“I just need to learn to cooperate with the inevitable” Suzie was talking about how her supervisor had laid down the law. Stress was building and people were fighting. The supervisor laid down the gauntlet and Suzie realized she could avoid a ton of conflict, a ton of stress, a ton of pain…if she would just learn to cooperate with the inevitable. Life with the supervisor instantly got easier. She had no clue God was talking to me through her. She thought she was doing an off the cuff last minute Carnegie speech, but her words went miles into the depths of my soul.
So often I would fight the inevitables I didn’t like. I would worry about them, fret about them, build up pain in my chest and twist my stomach about them, and complain, complain, complain, about them. And somehow, the only person i have ever seemed to effect in the process was myself.
All day, that day, I sat incapacitated over an inevitable. I was so wrought with frusteration I sat at work starting at my laptop screen for hours not doing a thing. Lunch time…grab a burger…back to the office to stare at the screen, no one home…but irritability. Luckily I had to head to class that evening and then there was Suzie. Thank God for Suzie.
“Learn to cooperate with the inevitable.”
Those words reminded me most of all that as a disciple, i need to learn to give thanks in all things. This year i have learned to give thanks when the flood waters come and almost destroy your place of work. I have learned to give thanks in Church conflicts and to overcome them. I have learned to give thanks in financial struggles, growing pains, tragic deaths, suicides, murder, abuse, and tough times. Now, with another inevitable on the horizon looking into my eyes….Suzie reminded me to give thanks. Thanks Suzie.
In James 1:2 (NIV) it says,
” Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,“
In 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV) it says,
“give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.“
