To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here
There are circumstances.
And then there are the ways we respond to circumstances.
It is deeply wise not to confuse the two.
In 1975 Laurel Lee, a mother with three young children, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Her husband, unable to come to grips with what was essentially her death sentence, ran off with the babysitter.
(Lee is not to be confused with a more recent Laurel Lee, the current U.S. representative from Florida’s 15th Congressional District).
Facing a seemingly endless series of medical interventions, Laurel faithfully kept a journal of her struggles. She called it the Laurel Lee Goes to the Hospital Book. In it she chronicled the challenges of trusting God as a single mom, as well as her ongoing battle with cancer.
One of her doctors was so impressed with what she was writing that he sent a copy of her journal to a publisher.
The result was Walking Through the Fire, a book which became an international bestseller and was eventually turned into a CBS made-for-TV movie about her life.
The cancer treatments worked. Lee went into remission.
For almost 30 years – until she died from pancreatic cancer in 2004 at the age of 58 – she traveled the world, lecturing before women’s groups, medical conferences, and Christian gatherings. She wrote four more books and became a celebrated children’s author as well.
Laurel’s life, which was fueled by joyful determination and sheer resolve, almost always circled back to her power to choose.
She routinely made a distinction between the things that were happening to her and the way she responded: “You can push the down-button for bitterness, resentment, and self-pity. Or you can push the up-button and draw closer to God, closer to others, and be a better person.”
She concludes, “It’s always an act of the will, a will beyond emotions or what you feel like doing.”
There’s not a whole lot you can know for sure in the days ahead.
You cannot know in advance what circumstances will try your patience, test your courage, or cause you to rethink a cherished conviction.
But you can choose in advance exactly how you will respond.
Push the up-button.