A Little Perspective

The other night, I was fighting my way home through crazy Friday night traffic. I was hungry, and I was late for dinner with my wife and some of our friends. I kept trying alternate routes in desperate attempts to shave 30 or so seconds off the duration of the trip. As I made my way through the center of town, I got caught at a red light because the person driving ahead of me lacked my reckless willingness to ignore the yellow light when in a hurry. And then the railroad gates came down, halting the traffic in all directions for several minutes while we waited for the commuter rail train to pass by. In that moment of hunger and frustration -- rarely a pleasant combination -- I whipped out my iPhone and posted to facebook (no cars were moving, so I figured it was okay) that "I think God just kicked me in the nuts."

Seriously? Even allowing for that bit of a flair for the dramatic that I indulge in from time to time, what the heck was that? First off, if God exists -- and as an agnostic, I don't take a stand on that question either way -- I'm sure He has better things to do than make me late for dinner and increase my stress.  And second, if He wanted to make me as miserable as I would be from a real kick to that oh-so-sensitive region, being an extra five minutes late for dinner hardly qualifies.

In the middle of a frustrating moment, it's easy to indulge negative emotions, to feel put upon and beleaguered, but that doesn't help. When I'm stuck in traffic and losing a little extra time to the idiocy of the so-called drivers around me, it's annoying, but I have to remind myself that it's far from catastrophic. When the waiter is slow to take my order or the kitchen doesn't get it right, it's frustrating, but it's not the end of the world. When the DVR messes up and doesn't record a program I wanted to watch, it's irritating, but I'll live. Talk about first world problems...

What is being late for dinner compared to not having any idea if you'll have it at all? What is a little ice build-up on the front door of the house compared to resorting to a cardboard box for shelter? What is a little selfishness from a family member compared to the sudden and unexpected death of a loved one? Or worse, compared to the heartache of not knowing, day after day after day, whether your loved one will wake up or slip away? If anyone is justified in thinking that God has kicked him in the nuts, it's a person facing that kind of uncertainty and loss.

Some people have it rough. I am lucky enough not to be one of those people. I have rough days, or at least days that feel rough, but I am very fortunate, and that's something I need to remember and reflect on more often. There are people out there dealing with real challenges and real problems. Real pain, real heartache, real tragedy. The next time I'm feeling put upon, I hope that I'll remember to take a moment and put it in perspective, and then be thankful that my challenges are small and easily managed.