Eternal Answers

There is some news that you never want to hear. Weighty news, news that doesn't have answers but leaves you questioning, "Why?" "Was there something that could have been done?" "Did we just not see it?"

*Sigh.

One of my brothers (a pastor) just found out that a high school student he knew decided life wasn't worth living anymore.
So the student ended it for himself.

In my personal opinion this is maybe the news that makes my heart feel the heaviest. I don't know how else to describe it. It just feels heavy.

One could drive themselves mad with trying to figure out the answers to the questions they have after something like this happens. Everyone wants to know "Why? How did it get this bad? Could we have prevented this? How did they feel so hopeless?"

Maybe this is a heavy reality because you don't ever get answers to those questions. Everything gets left unsaid.

This was on my mind as I was writing my Bible study for the girlies this week. I have decided to take them on a journey through the Old Testament because, as I told them, "I want you to love Jesus more than you love anything else. And Jesus says that the Old Testament is written about him."
You can find me in the camp of people who believe that if you don't know your Old Testament, you don't know God, so I start this little journey with great excitement and also....a great heaviness. There are a lot of really grimey, grodey stories in the Old Testament, and there are a lot of really heart-wrenching questions that get asked. But they have to get told and they have to be asked. Because we have to know how needed a ransom was, and we need to know the answers.

Not surprisingly I am starting right at the beginning: Genesis.

Besides the fact that it comes first, I think the main reason to start at the beginning of Genesis is because I find it interesting, for a number of reasons, but one in particular. Have you ever noticed that the first handful of chapters in Genesis answers the main questions all human beings ask?

Where did I come from?
Why am I here/Do I have a purpose?
Do I have value?
What went wrong?
Is there a standard to follow?
What happens when I die?

I find this interesting not because it tells the answers (for isn't that why we go to the Bible...because it has the only answers that actually work?), but that by telling the answers it is IMPLYING that we are asking the questions.

Right?

I mean, why else would a Writer begin his book with answers unless of course the questions had already been posed?

My first thought is "Why are there already questions?"
Amazingly enough, the Bible has that answer, too.
See, Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has placed eternity into the hearts of mankind. Eternity. We know it, we feel it, and I will say that that is the reason why Genesis starts with answers, because only eternity would ask those questions.

Some of you might not think we experience our own eternity. I think you are wrong. I know I have quoted this same A Severe Mercy quote before, but I have to do it again, it's just so good and I think it makes this point brilliantly. "'Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did, would that fact itself not strongly suggest that they had not always been, or would not always be, purely aquatic creatures?’ Then, if we complain of time and take such joy in the seemingly timeless moment, what does that suggest? It suggests that we have not always been or will not always be purely temporal {mortal} creatures. It suggests that we were created for eternity. Not only are we harried by time, we seem unable, despite a thousand generations, even to get used to it. We are always amazed at it—how fast it goes, how slowly it goes how much of it is gone. Where, we cry, has the time gone? We aren’t adapted to it, not at home in it. If that is so, it may appear as a proof, or at least a powerful suggestion, that eternity exists and is our home."

See, eternity is in our hearts, and that's why we ask those eternal questions. Which, for the record, those ARE eternal questions; because how you answer them is what affects your eternity.

As I was going through Genesis with the girlies, showing them the answers to these questions, I was overwhelmed by how hopeless someone who is suicidal must feel. To literally think that the best thing they could do would be to "end it all." That that is the only way for a relief from the pain.
How does one get to that point, I kept saying over and over again to my self.

When finally it hit me: People who are hopeless have answered eternal questions with temporal answers. They have taken lies as truth. And it can't not alter their view of the world, of themself.

To take it a step further can I not even say that people's issues, the world's problems, etc. exist because people have answered those questions wrongly?
For example, look at just one question: Where did I come from?
What if you answer that by saying, "You are the product of a completely random process in a long string of random processes that have been happening, completely without conscious thoughts, for billions of years."

Or what about answering the "Why am I here?" question with, "Well there was an explosion a really long time ago that got the ball rolling. But now that you ARE here you really should follow your heart--so fulfill whatever purpose is in your heart."

I will not beat this issue with a dead horse; you know what I mean.
Really, then, the question becomes "How is everyone who believes this not totally hopeless?"

