I can overreact to the unexpected.
It’s true. I’m sure it’s not a surprise to those close to me. So when this week my battery wouldn’t start and I had to get the car jumped over and over… well, I didn’t react very well. And then yesterday when the battery saga was over and I walked out to my car in the afternoon to find a flat tire… I also did not react very well… though God and I were the only ones to see it.
It was not until I was sitting in Sam’s Club after I had wandered all the aisles and bought all I thought I needed, not until I was tired enough to sit on the food court benches and prop up my feet, that I finally thought about what had ACTUALLY happened over the last three days.
What had actually happened was that despite a dead battery, I was never actually that late in the mornings.
What had actually happened was that my husband had agreed to be late to work instead to wait for help when we couldn’t jump the car and get the battery changed.
What had actually happened was that the battery was under warranty so we paid nothing for the issue except time and stress.
And as I sat at Sams waiting for my tires, I realized that what had actually happened this time was that I was able to drive on a semi-flat tire to Sams which was less than 2 miles away and get two tires for free because they were also under warranty.
What had actually happened was that I overreacted. And I sat there very disappointed in myself.
But here’s the thing that Pedro Arrupe reminds me in my prayer this morning… there is always time to see things with new eyes and discern how you can better take the unexpected in the future.
“Grant me, O Lord,
to see everything now with new eyes,
to discern and test the spirits
that help me read the signs of the times,
to relish the things that are yours,
and to communicate them to others.
Give me the clarity of understanding
that you gave Ignatius.”
Have you over-reacted to anything this week? How can you look at that situation with new eyes today?
