I love my kids….ALOT. But you want to know something…..sometimes….they drive me CRAZY!!! If you’re a parent, you know what I’m talking about. The times when they are whining about the 1,000,000th thing and not listening and keep hitting each other and keep aggravating each other. After this year and all the stress we have had and how busy we are, it’s those times I want to hit the “skip” button or the “fast forward” button to not have to deal with all of the annoying things in my life.
Treating patients is the same way. I love you guys….I really do. But sometimes I want to slap you. (figuratively….of course.. 
). Sometimes it’s all I can do to sit there and listen to some of the things I have to listen to and be grace-full or sympathetic.
This is something the Father has been really teaching me on this week though. Finding significance in the mundane, the annoying, the frustrating, the irritating. Finding the lessons and seeing the beauty in the mind numbing boredom or in the most minimal of details.
God is a god that takes pride in the details and He labors over the minimal and obscure. To know this all you have to do is look at the painstaking details he gave the Israelites for how to build the temple. (Exodus 25-28) He took delight and showed amazing love for every single stitch in the fabric and every button on the priestly garments.
I watched a movie over again this week that talks about just this very thing. It’s called “Click” by Adam Sandler. If you know me, you know I’m a movie guy and that I can pretty much relate everything to a movie! This movie is about an average Joe with an awesome wife and two great kids who is working his tail off at his day job trying to support his
family and get the promotion he deserves. The daily grind of life starts to get on his nerves and he can’t stand how annoying his kids are being or how nagging his wife is at times and on his trip to Bed Bath and Beyond to look for a universal TV remote, he is given a magic remote that will literally pause, rewind, or fast forward real life. It’s a remote for life. So he starts using it. The next time his wife started in on him for working too late….he muted her. Then he fast forwarded through the rest of the fight and through the other things he was sick of doing (sex, showering, traffic….anything he was annoyed at). At first he thought it was fantastic! Who wouldn’t want to “skip” the frustrating parts or the painful parts of life?? If I could’ve skipped losing Evans this summer don’t you think I would’ve?!? ABsolutely. But the remote begins to create a memory of his preferences and fast forwards and skips anything it thinks he wouldn’t like and he misses out on years at a time. At one point it sends him 10 years into the future. He achieves all of his business goals and becomes a huge success….but he loses everything and everyone he loves.
He realizes at the end of the movie that joy comes in the frustrating. That love is developed in the daily, mundane acts. That pride and satisfaction come from pushing through the hard and the difficult. He learned that although the grass is sometimes greener on the other side….you still have to mow it.
This is different than just “getting through” the hard stuff. In Phillipians, Paul talks about leaving everything else behind and “pressing on toward the goal in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14). This is about being strong in the trial and pressing on NO MATTER WHAT to achieve all that God has for you, no matter how hard it is.
That’s not what I’m talking about in this situation…..
I’m talking about not taking time to learn from, soak in, and enjoy the daily small things. The things like Harper never. stopping. talking……ever. Especially when we are in the car and he has a billion questions. There are so many times that I want him to just STOP!!! LOL But the Father always listens to me, and he never tires of hearing me speak to him. He would never tell me to stop talking to him and delights in our conversations. So my son deserves that from me. Or when Ellie is doing what she does best and is destroying the house. Instead of me getting so frustrated with her and getting upset with her at her doing it…..taking the time to let her know how much I really do love her and helping to teach her how to clean up. Taking the time to teach her joy, patience, and peace.
I’ve learned (and am learning still) that the biggest way my kids learn from me is by watching me live every day. So what are we teaching them?? Are we teaching them that every moment, every whine, every tear, every splinter, every lego, every dinosaur, every ‘I spy’ game, is valuable and important and the most important thing we have done all day??? Or are we teaching them that they are a nuisance and get in the way and that we’d rather be on Facebook???
Death effectively brings new perspective to life. I’m following the story of the mother who is dying of cancer and her response to the newly married woman with brain cancer who is choosing suicide. She wisely talks about death and our choices, options or lack there-of rather. But her quote about her own journey rocked me. “My story is not about dying with cancer, but of living this breath.” WOW. She speaks of the fact that every cuddle, every argument, every seemingly annoying thing in life is suddenly precious when your moments are coming to an end.
My prayer is that the Father would take the scales off of my eyes and help me to keep them off. That He would bless me with vision: for the hidden importance in every detail. That I wouldn’t become “used to” the daily. That every day would seem like the first time. That my kids would never cease to amaze me. That my love for my wife would never become routine. That my service to others would never become my “job”.
“Break my heart for what breaks yours. Everything I am for your kingdom cause. Show me how to love like you…have loved me.”
WE WILL TRUST HIM NO MATTER WHAT
JB