RIM Nativa: The Way Things Are

Post date: Mar 04, 2018 4:14:59 AM

Malakal Harbor, Koror, Palau

04 March 2018

I am reminded today of what is so often said--- "I wish things were different." It's like this wind that we're experiencing right now. We awakened with very different plans for this morning but find ourselves tending the ship at anchor in a fresh northeasterly. It's the way it is. While we can't change the wind, as the need demands we can change the ship's attitude in relation to it. And this wind will pass. How many other things are like that in life? We sometimes struggle against circumstances we can't change. We fight but in the end find ourselves exhausted and confounded, and we quit. We quit family. We quit jobs. We quit school. We quit ministry. We...quit life. I don't mean to sound philosophical nor preachy, but it occurs to me that no one is an individual in this regard. We all deal with the same sort of things in life. It's like the boats I see from this vantage point in the harbor. Some are very small and some, extremely large. Some are intended for day use while others are permanent homes. Some are designed with the most luxury ever imagined while others are designed to haul the world's freight across vast oceans. But all are confronted by the same wind. And all are called upon to bear up and stay afloat. Sea captains can't afford the amenity of wishing things were different. Rather we are made to face things the way they are and make adjustments accordingly. Perhaps the statement "I wish things were different" would better serve us if we were to say, "I wish I were different." See, it's not things in life that make it good or not. It's the life itself. And we choose the sort of life we live.