Seriously, Lord?!?

Ever have one of those days where all you really can do is stare at the ceiling and say, “Seriously, Lord!?!”

I do. Rather frequently, in fact.

These “Seriously, Lord” days are not exceptionally bad. Or tragic. Or earth shattering. But they generally fall into the category of frustrating and the only thing left is for us to just take a deep breath as we let it go.

I had one of these days a few weeks ago.

It was a rather typical night. Hubs was gone somewhere, doing army-ish things. I had just put our daughter down for bed and was ready to go to my happy place. Yes, I had a date with silence, hot tea and a good book.

Before I could reside in my happy place, I had one minor task to do. I had boiled a chicken for the next day’s casserole and needed to take out of the pot to cool.

Easy, right? Yeah. Not so much.

I fished out the chicken and plopped it onto a plate. There was quite a bit of broth left, so I wanted to use it in the next day’s recipe.

I located the perfect-sized bowl and gently dumped the several quarts of broth. I congratulated myself on not making a mess AND for the incredible foresight of working ahead.

My satisfied self moseyed to the couch. I plopped down. Three seconds later, I heard a powerful splash.

It sounded like a water balloon dropped off a roof.

Or more accurately, a big balloon filled with three quarts of chicken broth.

I sprang off the couch and was greeted by a mess. A really, really big mess.

In all of my foresightedness, I realized that I had chosen the wrong bowl to cool the broth.

The fancy-schmancy seemingly heavy-duty collapsible bowl was a mistake. Apparently, the broth had been hot enough to soften the collapsible plastic part of the bowl… So it folded up on itself. And dumped chicken juice all over my kitchen.

Broth was running down the cabinets, pooling onto the floor. It had seeped under my cookbooks on the counter and continued to creep outward.

My reaction was a true testament to how far the Lord has brought me.

Instead of totally freaking out, getting angry and letting it ruin my night, I just sighed heavily, looked at the ceiling and said, “Seriously, Lord?!”

I headed to the closet and grabbed the mop to help my dog clean up the mess. (He was not frustrated with my mistake– he was overjoyed. So much that he got a head start on the floor.) I plunked the mop down on the floor, swiped once then stopped.

The yellow foam part of the mop disintegrated immediately. I had forgotten that the last time we used the mop was during another “Seriously, Lord” moment when we cleaned up a gallon of bleach that bounced off the washer during the spin cycle and spilled on the floor.

I literally threw the mop out the back door into the yard, grabbed a few towels, wiped down the counter the best I could. Then I got a bowl, scooped some ice cream and went back to my happy place.

And wouldn’t you know it? My happy place was still pretty happy. “Seriously, Lord? Good work, man.”

Friends, what is your most recent/memorable “Seriously, Lord!?!” moment? How did you react? What can we do to react like Christ in those future moments? You know I love hearing your thoughts– leave a comment here.

I challenge ALL of us to approach life with a less serious attitude (ahem, myself included.) When silly/frustrating moments attempt to rob us of our joy, we can choose to react with grace. God understands our frustrations.

But He always has abundant grace (and sometimes extra ice cream) as we come to our “happy place” in His presence.

Seriously, Lord… Thanks for that. Seriously.

Here’s to Jesus, grace and ice cream,