The Two (or Three) Options

The weather has changed.  It has gotten significantly colder, with some snow.  And I have to admit, I don’t like that very much.  I’m one of those people who gets cold very easily.  Warm weather doesn’t bother me at all--you may have seen me out riding my bicycle last summer when the temperature was in the 90s.  But cold weather does bother me.  It bothers me a lot.  I get cold very easily, and once I do, it takes me forever to get warm again.

But here’s the thing:  when we’re faced with a situation that we don’t like, we basically have two choices.  We can do something about the situation, or we can accept the situation.  That’s pretty much it.  So, what could I do about the situation?  Well, I don’t have any control over the weather, that’s for sure.  So, if I wanted to do something about the situation, I basically have one option:  move.  Move to someplace where the weather is warmer.

Well, I don’t want to move.  I love it here.  So does Wanda.  I’ve lived in South Dakota for my whole life, and I have no desire to go anywhere else.  We’ve lived in the Wheatland Parish for over seven years now, and we have no desire to go anywhere else.  So if I can’t change the weather where I am, and I’m not going to go someplace where the weather is different, what does that leave me?

Right.  It leaves me with accepting the situation.  And, for the most part, I do.  I say “for the most part” because I do have trouble accepting snowstorms and ice storms sometimes, especially when I have plans to go somewhere.  It was not easy to accept the snow-and-ice storm that forced us to cancel Christmas Eve services in Onida and Agar a couple of years ago.  But in the end, even when I have trouble accepting the situation, I pretty much have to, because there’s not another option.

Well, actually, there is sort of another option.  When I can’t or won’t do something about a situation, and I can’t or won’t accept the situation, what else can I do?  You’ve probably guessed it.  The other option is to complain about the situation.

And I admit, sometimes I do that.  But you know, it really doesn’t accomplish much.  For one thing, it’s boring--very few people are interested in hearing my complaints.  Do you like to listen to someone who complains all the time?  Probably not.  It’s not very satisfying, either, because the person I’m complaining to isn’t responsible for it and can’t do anything about it.  In fact, all it really accomplishes is to make me feel worse, because I’m dwelling on the situation I don’t like rather than trying to find a way to be happy anyway.

So, what’s the situation in your life that this applies to?  What’s a situation that you either can’t or won’t change, but don’t want to accept, and so you end up complaining about it?  

If you have one, review your options.  Is there something you could do, if you chose, to change it?  If not, or if there is but you don’t want to do it, what can you do to accept the situation?  Because just sitting around and complaining won’t help you or anyone else.  Change it or accept it really are the only two options we have.

Whatever the situation is, I’d encourage you to pray about it.  Pray for God to either show you how to change the situation or to help you accept the situation.  And if you’ve been complaining about the situation, pray for God to help you stop doing that, for your own good as much as anyone else’s.

It’s like the serenity prayer, really.  Change what you can’t accept, and accept what you can’t change.  And don’t complain.  In the end, you’ll be a lot happier.