The school year hasn’t started off very well for one of my girls. We got through the first week ok, but week number two was a terrible head cold or virus of some sort that meant missing four days of school, and still not feeling well a week later when she went back on Monday. Then, Monday night, a stomach bug hit both our girls in the middle of the night. And it hit hard. So, two more days out of school for her. That means in the twelve days since school began, she’s missed half of them. The poor kid can’t catch a break!
I get the same sense when talking to others sometimes. The adage, “bad things come in threes,” is so popular because it seems so true. Like the random playing of a ten card after a jack in the game I play with my girls. It “seems” to happen all the time. And in one sense, it does, because we can see it happening. Already dealing with a crisis, illness, loss, etc., does not seem to influence the Spirit or the cosmos in any way that leads to mercy and a personal shield from further trouble. We don’t get temporary immunity when our hands are already full, unfortunately. Some days, or in some seasons, the hits just keep on coming.
In my head I see the image of an old Looney Tunes cartoon where someone falls and crashes, and as they lay there with stars swirling around their head a can of tomatoes rolls off the shelf and beans them in the head, with a proper delay for comedic timing, of course. I know that feeling. I think most of us do. We all have our Job moments now and then that cause us to ask, “What now?” The book of Job certainly trains us to wonder who might be behind such things! We Anglicans are a free-will bunch, which means that we don’t believe God is in the habit of dropping canned goods on us, let along messing with us on a daily basis in such ways. But one does wonder some days.
I also don’t believe that we bring such things on ourselves. There are those people out there who believe that if we just stay positive, only good things will come to us. Nah. I’ve known plenty of happy, positive people who still must deal with struggles. There is some truth in here somewhere, though. Like looking for a certain card to be played after another one in a random distribution of cards – it will eventually happen, and you’ll notice it if you’re looking for it. If we are looking for bad things, we’ll probably find them. Every day is full of challenges to one degree or another. Thinking positive thoughts won’t prevent that but being hopeful may allow us to see more of the positive things that happen around us.
Another cartoon comes to mind where a person is walking down the street and drops their cup of coffee. They are dismayed and bend down to scoop up the empty cup just as a guy with a ladder turns away from his truck and swings it past the spot where their head had been a second ago. The person with the spilled coffee is appropriately sad/disappointed/annoyed that they lost their coffee, and because they are focused on that, doesn’t realize that they just escaped a close call! Again, we don’t believe God caused the person to spill the coffee, even though there was a related positive outcome to the spill. Sometimes a spilled cup is a spilled cup!
If we can work at recognizing that good things come in threes, guess what? I suspect we’ll find triads of blessings more often than we might right now. And maybe if we are thankful when we get over a cold, it can be a genuine celebration of recovery… that in all likelihood won’t be followed by a stomach bug. I mean, what are the odds? Maybe we recognize that we’re going to get sick (everyone does, after all), but thank goodness we got better! Even though that’s not always the case. I don’t mean to be glib; sometimes bad things are just bad things. Sometimes we don’t spill coffee, but get a bad diagnosis, or lose someone close to us, or the world is rent by war. Those are truly bad things, to be sure. But even in the midst of them, we can have a hopeful outlook, and keep our eyes open for the blessings that are so often intertwined with pain. Mr. Rogers used to say of tragedy that we should to look for the helpers, and we’d see good at work in the world. That man was certainly a hopeful and holy prophet!
When I pray for someone in crisis, I often ask that God would send God’s holy angels to surround them from any further torment – a request that Psalm 91 seems to bring to the table. No need to pile on if we can help it, right? The favorite collect from Compline asks God to “shield the joyous,” after listing a whole bunch of challenges that people face. “The joyous” seems like an odd group to shield, except that it is a petition that understands that even the joyous will eventually be challenged by some kind of trouble, too. Why not pray for that joy to be extended for as long as possible? I love the honesty of that sentiment.
Yep. Some days are rougher than others, and it can be hard to resist the natural tendency to get worn down by the negative, painful, challenging parts of life. They’re no fun, and I don’t pretend that they are. Instead, we can ask God to help us with the hard stuff, and celebrate the things that are positive, even if the only positive is that the hard has come to an end. It sounds a bit Pollyanna, but that’s where the light is. We are people of light after all; light that darkness can never overcome. And that’s not nothing.
Tom+
Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love's sake. Amen.