What is crooked cannot be made straight.

King Solomon, Ecclesiastes 1:15, RSV

It is so, it cannot be otherwise,

Plaque over the gateway to an ancient monastery

Of all the things I have wasted my time on, whining about things I could not change is near the top of the list. You know what I am talking about, for you probably know someone like me. Whether it is complaining about someone having cut you off in traffic, or grumbling over that stupid stop light that just seems to know when you are in a hurry, we spend far too much time fretting over the things that cannot be changed and not nearly enough time trying to figure out what we need to do to improve the situation that we find ourselves in.

Take the recent, worldwide flu outbreak. The very people who had developed it (but lied about their deeds) were then the very people who came up with the cure. "Trust us", they said, but many didn't. It was like when one of your children (you know the one - he had jelly all over his face) said that he didn't know who got into that delicious fruit spread, but he would be glad to help you find out who did. There are some situations that people will tell you that they are here to help you, but it is best to decline their generous offer.

The fact is that some things just are and we cannot do anything about them. The car that got totaled is still a loss and the quarter that rolled into the sewer grate is best not recovered. So, what do we do? We move on and make the best of it!

Some people will not like it when you do. There will be some who are very upset when you don't accept their "cure". They will ask you what will happen if you die and they will be even more upset when you tell them that you were planning on going to heaven anyway. The fact is that this world comes with genuine problems that sometimes cannot be solved. The thing to do when this happens is to take care of the consequences of these problems as best we can, try and prevent the ones who are making mischief from doing so again if we can, and then move on.

Christians should never waste their time on wishing that things had never happened. They should instead be concerned with dealing with what they can while all the time pressing onto the goal which Christ has called us heavenward for. It is when I refuse to let go of things that I find myself the most unhappy, but I realize that I must indeed let go and stop complaining if I am ever to be a happy and effective servant for God. 

So, I am trying to do better on those things I cannot change while at the same time trying to concentrate on changing the things I can. Since that is the case, maybe it's best to refuse to take any cures from people I don't think are trustworthy and let those who want the cures to go ahead and take them. I'll try to leave them alone and as politely as I can insist that they do the same when it comes to my business. Then I can move on! I can spank the naughty child with jelly on his face, get a new car to replace the one that was wrecked, and find a new quarter to replace the one I lost.

And for all of those matters of the soul, I am determined to ask God to help me with the things that are simply too big for me to handle on my own. And I am going to try to whine and complain less, and replace those grumblings with words of encouragement to help others who are going through the same thing. After all, there truly are some things so crooked that they cannot be straightened, but our attitude should not be one of them. We are going to heaven some day, by the grace of God. So we need to just do what we can, let Him take care of what He will, and then move on. For those of you who know me, you realize that I've got a ways to go on this type of change, but I'm working on it. And I'm finding that it's a lot more fun to offer praise to God than to complain about His children.