Want Some Cheese With That Whine?

I'm usually not like this.  I'm a very positive person. Some people see the glass as half empty- some see it as half full.  I think every glass gets free refills.  I'm the guy who irritates the crap out of you because I wake up perky.  I'm the guy who counts his blessings even when life seems to be headed down the toilet.  I don't enjoy complaining or whining.  But today that is exactly what I'm going to do...


I got up yesterday and it was raining.  My wife and son are out of town, and I miss them.  I drove across town to my therapy group, where I spent an hour explaining my life to people who don't care and a counselor whose job it is to tell me I am wrong- about my own life!  I came home to discover my newly repaired garage door wasn't working- again.  I began to check in with my online communities and discovered that while people seemed to talking about Comment Day, there was no evidence that anyone was actually doing it.  My own blog, which I thought had some pretty interesting stories of weird youth group experiences, must have been invisible.  My dog threw up on our carpet- twice!   As the day went along I read and commented on over 55 blogs, including a few youth ministry blogs that really hacked me off (People, we don't need better programs, we need more leaders willing to actually invest themselves in the lives of teenagers!).  In the end I commented on 53 blog posts.  My own received 2.  I became frustrated and lost all perspective- I don't do Comment Day to get comments for me, I do it so that other bloggers will feel encouraged.  But yesterday the whole thing left me feeling discouraged.  It was really a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.  I considered moving to Australia!  And then my friend Robert tells us via Twitter that Foster's is NOT Australian for beer.  What the heck is going on here?


So I took a deep breath.  My friend Lisa called and we went to supper and had another amazing visit.  A couple of Twitter friends made me laugh.  Marilyn and Will called from NC.  I had a great walk with Conner the Dog.  And I remembered the truth that awaits me at the end of every day would be there at the end of this one as well.  Jesus loves me.  Even when I look at life and whine about it, Jesus is always there to serve cheese.  Even my worst days end with a party, because every night this prodigal son returns to the Father and says I know I don't deserve your love or the blessings you give me...but thank you.  Knowing that the Creator of the Universe knows my name and loves me reminds me of why I can wake up again this morning smiling and perky enough to make you crazy- because if God loves me, who am I to complain?


Because of Jesus,