How to Navigate Life At Its Worst

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

Is it just me?

The other day I was in one of the booths I operate in the town I live in. I have three of them, and I sell vintage items, art, antiques — things like that. 

I just finished what I considered a fantabulous display of glass items when I knocked over a colored bottle on the top of an all glass shelf. This caused a domino effect down the rest of the shelves — kind of a horror-filled flipping action — and by the time it made its way to a shattered heap on the floor half the items on display were broken.

Well, maybe “half” is a slight exaggeration, but I lost some key pieces and that means money was lost for me, which doesn’t sit well because with the economy like it is right now I’m losing money anyway and can barely keep all three booths going. 

But my good luck didn’t stop there!

After all the excitement of cleaning up my personal shatter disaster, I had to run (literally) across the store to go to the bathroom.

Thank God it wasn’t occupied or my bladder would’ve gotten the best of me in public and my humiliation would’ve been complete. 

But by the grace of God, I made it and although the temperature through the double doors to the bathroom feels about 200 degrees on a good day, I managed to jerk my pants down before I peed myself because I don’t (thankfully in this situation) sweat.

Anyway, when my business was done and I had washed and dried my hands, I turned to put the paper towels back on the table where I found them and that’s when all hell broke lose again. 

I didn’t slam them down, I just placed them on the table, but the whole thing and everything on it went crashing to the floor and I lost my religion (not God, just my religion for a minute) and said a series of things I shouldn’t have said.

I tried to hold the curse word in and I did for a minute but finally it just came bursting out after a pause, as if someone else was saying it instead of me.

And this is the trajectory of my entire life it seems. Not a snippet of my life but the ENTIRE thing.

I’m a train wreck. 

As a matter of fact, my computer just quit before I could get the words train wreck out! I had to switch to my phone to finish this up. Thank God the draft was there. 

This kind of stuff happens to me every single day, so I figure if you’re going to be one of the most unlucky people in the world, you better also learn to be tough. 

Just freaking RIDE THAT TRAIN, and here are some ways I’ve learned to do it that may help you if you have the same luck I do. 

1. Learn to roll with the punches. Just go with it, man (or woman). There’s nothing you can do about your external circumstances about half the time anyway, so work on you and don’t sweat the things that go wrong. 
2. Learn to laugh at yourself. I realize when things are crashing to the ground it’s hard to work up a rolling belly laugh, but you can get there if you work on it. Once you get that it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things anyway, it’s easier to find the humor in the fragments of what once was. At least throw a smile out there. You won’t regret it. 
3. Use it as a learning moment. Ask God what He’s trying to teach you. Ask yourself what you could’ve done differently or better. You will find the answer because nine times out of ten you already know what it is!
4. Store it for future use. Remember what you did right as well as what you didn’t do right. You’re going to need that information one day. 
5. Learn from your experience. For God’s sake, don’t knock another bottle over doing something stupid! I could’ve moved the bottle over when I was finishing up. I just left it on the edge. If I hadn’t knocked it over, someone else would have.
6. Help other people avoid the same disaster. Use it for good. Don’t waste the lesson. 
7. Find peace in the chaos. Never let your outward circumstances control your inward peace. We must have peace to survive. Chaos leads to all kinds of physical and mental issues. Calm yourself down. 
8. Don’t try to understand. Some people just come here the way they are. Sometimes things just happen. There isn’t always a reason. The Bible tells us to lean not on our own understanding. Our minds aren’t big enough to see the big picture. He’s got us. 
9. Surrender the outcome. Stop trying to control everything. You can’t. You’re not God. Sometimes you just have to let things go to hell so you will see that He had a different plan for you all along, and it was better!
10. Just be yourself. It’s okay if you aren’t perfect. You don’t have to be. You get to just be you. 

Bonus: and most important — Give it to God!

Give Him your future, your past, and CERTAINLY your jacked up chaotic hell-filled present.

The best thing about life is knowing He is ultimately in charge and none of this really matters. In the end, all the wars fought are won by Him. All the lessons learned point to Him. Every moment ever spent leads to Him. All the chaos surrenders to the peace of Him. 

Isn’t that enough? 

Of course it is.