On a side note, the irony is just adorable that those people who do not believe in God, who do not believe that He created you, loved you, died for you, etc.---well, they have still answered the questions. Which means they ASKED those questions. ETERNAL questions, mind you. Where do they think the idea even came from?
You ask any atheist on the planet "Where did I come from?" and they will give you an answer.
It's not a good answer, but it's all they've got. Because they had to have an answer to their questions. Which goes to prove this whole "Eternity in your heart" thing all the more true. If human beings just "invented" God as an opium to relieve the pain of society's problems, nobody ever would have asked the question, because Nobody would have been there to prompt the question. Our minds wouldn't go there, our hearts wouldn't wonder.

But they do.

So very strongly.
Strong enough to make all people without excuse (Romans 1). Because we all have asked.

Maybe you are not suicidal. I pray not. (If you are, message me--there IS hope!) But what about all of those other issues you are dealing with, those small areas of hopelessness? Are they caused by you answering eternal questions with temporal answers?

Are you believing that maybe there is no purpose for you?
Do you believe that you are an accident?
Does death scare you?

Are lies your reality?

Wolfies, ask the questions. But know that your eternal heart's questions will only be satisfied by eternal answers.

Accountable.

Putting it mildly will be for me to say, “We got a lot of rain yesterday.”
Yeah.
Therefore, here is where I show you some comparisons.
These pictures were taken Saturday, all with me in a flourish of saying “’Hallelujah,’ it’s spring” (said in a way only a girl who has waited months and months for spring can say)!

Oh yay. Bike rides and cousins.

Perfect little camoflauged Goldfinches.

 

And just because I figured you were curious, this is what "Hallelujah, it's spring!" looks like.

Isn’t spring lovely? Surely God is good.
Then, Sunday morning I woke up and the sky was…orange.
No, not like a gorgeous sunrise-orange, but like when you find a container of food in the back of the fridge and find yourself saying “I-didn’t-know-mold-came-in-that-color” kind of orange.
Yeah. I was a little creeped out considering that it was painting all the light both inside and outside of my house that color.
Yikes.

Anywho. The orange went away but then it got all hot and muggy, which, for those of you who don’t live in summer storm areas should be told, that means you are going to get storms. Big storms.

Herein lies where I show you pictures of what I am talking about.
Case in point #1: When the clouds are not moving in the same direction as the wind, that’s a bad sign.

 

 Then you typically hear sirens going off from towns ten miles away. That means, “Get to the basement, a tornado is coming.” Which, if you are new to this, you get to the basement, but not before opening the door and looking to see the monster coming to rip your house apart.

This is what you look like in thinking that your home might be destroyed. Because really, what else are you going to do? You can’t stop it from happening. It’s either going to, or it’s not. Some things in life are not in your control.

Then, when your house doesn’t get destroyed by a tornado, usually it is now in danger of being destroyed by flash floods.

Caused by rain like this:

 

Um, I think we got like 5 or 6 inches of rain in something less than two hours.
Oh, and do you remember that cute little creek I showed you from Saturday night? It’s not so cute anymore.

 

In July it won’t even be there (because where I live, it doesn’t rain the entire month of July. Like ever. Which makes July miserable, btw.).

Then, the storm will stop and you will be left with really black clouds and really green trees.

 

Finally followed by round two of the whole thing. And then all that wants to come today, too.
And don’t forget the hail!! That comes intermittently, too.

Why I am telling you the anatomy of a storm?

Because while my cousin and I were watching out the windows, all I could think as I looked around and saw lakes that had been fields not two hours before was, “I am so glad I don’t have to direct this water…”

Can you imagine? What if you were the one who had to tell the water where to go? And it was your responsibility to decide which roads you were going to to wash out and which bridges you were going to collapse and which houses would be without power for days.

Have you ever stopped to think that God decides those things?
That might make some of you mad (because, for whatever reason, you are already angry with God about something), having him decide what “calamities” to place where.
But remember, God is good, and what he does is good (Psalm 119:68).

It’s not as if he is a “whatever-will-be-will-be” kind of God. No. He knows why he does things. He has plans those things are accomplishing. He doesn’t ever do something just to do it. There IS a reason—even if that reason isn’t directly YOU.

