Weekly Meditation
In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; God has made the one as well as the other, so that mortals may not find out anything that will come after them. (Ecclesiastes 7:14)
Do you remember Eeyore, the dour donkey from Winnie the Pooh? Poor Eeyore. He was always expecting the worst to happen. If the sun was out, he would bring an umbrella because it was probably going to rain. If he went for a walk in the woods on a beautiful day, he would expect to get lost. If the friends were all playing a game, Eeyore just knew his team was going to lose. In Eeyore's world, every silver lining had a touch of grey.
Some people are like that. No matter how good things are going they are always waiting for something to go wrong. They never see the glass as half full. It is always half empty.
I know change is hard, but such folks should consider the words of Ecclesiastes. "In the day of prosperity be joyful." Celebrate the good things in life. Surely, we can find some prosperity around us, even in our world today. The rich green of God's good creation. A baby's laugh. Young graduates making their way out into the world. If adversity is all we expect to find we will miss out on much of life's joys.
At the same time, of course adversity is real. There are real struggles in the world, and we all share in them to some extent. But in the day of adversity, remember God. Remember that God is with us in both prosperity AND adversity. Remember that God's way is to offer up opportunities for renewal, always drawing us from adversity toward prosperity. Even a glass that is half empty can be filled again.
Every once in a while, even poor Eeyore would have to grudgingly admit that life was good. Surely, we can, too.