It is one of life’s oddities that when little is planned, life rolls along uneventfully. Yet when significant events are scheduled, Murphy’s Law comes into effect, “What can go wrong, will go wrong”. After a nearly 2-year hiatus we are attempting to leave for a 2-week vacation and visit some of our old stomping grounds in Iowa. Hopefully we can see our daughter and other relatives in Omaha during this time.

Since our camper has been immobile, we needed to install new tires. It turns out they were an odd size and hard to find so we purchased them at one place and had them installed at another. We have a pop-up camper and while cranking the top down, a small spring which is integral to holding the roof up, broke. We had to find and order a spring which was only available in a replacement kit that cost $225. Eventually, a smaller kit was found for only $25 but was out of stock. They did have the small spring which was all I needed. It could be purchased and delivered for $20. It will arrive while we are on vacation so I jerry-rigged a rope to hold the crank in position.

I also had to visit with my orthopedic surgeon to determine if I need a shoulder replacement, muscle graft or another year of therapy. (Therapy has been ruled out.) And if there is no shoulder replacement, the left knee will have to be replaced. 

Paperwork for Charge Conference is required which means nominating committee meetings, budget meetings, membership reviews, church assets reporting, parsonage inspection, committee assignments and mission projection for the coming year. All that will need to be done when I return.

I have just been informed that a garden shed I ordered last July and should have arrived before Labor Day will be here Tuesday, the 21^st. I can’t leave until that has been firmly placed on its foundation which I built two weeks ago. Then my hearing aids decided to stop functioning and if they can’t be fixed, I either must go without them for two weeks or purchase new ones, coughing up some $6,000, which I had spent on the garden shed.

During all this I remembered I needed to write an article for the Oct/Nov newsletter. Since I totally forgot to do one for the Aug/Sept one and simply recycled an article from 10 years ago, I could not do the same this time. Thus, I fall back to my old standby of using quotes from others. So, after a quick perusal I have found some which express the frustration of these last few days. I hope you will find funny and insightful.

“To conquer frustration, one must remain intensely focused on the outcome, not the obstacles.”

― T.F. Hodge

“You’re frustrated because you keep waiting for the blooming of flowers of which you have yet to sow the seeds.” ― Steve Maraboli

“I need to stop getting into situations where all my options are potentially bad.”

― Jack Campbell

“If you’re at the end of your rope . . . untie the knot in your heart.” ― Cooper Edens

“Some people are as frustrated as a three-headed woodpecker in a petrified forest.”

― T.F. Tenney

“I don’t know what I’m doing, but my incompetence has never stopped my enthusiasm.”

-Woody Allen

Quotes from Murphy’s Laws:

• “You never find a lost article until you replace it.”
• “Smile. Tomorrow will be worse.”
• “Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he’ll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he’ll have to touch to be sure.”
• “The first 90 percent of a project takes 90 percent of the time; the last 10 percent takes the other 90 percent of the time.”

Will Rogers quotes

• “Everybody is ignorant only on different subjects.”
• “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
• “Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.”

Groucho Marks quotes

• “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can never live long enough to make them all yourself.”
• ‘If you find it hard to laugh at yourself, I would be happy to do it for you.
• “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them…well I have others.”
• “I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.”
• “One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I’ll never know.”

Well, I feel better just reading and sharing these quotes with you. No matter how frustrating things get we need to stop and take an honest look at our lives and realize we share the same journey. It is when things seem overwhelming and we are exasperated by events which seem to keep us from happiness, that I remember Paul’s words from 2 Corinthians 12: 9-10

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Pastor Dan