I’m pretty sure there’s something wrong with my computer or my internet service or my glasses this morning. Something must definitely be amiss; there’s simply no other explanation. Maybe someone switched the polarity on the electrical service or embedded some sort of treacherous virus in our Mac. Maybe some prankster slipped in during the night and reversed the lenses in my spectacles. That, or there is some vile villain plying his or her evil within the webspace of the National Weather Service. Otherwise, I don’t know how it could be that the forecast for Latitude: 39.77, Longitude: -94.91 could call for a low temperature tonight of thirty-seven degrees.

Thirty-seven degrees? Are you kidding me? Why, only a couple of days ago it was eighty-nine degrees! What is this: September?

Maybe there’s been a sudden tectonic event or continental drift shifted into overdrive. Maybe it’s a conspiracy? I’m sure Al Gore and President Obama must be in collusion with the energy companies in order to drive up fuel consumption and the price of home heating oil. Yes, that must be it. There might be some other explanation in the liberal hotspots of the country but this is Kansas, for crying out loud, so it has to be the Democrats’ fault.

Well, I suppose it could just be that there’s a cold front moving through today, triggering some rain and thunderstorms and bringing us a low temperature that’s about ten-to-fifteen degrees below normal. I guess that could be it. Maybe I was a bit extreme in my speculation.

Kind of like the folks who believe the devil gave them a flat tire or that God caused the nuclear disaster in Japan. Even Jesus said that some things are the result of chance.

It’s true that stuff happens and some of it is pretty awful. Some of it is just unpleasant. And, an awful lot of it is just different from what we’d like it to be. But in every bit of it, there is always some way for us to glorify God. And that is what often makes our reaction even more important than our circumstance.

H. Arnett

9/13/11