Summer Cold

Summer.  Cold. 

Those two words don’t seem to go together, do they?  But when they do, it doesn’t add up to something you look forward to.  I mean, who wants to have a cold during the summer, right?  No one ever plans on it.

But for me, by last evening my summer cold was full blown.  There I was, sitting in a showing of Becoming Jane (good, but not great – read our review here), and going through a whole Kleenex pocket pack.  But not due to drops of tears.  More like drops from the nasal cavity.  Ewww, I know.

So, why?  Why do I have to have a cold inside when it’s nearing triple digits outside?  Why am I getting the chills when I really should be feeling toasty in shorts and flip-flops?

These are the small ironies of life, are they not?  And when circumstances like these don’t feel convenient—or comfortable—to us, our first response is to whine.  With or without the cheese.

We want what we want, and we want it now.  But the thing is, what we want may not what be what God wants for us.  Instead of conforming His will to ours, Romans 12:2 our hearts and our desires to His.

My desire last night was to stay home and skip the movie.  But I put on my big girl pants and kept my commitment to go out with my friend.  In hindsight, I believe that God wanted me to go, use up a bunch of tissues and have a conversation with this particular friend afterward. 

She said some things I needed to hear, and I said some things that hopefully she needed to hear.  I think we both needed the short time of fellowship, encouragement and accountability for our current and vastly different life situations.

So maybe a summer cold—as strange and wrong as it feels right now—was part of last night’s plan.  So how am I trying to conform today?  Alka-Seltzer, more tissues and a dab or two of petroleum jelly.  All that, and some time spent listening to the Word. 

I’m thanking God today that His plan doesn’t include the flu.  But who knows about tomorrow. . . .