So back to the question. Can you imagine if you were the one who had to direct all that water and all that weather?

I can’t. Even in my overactive imagination I cannot comprehend what it is like to, really, when it comes down to it, know how to be responsible for big things.
Aren’t you so very glad then, that he only makes you responsible for what he has given you?
And nothing else?
Sometimes we try to take responsibility for that which we are not responsible, but no—that never really goes well, does it?

All this being said, sometimes I think I must be a complete moron because, while I can understand such theological concepts as Substitutionary Atonement, the elementary principles such as “God will provide,” or “God is good,” or “God created everything,” seem to boggle my mind and I can’t get my lifestyle to line up with these truths.

What am I talking about?

The last one.
“God created everything.”
It’s easy to look at storms like last night and beautiful spring evenings like Saturday and go, “Yeah, duh. This didn’t just happen. Only God can do this. Only he is big enough to handle and created and be responsible for this.”
Big things it is easy to credit him with.
But what about all that other stuff? The little day in, day out kind of things. Did he create those, too?

In my Bible study with the little girlies I have been harping on them about accountability, and how they will be held accountable for the things God has given them. Be it talents, gifts, family, jobs, money, looks, houses, properties, intellect, athleticism, poise, influence, presence, whatever—they will be held accountable for how you used it.

Stemming from passages in Luke that I have been devouring and feeling very convicted by, the parable of the shrewd manager (Luke 16), the talk on watchfulness (Luke 12:35-48), the parable of the ten minas (Luke 19:11-27)—{Go read them all}, there is this theme that Jesus says over and over again of “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12:48).

God will hold you accountable for the things he gave you the responsibility of.

Period. You can’t get over that fact in the gospel of Luke (and other places, too, obviously).

A fault of mine has been for the longest time thinking of this in terms of those big things. Some responsibilities are obvious (I especially think of being a parent. Your child’s eternity starts in your hands first—wow, or if you are married what a HUGE responsibility you have to the nurturing, protecting, and caring for of your spouse {i.e. your closest neighbor, your constant ministry}), but what about all those little things that I seem to fail to remember God created?

And I know I am pushing the envelope on this, but, in my defense, I don’t have kids or a husband I am responsible to (I do have sibling and parents and friends, etc. though, which I know I will be called to give an account of my interactions with them), so I have some time to think about the little things.

Which little things?
Well, if I am being honest, I roll around questions in my mind of, Does God have an opinion on the foods I eat? The books I read? The clothes I wear? The music I listen to? The things I create? The gardens I grow? The foods I cook?

Yeah. No joke. I am plagued by thoughts of this. Which, I don’t know how much I recommend thinking these things because it can make you go crazy…and then you start judging every motive you have…and then you start taking three times as long getting ready in the morning. Gag.

But seriously.
He created all things, right? And when I say all things, I mean ALL THINGS. Because, oh that’s right! Colossians says it, too (1:16-17): “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together.”
It say “All things” 4 times in two short verses, fyi. Then, as if once was not enough, it describes what “all things” are. Heaven, earth, visible—don’t forget the invisible!—all powers, kings, authorities.
All things. Oh, and not only were they created BY him, they were created FOR him.

Yeah. So I’m not crazy in thinking these things, I promise myself.

Here in lies the danger for me. I can let these things become a higher law. A law unto itself which I pay more attention to than “Love the Lord your God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Which, for the record, there is no law above that.

But I tend to want to make one.
So, in your thinking about these things, guard against that. Just a note of caution.

I would stop my argument/thought process here, but I am haunted by Luke again. From whom much has been given much will be demanded.

See, I have said it before and I say it again now: I possess things I never asked to possess. Gifts, talents, abilities, personality, blessing, etc. Which, if thought about long and hard can mean but one thing:

I am to use them for God (I Peter 4:10).
My life is not my own. I recognize that. I call Jesus “Lord”and that means something.

I guess what I am getting at is I want to be found as a faithful steward when I will be called to give an account. Does that make sense?

And not just a faithful steward of all those “big things,” but of ALL THINGS. All those things I have that I didn’t ask for. All those things I have that He wants me to use for Him. All those things I see every day but have maybe never thought about before. Until now. Until a rain storm made me realize that I am not responsible for commanding storms, but I am responsible for what I have been given.
Nothing more—and maybe more importantly, nothing less.

