Sunshine Over Me

Yesterday was a beautiful day with bright sunshine, temperatures in the mid 70s, and only a light breeze. It was actually too nice a day to be inside working, which I was doing. In fact, I was thinking of having My Love write a note to excuse me from work so that I could go outside to play!

Then I began thinking (always a dangerous thing to do). Why is it that I (and it seems like most of the people around me) feel so much better on a pleasant day than on a gloomy, overcast one? Why is it that I have more energy and am so much more ready to get things done when the weather is so uplifting?

At that point, I recalled my travels to Germany in the 1970s and 80s. Often times the weather was rainy, overcast, dreary and cold. I remember thinking on more than one occasion that it is no wonder that European history is so replete with wars, conflicts, skirmishes and struggles. If I had to live in weather that was predominately depressing, I would probably be fighting with someone also.

From there, my musing moved to the question of who/what is really in control of my moods and emotions. Weather is one of the things in my life over which I have absolutely no control. No matter what I say or do, I will not make the sun come out on a cloudy day, or encourage the wind to cease blowing. Why am I wasting my energy on something so useless? Or more to the point, why am I giving something so unpredictable the power to control how I respond to everyday life around me? The only thing that I have control over is my own reactions, my own responses to the realities around me. That brought me back to my Dad's favorite prayer again, the Serenity Prayer.

The bottom line question for me therefore is: Who is the Lord of my life? If I say that Jesus is Lord, then something so "outside myself" as the weather should not be able to have such an effect upon my moods and feelings. I really cannot surrender control of my life to the Lord while portioning some of that control to the forces of nature. Besides, it is much more enjoyable being in a good mood every day!