Oh Poop! On Happiness & Choices

So today I opened up my Women of Faith Study Bible ( this Bible happens to be the 2001 edition) and started reading in I Peter.

I love this Bible because it is full of stories about women in the Bible ( and though I grew up in church, there are women in these stories that somehow never got imbedded in my mind, so "meeting them again is a treat), inspirational quotes and helpful summaries about the book of the Bible that the reader is studying at that point.  There is also a helpful calendar . . .week 49, week 50, etc.

Anyway, back to what I was reading. . .

I was reading I Peter 1:6b-8  

"You may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith . . .may be proved genuine and result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, "

and then I thought back, actually flipped back a few pages to James, page 2012 in my WOF Bible.

There is a note about James 1:2 and in part it says:

"It is important to note that these 'trials' are afflictions, persecutions or sicknesses.  These are not troubles that believers bring on themselves due to sin.  They are simply the difficulties everyone faces in life.  We can begin to find joy in our trials when we accept them for what they are---schools of tutelage for our souls.  Through this tutelage, James says, we learn perseverance.  And through perserverance, we become mature and complete.  Difficult times come to everyone; yet we can be glad knowing that, with God's help, precious lessons come from difficult times."

I have heard some version of these concepts all my life at one time or another but it occurred to me just then that . . .hey, in Western Society right now, there is an idea and it looks like this:

Happiness = No Problems or at least Minimal Problems

Then we are told:

Right Things ( right clothes, right education, right friends, right boyfriend/girlfriend, etc) =No Problems

We are also told that:

You CAN FIND THE RIGHT THINGS, therefore,  you can HAVE NO PROBLEMS ( or at least minimal ones) and remember,

No Problems = Happiness

BUT I don't know who came up with that formula, but they hadn't been talking to James or Peter, now had they?

Because I think what the Bible is teaching us in the above passages ( James and Peter) is quite different.

It is more like a story than a formula  ( Want to hear a story?  Of course you do!!)

Once upon a time there was a farmer.  And part of his duties, as a farmer, was to care for the few animals that he had.  It was very cold where he was and he had to muck out the stalls everyday.  It was hard work and it smelled like poop.

Now the farmer had other problems besides the poop and the fact that it was hard, back tiring work.

For one thing, there were uneven boards, the shovel broke and he had to fix it and if he was late to dinner his wife became cross and said mean things to him.  Occasionally an animal became sick and had to be doctored.

Now the farmer had to make some choices.  Either he was miserable, or he learned to think about things like how beautiful his horse that pooped every day was.  He learned to come to see her with a smile and a treat.

He learned how to fix the shovel, he learned to avoid hitting the uneven boards.  There was  also the matter of telling his wife that he might be a little late . . .and he would try not to be . . .or better yet, ask her to come out into the sparkling snow with him, seeing the honking geese as they flew across the winter sky, listen for the song of the little birds who clustered in the trees near the barn in the mornings with him and greet the grateful horse.

Same farmer.  Same scenario.  Different focus.

We as people often don't even think about the choices that we are making until we are angrily shoveling poop and fall face first in it.

As a person who struggles with a mood disorder,  I couldn't just think myself out of my pile of poop.  I had to ask for help. . .I had to CHOOSE WELLNESS.

Guess what?  I got help, too.  Medicine to regulate the chemistry in my brain.  And thank God, people to help me look up again, at the birds in the sky, at the horse . . .

And I'm not an exception.  There's hope for everyone out there, even if they are currently in a pile of poop.

Here's to you!  Happy shoveling!

~ Jennifer