A little good

Sometimes we see the storm clouds rolling in.  That high and low pressure about to collide into the amazing and terrifying.  The tornado that will start to spiral out of control leaving hurt and destruction in its path. 

My friend and I have been consciously trying not to spiral out of control.  We have been holding each other accountable to our thoughts and trying to keep them in check.  Sometimes those high and low pressure areas don't form a tornado. Sometimes they just pass by each other with wind and move on.  I believe some woman live for the tornado.  We want it to spiral out of control.  If we don't have control we will make it.  We can lose our thoughts in the flying debris and wind. 

A speaker at MOPS brought this to our attention.  She asked us to look for the good.  It's the one thing my friend and I are trying to take away from this year.  The speaker was a pastors wife at a large congregation.  She remembered getting a text message from a member asking why her husband (the pastor) chose to show a certain movie to the youth group.  The member did not think it was appropriate and voiced her opinion on that.  Our speaker said she had a choice.  She could take it how she read it the first time- as a slam against her husband and their ministry.  Or, she could see the good in it.  She chose to see that someone cared about the kids in the youth group and was concerned. 

I get it though.  It's not always the good.  In the age of facebook and text messages, we can always miss the meaning.  Or, we can see the meaning for what it is, a person who feels more confident sending out nasty message than talking with someone. 

My friend and I have just come to realize by not taking things for the good they could be we set ourselves up for a spiral.  We become a tornado of "what do they mean, what am I going to do about it, how should I react?" The tornado starts to rule our lives.  Have you ever tried to stop watching a tornado?  It's hard. 

These pictures are from our house 2 summers ago.  Straight line winds and
a possible tornado knocked down a bunch of trees and left debris through out our town.

I'm trying not to live in the spiral right now- the ankle that won't heal and I feel a tugging at the back of my mind that I won't be able to complete the half marathon like I want.  The tug of pain that my hard drive may be lost and that I won't have a computer anymore.  I can see the storm clouds swirling together now.  I can stop them.  I can choose right now to find good.  There is so much good, but sometimes that's hard.  There is control in looking for the bad.  You can hold that over someone or something.  It gives you an excuse. 

There is a chance for some swirling, but I am going to let go of that.  I don't want to live in excuses.  I will do what I can to make it better. 

 While the good we can see first might not always be true, by looking for it we have set ourselves up for something better. Something better that could maybe shine a little light, show a little love, and give somebody a chance to be forgiven.