Grumpy and Stressed to Finished Work Rest

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul.

Psalm 23: 2-3a

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. My body ached from an overzealous workout yesterday. As I stumbled downstairs to make my coffee and read my Bible, I found it was still quite humid outside so no opening the door to hear the birds.

I made myself some nice, strong coffee and when I went to sit down to read my Bible it seemed to have disappeared. I spent nearly an hour looking for it. Upstairs, downstairs, in the dining room, in my prayer closet, even outside in the car. It just plain old disappeared and I thought for sure I was losing my mind.

I began to stew and belittle myself, and could not understand why this was happening. Finally, I got good and mad and then I lifted the blanket off the couch and bingo, there underneath it was my Bible and journal. How could I have missed looking there after wandering from room to room?

Then, I finally started to read and had a delicious (full) second cup of coffee. I put the cup down on the little table instead of on the bookshelf where I normally do. But the cup didn't make it onto the table, instead it crashed to the floor and made a huge mess. More than even the mess, I was mad because now I would have to make myself more, and it had been just the perfect cup.

What a way to start the day. My routine had been disturbed not just once but twice. Instead of reading where I normally do, I went over some chapters in the book of Hebrews. I read once again that the whole point of this universe is Jesus. Jesus is everything God wants to say to us!

1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself[fn] purged our[fn] sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. Hebrews 1: 1-4

God was so gentle with me, and helped me recover. I eased my aching body with an epsom salt bath. My body began to relax. Yes, of course Lord little irritations rise during the day. Do I need to let them set the framework for a bad mood for the rest of the day? Of course not.

Even as I write this a fly buzzes around the room. I detest flies and their buzzing sound. Do I need to get uptight? No. Christ endured the buzzing flies too. He was the Son of God. Why should He have to suffer all these little annoyances? But He did, and He did it all with joy.

1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.Hebrews 12:1-2

 Jesus saw that there was joy ahead waiting for Him, so He didn't once complain even when He was dying on the cross. What started off to be an awful day because I allowed myself to be stressed out has now become a blessed day. And all because I looked unto the One whom has all the right answers, all the perfect coping mechanisms, and especially unchanging happiness in the face of the deepest difficulties, even paying for the sins of the whole world.

Jesus waits for me to come to Him and refresh myself once again in His streams of perpetual life giving water. Somehow He cares even about something stupid like a misplaced Bible or spilled coffee.  I give Him my petty everyday stress, and He gives me His rest for the most difficult times, the annoying times and everywhere in between.