“Oh, no! Winter is coming! I hate it so much!” “Why is it always so cold and snowy? “ Every year, it’s the same thing. The weather arrives, and we react with feelings of dread, dismay, and hatred. You can even hear it in the voice of the meteorologists on TV! The temperatures begin to drop, rain turns to snow, and everything is covered in an icy white film. The overly cautious drivers become dangerously overly cautious drivers. We don shirts with long sleeves, sweaters, hats, gloves, heavy winter coats, and maybe even boots. People buy salt for their driveways and walkways, rather than for their dinner table. After all of this, complaints are abounding.
Day after day, we hear about how the weather sucks, or it’s dangerous, or how people cannot drive. We hear about how it’s so cold and how much someone hates it. We see that ambitious neighbor who decides to build a flamethrower to “melt that pesky snow,” only to find that it turns to water upon contact with the flames, immediately turning into ice. “Damn you!” he exclaims as he raises his fists to the sky! “I hate you, old man winter!”
Now, I know that I’m not the most positive person in the world, but I’ve learned something…it does absolutely NO good to complain about the weather. No matter how much you complain, criticize, berate, project your anger towards God, or wish it away, it will always return. You simply need to accept the fact that you have no control over the weather, and it will do as it does. Commiserating with others about it only seems to help temporarily, as you are planting a hateful seed that is essentially doing nothing to change the situation. It just prolongs the feelings of gloom and doom.
That knee-jerk reaction to the weather could also apply to other areas of your life…whenever something doesn’t go your way, your first reaction is more than likely to exclaim “this sucks,” immediately producing resistance to the situation. It builds and builds, and pretty soon, you’re ready to go into a full-blown rage over something that is really not that important. Perhaps we feel it is important, because if we don’t find an answer to the problem, people will think less of us, or feel that we are not confident in our own abilities. This becomes stress, and it eats us from the inside out.
Let’s go back to that neighbor with the flame thrower…we’ve already seen that he’s melted the snow, hoping that it would evaporate instantly. Unfortunately for him, it’s turned to water, and soon after, ice. He sees this, throws down the flame thrower, and raises his fist to the sky, yelling at the God of his choosing, condemning them for bringing on such terrible weather. By now, he’s totally consumed by his anger, listening to what it says to do. “Go take it out on the snow! Show it who’s boss! Go on! Do it!”
He listens without questioning, and jumps into a nearby snowdrift, punching it and raging upon it. A stream of obscenities flows from his mouth, and people begin to take notice. He doesn’t realize it, but half of the neighborhood is watching him, mostly laughing silently, and a few chuckle quietly. He’s too angry to notice. Eventually, his blood pressure skyrockets, and he has a stroke, face down in the snow. An ambulance is called, but it’s too late. He is pronounced dead on the scene.
Moral of the story? Don’t let what’s going on outside dictate what’s going on inside.