Bigger.

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to go with my politician friend to one of those big fancy political dinners.
How fun!

Because you don't just go to these kinds of things in your grubby clothes.

 

Politicians.

I am political to a certain extent. Pretty much because I love this country and care about what happens to it. So I vote. And I read up on the news. And I talk to people about it. And I am sure I have door knocked once or twice in my life. And I put signs up in my yard during election years.

Anywho, the political dinner was fun; I had never been to anything like that before.

I will admit I was taken aback for a little while, sitting in a room full of senators and congressmen and national committee members and media people and who knows who else.
It all seemed so big. There was that moment when I thought, “Oh my gosh, these people are the ones who make the laws. I see them on the tv. They are the ones making the speeches we criticize. What a big life they lead.”
Let’s not call it star-struck, even though it sounds like it. I have had moments of that before and I know what it feels like. No. Celebrities aren’t that big; they are scandal and “glamour” and interviews. But these people, they declare how you live your life to be legal or illegal in the eyes of the state. They are big; they put a label on what you do.

However, that thought didn’t last long. After the dinner a group of us—some politicians included—all got together to talk about the evening and—politics  (amazingly enough J ). Before too long it became obvious that, while some of these were elected officials who spend their life making or “breaking” laws, they were simply normal people. It was the end of a long day; they were tired, they were hungry, everybody really just wanted to go to bed.

Suddenly it all didn’t seem so big anymore. We were a group of people sitting in suits and dresses in a restaurant. The media didn’t follow them here. The podiums and stages and standing ovations were gone. It was as if we were a group of friends out to dinner on a Saturday night. I no longer felt like some special member of the group. I was just me again.

 For most of my life I thought I wanted a “big life.” A big ministry, a big business, a big circle of influence, etc. etc. etc.  I wanted to spur on the masses, change the lives of many.

I think it’s an ok desire.

A little out of touch with reality, but ok.

Because see, here is the reality: the masses are just a lot of individuals gathered together.

Simply put.

When you get right down to it, there is no such thing as “big” in the human realm.

Sometimes I look at people who go on all these big speaking tours, big missions trips, lead these big churches, and I can put it up on a pedestal, all the time forgetting that no matter how “big” the trip—whenever you get where you are going, all you do is meet and help and effect different INDIVIDUALS, who are just like those individuals in your local church. I can fly all over the world to do something great for God, but really, when I get there what do I do? I hang out with the locals for a few weeks.

The global church, the global ministry, whatever, is made up of local churches, local ministries, local people, which are all pretty much like each other. All the people have issues, all the masses need to eat, all the groups need the same truth of the gospel.
Period.

I will never forget this one night a few years back. I had just received this pretty great award for something and there had been interviews and accolades and ceremonies. It was quite the day; I had done what I set out to do. But later that night, I went home. So did everybody else. And as I was getting ready for bed—in the same way I had the night before (the night before “the big day”)—I said to myself, “Wow. I guess I still brush my teeth the same way.”

I knew then that it didn’t matter how many awards and praises I had won, it didn’t matter how many trips I got to take, how many speeches I made, how many people knew my name—I still brushed my teeth the same way. No matter how BIG my life and my days looked like at that time, the most basic things about me—my personal hygiene—didn’t change.

Funny, really. Because the other night in a room full of senators and then afterwards in a restaurant with congressmen and committee members, those people who make all the big decisions and have all the big speeches in front of the camera, all I could think was, “He is going to get to his hotel room tonight and brush his teeth. I guess no ones life is really that big after all…”

When I think back to how I wanted such a big life in those early days, I could look at where I am now and feel like I am not doing much. I lead a small life and small Bible studies and I write a small blog and I have a small business and a small circle of influence.

Yet. There is something in me that says maybe it’s not so small. Because what in the world is “big” anyway?
If the masses are made up of individuals, then it doesn’t matter how small the number of individuals is that I affect—I am still reaching the masses.
Because there is no such thing as “the masses.” People don’t go to heaven in groups. People’s lives don’t get changed all together. Even revival only consists of individuals who have all been individually met by Christ.

