Lessons From a Blueberry

Things That Are Dumb

1. Traffic with absolutely no cause

2. Everything Kanye West says

3. Expectations

We played this game in the car the other day, asking each other ,”What are some things that you think are undeniably dumb?” Not surprisingly, being an opinionated individual, my list went fairly long. But these were the top three I settled on.

When there is no rhyme or reason as to why people hit their brakes, it is dumb. You know what I’m talking about. You’re stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, inching along for a few feet only for it to magically evaporate two minutes later. WHY?! Why did that happen? Can anyone explain? No. It’s just dumb.

Does the second point really need any explaining? Ok, moving on.

Expectations. We all have them. Whether they be about relationships, situations, movies, sophomore albums, job opportunities, or politics… we have expectations. And typically, when something happens to alter them, it hurts.

I’m not going to pretend to know how to fix that hurt in my life or yours, but I do think it’s helpful to be aware of your own expectations.

I had pretty high expectations heading in to this week. I had a second phone interview with an impressive and fun tech company in the city and I felt like I really rocked it. I expected to get an on-site interview.

I didn’t.

And I was (am?) incredibly disappointed.

One of the professor’s at Golden Gate gave a short devotional message before our new student orientation last week. As he was sharing scripture from the book of Isaiah, he profoundly said, “Disappointment is inevitable. Discouragement is a choice.”

If you’ve read the book of Isaiah, you can agree that he found out a few things about disappointment. (If you haven’t read it, I would suggest you not to start there. It takes some more heavy duty studying, trust me)

I’ve been holding on to the words of that professor. If I become discouraged every time an expectation is altered, then I am in for some serious heartache in whatever is left of this life I’ve been given. What is a sure way to keep your heart from being discouraged? Always being thankful. There is never, ever a moment where we don’t have many things to be thankful for.

I'm going to come clean about something right now. I hear that the blogosphere is the place to do that so here we go: I really, really, really like VeggieTales. I have for years. It's adorable, clever, hilarious, and shares great messages. So whenever I think of being thankful, one of the episodes of VeggieTales always comes to mind: Madame Blueberry has a ton of stuff but is consistently unhappy. It's not until she comes upon a little girl saying grace over a piece of pie that she starts to understand that stuff won't make you happy. "A thankful heart is a happy heart," the little girl sings. And even as I type those words, I get a little misty (I told you I like VeggieTales) wondering if my heart is as content as that little girl thanking God for what she has. 

What are you thankful for today?