Grateful For Bad Days

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By the time I got home last night, I felt pretty sorry for myself. I think I have both a cold virus as well as allergies at the same time. One of the professors at work told me I looked like death warmed over, and when I talked to the department secretary this morning, she said I sounded terrible. However, I had things to do, so I soldiered on through the day as best I could, feeling pretty miserable.

Then I realized what we're celebrating this weekend. My Dad commented last night about how many people would be off work for Good Friday, and I remembered that this is Easter, when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

When I was a missionary in Austria, more than a decade ago, one day just before Easter, I did something I never had done nor ever have done since. I told this story to a woman as I folded a piece of paper and then ripped it. When you unfold the paper, it left paper in the shape of a cross. I still have that same sheet of paper today. I wrote on it back then, "Thank you, Lord. I'm so glad I had a bad day." Some people think I'm too morose or staid, especially when I remind people that they should be grateful they can get sick because it means they're not dead.

I am grateful for bad days. They make me appreciate more the days I have that seem sometimes monotonous. When I have a really good day that just doesn't have fireworks at the end, I remind myself how lucky I am to not be trapped in a mine in Chile. Today, I reminded myself how lucky I am that I'm not going to have to go to Gethsemane on the way home and bleed from every pore for everyone's sins. I'm not sure I even want to bleed for my own.

Bad days help us appreciate the good. Adversaries help us become better. If we were, 'unbridled by broken success' we might become 'too proud to pray to the God that made us' (Abraham Lincoln). Bad days help keep me humble, grateful, and as a consequence happy. Several months back, a dear friend of mine said:

If I am down, I am just being ungrateful. If I think of all the blessings I have been given, I realize there is every reason to be happy. -J.C.L.

There really is every reason to be happy.  Happiness isn't really an attitude or a choice or anything else.  It's a fruit of the Spirit, and it comes when we spend more time with the Spirit and invite It to become a greater part of our life through gratitude for the things we suffer.

Thank you, Lord, I'm so glad I had a bad day.  I'm happy today.