For as big as God is he comes on a personal scale. Never more. Never less. He comes for you. He will meet YOUR needs. He doesn’t herd you together with all the others like cattle. Remember those 100 sheep? “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?” (Luke 15:4)

Jesus will always go get the ONE.

In church this weekend we had a missionary from Laos speaking and at the beginning of the service he passed out this:

Do you know what this is? That little dot on my hand?

It’s a mustard seed.
I had no idea how small it was. Not big at all. But look what Jesus says:

“Another parable he put forth to them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches.’” (Matthew 13:31-32)

Isn’t that awesome? Small things (which is all that really exists in the world) are big things.

Which is suddenly when it all made sense and when my heart finally calmed down: Amongst created things there are no big things and there are no big lives, just lots of little seeds and lots of little days planted and lived with faith that the King of the kingdom—the only Big thing in all the universes—will do what he wants with it.

Idiocy.

Before I say anything, let me say this:
God hears your prayers.

I have no idea what’s up in your life, but I do know what goes on in mine. And what goes on in mine, even when it doesn’t look like it, feel like it, seem like it, or pan out like it is this:

 God DOES hear your prayers. He DOES see you. He DOES know your situation.

And he IS doing stuff about it.
Trust me on this one, kids.
No, actually, don’t trust me on it, for who in the world am I to trust? Trust him on it:

“Does he who implanted the ear not hear? Does he who formed the eye not see?”

