For those unaware, the Mondays With Jim Wunderblog (patent pending) recently packed up its bags and headed back to school. I know you’ve been devastated with the lack of posts, so I offer up this little nugget in a solemn attempt to ease the burden this has placed on your life.
There are many positive to being a college student. Many, many, many, many positives, even some that don’t involve the words “Frisbee” or “napping.” I could write a lengthy editorial on the positive side of my experiences, but today’s inspiration came from one of the few negatives: walking.
The average college campus is a wonderfully crafted, beautifully decorated Robert Frost poem. Flowers and trees and squirrels and more trees dot the setting and bring with it an escape from the trappings of daily life. However, missing in this inspirational painting of a workplace are parking places. As such, my daily routine often finds me walking great distances each morning on the way to class. Somewhere, Richard Simmons is smiling.
It wasn’t long into the new semester when I realized that, in my walking, I often found myself trudging uphill. In fact, it seemed that the proportion of time I spent going uphill to downhill was strikingly unbalanced, and not in my favor. This was somewhat burdensome, but at the time I couldn’t think of a solution to my sweat-inducing dilemma.
As time wore on, I became more familiar with the setting and started to notice shortcuts to avoid longer walks. I found places to park which would limit the amount of uphill walking needed. I discovered a bus route that would drive me to class when it rained. I found that, as time progressed, my struggles lessened, not due to anything other than a change in perspective. New knowledge bred adaptation and enlightenment.
Here’s where this matters to you. I think now, more than ever, we are more prone to ask the question “Why?” As in, “Why am I here?,” “Why did you do that?,” and so on. More to the point, the question that is often toughest to answer goes something like this, “Why is (insert problem) happening?” To anyone who has ever sought to understand the reason behind why evil exists or why problems occur, I propose that the problem is not one of knowledge, but of perspective.
As Christians, we know that God is all-knowing, that he is fully aware of all things. What we don’t often consider is that with omniscience comes omnipresence. For God to know all things he must see all things, and as such he has the perspective to see the benefit from a potential problem.
It’s pretty much a guarantee that we will face problems during our life here on Earth. That’s the price we pay for mortality. The next time you find yourself facing one of these problems, wondering why it is you with trouble and needing an explanation, have faith that we believe in a God that sees all of the angles in life. Put your trust in Him, and those hills will be trending downward in no time.
Psalm 33:12-15 – “From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from His dwelling place He watches all who live on Earth – he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.
Great to hear from you again!
Any projections to the date when you will be ABD?