, I did okay, and I felt pretty good about it.
There are not a lot of deeply spiritual lessons here. I’m sure there are Pages of teachable moments that my moments of “trying to help” create, but on this occasion, I simply say this: Sometimes, when you think about your tendency to blow it, and you decide ahead of time that this time you will keep it together, you set your attitude at a higher point than before, and it can stay there. Our emotions do not control us—we choose to give in. Maybe next time I’m facing a potentially frustrating situation, I’ll remember this and somehow add some length to my otherwise short fuse.
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