The answer? Why yes, yes as a matter of fact, he does.
: )

~~~~

Ok, now on to that “anything” I waited to say.

Let me start with this:

I am an idiot.

And throughout this post you will, no doubt, say to yourself “She is an idiot.”

I understand that. I have braced my emotions for it. Rant away.

Here is why this is true:

I think for the most part (imperative word here being MOST) I do a pretty good job of listening to God’s voice and then doing what he says.
For instance, about a month-ish ago I went and helped a friend re-do a rental she owns. As I was packing for the trip God impressed upon my little heart a message to “take a couple tea bags and your cutting brush.”
Now, I thought this was silly. My friend, at this rental, has a right fine coffee maker and I KNOW she has really nice cutting brushes. But, whatever. I have kicked myself in the past for not doing what he says, so I did what he said and took them along.

 

Nothing special, but they can do the job if there is a need.

Remember though, I didn’t think there was a need.

Until!....I woke up the first morning and headed out into the kitchen where my friend already was.

“Crummy buttons,” she said, “I forgot to bring the coffee filters!”
“WHAT?!?!?!” I was thinking to myself. “No coffee filters?? How shall I live doing a remodel with no coffee filters?!?!?!?

Then God did another whisper, “Fortunately you brought that breakfast tea…..”

Whoa.

“You knew there weren’t coffee filters in the house, didn’t you?” I asked him.
If I could read God’s facial expressions I guarantee you there would have been a smile on his face, something along the lines to convey a phrase like this: “Just looking out for my girl….”

Wow.

Now how is that for foresight?!

As if that is not enough! We were downstairs getting all the paint supplies ready when my friend comes out of the mud room and says, “I have no idea where that cutting brush is!”

“Oh…..” I paused. Then I remembered. “Well, I actually brought mine….so I think we will be ok still…”

See, here is the deal: Jesus is omniscient. All-knowing. He knows what is going to happen, and he doesn’t always keep that information to himself. Sometimes, absolutely. I will tell you that MOST of the time God actually keeps his plans really close to the chest. BUT>NOT>ALWAYS.

Which means that when he doesn’t, when he tells you something, we would be idiots to not do what he says.

Now, you are wondering where the part comes in that you get to say, “She is an idiot,” (for how can you not be looking forward to such an endorsement?). Your patience has paid off.

Ok, so fast forward a few weeks (yeah, that’s right. WEEKS. Not even a year had passed, or a month).

One night I was getting ready to go to small group, packing up my purse, when God says, “Take your camera.”
I saw my camera right there on the counter and thought, “Why? It’s nighttime. I am just going there and coming back. I won’t see anything I haven’t seen before.”
Which, let me back up. This is the first instance when you should be saying “She is an idiot,” because this is not the first, second, third, or fourth time he has told me to take my camera and I don’t and I end up eternally regretting that poor decision, so that I don’t instantly have my camera with me all the time shows my severe lack of obedience.
Go ahead, rant away.

That being said, I leave my house, sans camera.

And wouldn’t you know it, the whole time I drive there, the whole time I am there, nothing new happens. Nothing great happens. As I am typing this I can’t remember what I ate, what I was wearing, what we talked about, or even whose house the group met at.
However, what I do remember is what happened on 40 minute drive home. After sunset, when you usually can’t take pictures anyway.

There I was toodling along when it started to drizzle a bit. Then, every once in a while there would be some really pretty cloud lightning.

I am watching the beautiful lightning, Josh Groban BLARING in the car, when little by little the lightning kept coming until after about 10 minutes it was CONSTANT. I mean, here there and everywhere the stuff was glaring before my eyes! And it was so bright that-GET THIS- on the country roads I drive, almost entirely unpopulated by cars, I TURNED MY HEADLIGHTS OFF. It was 9 o’clock at night, but with the lightning being so much I just didn’t need them. The nighttime was as day time it was that bright! UNBELIEVABLE.
The rain then starts to pick up to a pour now, amazingly enough, right along with Josh Groban’s crescendos until, before I knew what was what, I was watching/listening to THE MOST INCREDIBLE CONCERT AND LIGHTSHOW I WILL EVER SEE. Huge bangs and booms and flashes all around me!
In my elation, I reached into purse to grab my camera because I wanted to show all of you what was going on.

 OH NO!!!

Say it with me: I (she) AM (Is) AN IDIOT!!

HE TOLD ME TO BRING MY CAMERA AND I SAID THERE WAS GOING TO BE NOTHING NEW TO SEE!!!!!!!

But that’s not all. No, no.

To add insult to my injury, now guess what happens…

HAIL.

Oh yeah.

Like, a white-out of hail. The roads, the grounds, the ditches, COVERED in hail. So much hail I couldn’t see straight.
Pouring rain, outrageous lightning, and blankets of hail.
At one point I had to stop my car because I thought I was driving sideways, I couldn’t tell the road apart from the ditches from the fields.
If it had not been for the lightning, coming from above the source of hail, I would not have been able to see anything. My headlights had been rendered powerless.

Do you know how when you drive through a big puddle in the road that the water splashes up alongside your car and leads the way in front of it? Yeah, only this time it was waves of hail. INCHES OF HAIL.

God said to me at one point, “You think this is nuts? Wait until you see the end of the world….” (Which, btw, 3 days later I came across this verse: “For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes from one end to the other.” {Luke 17:24}—I KNEW IT!)

Lights like the end of the world. And no camera.

I could be lying to you all about this.

But I am not!

I promise you I am not!
A liar I am not, an idiot, however, I am.

Oh, Wolfies. I wish you could have seen it.
But you can’t.

So, what’s the good news?

Well. There isn’t any.
I didn’t have my camera.
I didn’t listen to God’s voice.
Take a lesson from me. Next time God tells you to do something, don’t be an idiot.

Hail.

Hail two days later.

Mayday.

Mayday, Mayday, Mayday!!!

No no, I don’t mean May Day, as in where you take flower baskets to your neighbors.

I mean MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY as in “The Ship Is Sinking.”

 

My little landscaping project. Can't you tell?

I am sure these little migrators have absolutely no idea what's going on.

That’s right, babies.

Snow. It just keeps snowing here.
The worst part, though, is that two days ago it was 80 degrees out and I was doing a photo shoot. Yes. OUTSIDE. I had a sleeveless dress on.

But now, well.....

Do you see this fort?

Today

 

Oh Look, it’s the same fort.

Tuesday

Just to give you a point of reference.

And I know some of you think this is silly, but I am constantly having to say to myself this morning “In your anger do not sin.”

No joke.
Never ending snow, I am telling myself, is not a good enough reason to get angry. I will not be caught in its grips.

With that in mind then, I have Christmas music on. Because it celebrates snow and what else am I going to do? Sit and sulk? My day will not be ruined; this is not the mountain to die on. I will revel in the irony.

Happy May 2^nd, Wolfies. AND HAPPY NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER. Go pray. We need it.