A few weeks ago Baxter was upset. His automatic feeder went off at its regular time of 5:00 a.m., and at the first sound of the plate turning to reveal a new compartment, he went running for it. However, soon he realized there was no food. I had forgotten to fill the compartments again after his last meal, so when the new section of the plate moved into place for breakfast, it was empty. Well, Baxter was not amused. He sat in front of the feeding station and cried, yelled and bellowed his displeasure. He didn’t move. He just sat there and fussed. He didn’t come to get me out of bed. He just fussed. He was paralyzed. He fussed and fussed and fussed until I heard him, got out of bed and served him his allotment of kibble.
We sometimes act this way as well. Something doesn’t go as we planned, and we sit and storm about it. We are disappointed in something or someone, and we don’t go to talk to the parties involved. We tell everyone else our woes and frustrations. It’s almost that we want to hear ourselves complain rather than address whatever the problem is. We feel self-righteous in our anger, and we want everyone to know it. We would rather take the offense personally, even if it isn’t personal, so that we can wear it as our badge of indignation at how unfair life is. The problem becomes our soap box where we can proclaim to the world how we are victims of life’s vicissitudes, and it is YOUR fault! We appear foolish, but we don’t care. We get carried away in the wrong of the moment, and nothing can satisfy us.
Then Christ says settle down. When the crowd wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery, when the disciples were indignant at the Zebedees’ unbridled ambition, when the rich young man enthusiastically sought to inherit God’s Kingdom, when the leaders asked if it is lawful to pay taxes to Rome, when the crowd was upset at the death of the young girl, in all these and many other situations described in the gospels, Jesus’ first response was to stop the general upset and calm everyone down. Then He went on to address the issue by healing or teaching another way. Stress interferes with the healing process, and no one can learn something new unless he or she can hear it over the anger of the moment. The shock of our disappointments and new problems can become an obstacle to overcoming them. We get stuck in our first reaction, and so never learn a way around our dilemmas.
When God closes a door, He opens a window, but we won’t see the open window if we remain facing the door. Look around the problems we face. Ask for help in this. Get over being upset, and get on with a plan to solve the problems. This is often how the power of God’s grace comes into our lives, but we have to allow it in.
In less than five minutes after I got up, Baxter got his bowl of kibble for breakfast. All he had to do was to stop crying and complaining and ask. Sometimes it’s that simple for us as well.
