This morning, we received two phone calls from two different relatives. One was my dad's fifty-something-year-old sister. She called us up to report that she had just been in a bad auto accident, and that the whole front of her car was wrecked. "It was my fault," she said, "I was absent-minded." My dad had barely said goodbye when the phone rang again--this time it was a call from my mom's older sister. She too, was the bearer of bad news. She told us why our OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker) cousin had stopped communicating with us. Sadly, she informed us that our cousin was having an affair with a nurse in Saudi Arabia, and that he was leaving his wife and son in the Philippines for good. My mom sighed as she hung up. Ouch. Bad news for breakfast. What a morning to wake up to! In addition, those two main courses had bitter toppings. I called my sister, only to find out she had a flu. Then my dad talked to me about a tight budget and a problem with the check at the bank. I was pondering on the stressful situation while on my way to work, when suddenly, the tricycle I was riding came to a dead halt. "You have to transfer," the driver said to me with an apologetic smile, "We've run out of gas."
I honestly tried to smile back but ended up saying "AYAYAY!" instead. That made me ten minutes late for work.
It would have been a depressing day for me, had I not seen a wonderful reminder. I was browsing through the internet during my free time, when I saw a sermon by C.H. Spurgeon, which talked about the mind's contribution to anxiety. He quoted a verse saying "Neither be ye of doubtful mind." (Luke 12:29)
He went on to explain that:
"happiness lies more in the mind than it does in the circumstances in which any individual is found, and the man within has far more to do with his own joy or sorrow than anything outside of him has".
We can never completely change the circumstances around us, but we can change how we think and feel about what is happening. Our happiness does not depend on what happens to us, but on how we perceive these things.
He also said:
"It matters little what is outside you, if all is right within. Have that little bird in your bosom that sings sweetly of the love of God; wear the flower called heart's-ease in your button-hole; and you may go merrily through a perfect wilderness of trouble and a desert of care. A hurricane of afflictions may beat about you, yet you shall be a blessed man, for all the elements of blessedness are within your own heart. God has given them to you, and the devil himself cannot take them away."
I love how God uses these wonderful quotes to remind me of His goodness. Bad things happen all the time. We hear of bad tidings every where we go. It's normal to be sad, but not good to wallow in sorrow. I want that "merry little bird" Spurgeon speaks of. I want it to sing to me of God's love and goodness.Even as I wrote this text, the computer crashed and I had to rewrite the whole thing. Bummer. Hehe...but well...I'll just let that merry little bird sing sweetly. Life is going to be beautiful.
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