Have you ever had one of those days?  You know what I mean.  By about 8:00 AM, all I wanted to do was crawl back into my bed and read the book of Job because he was the only one in the grand history of all the world I could think of who had been in worse shape than I.  Let’s see if I can even begin to describe for you the ... well you’ll see.

My lovely bride had just kissed the kids and me and stepped into her car at about 7:00 for her daily commute to Alpine.  I had looked at the calendar on my iPhone to determine that I had an astonishingly busy day ahead but it was one to which I was looking forward.  After all I was actually going to get to have lunch and spend some time with my wife.  She was taking a half day off, coming home for lunch.  Then we were going to attend a meeting concerning one of our children at the school.  I had a lot to get done before lunch and then, after the meeting, there were a couple of projects I needed to complete followed by a training meeting at the fire station that evening.  Great.  No Problem.  We got this.  May day would be completed in a mere 14 1/2 hours or so.

No sooner had Stessa’s taillights disappeared from the driveway than young John (age 4) decided to be helpful and pull out the brand new bottle of RED V8 Fusion (strawberry banana). He is such a good boy, and so very helpful!  As the big guy was stretching to put the unopened bottle of RED juice on the kitchen island, his little arms just couldn’t handle the weight and he dropped it.  He dropped it just right.  The lid broke and RED juice EXPLODED up and across the east wall of our kitchen.  Now friends, I am not talking about a simple mess.  I stand 6’3” and this wall was COVERED with RED juice above the level of my head.  Did I mention it was RED?  This is the time of day that I typically sip coffee and reflect on the events of the coming day while the children finish their breakfast.  Instead of that calming and preparatory ritual, I spent every second of that time and used every towel in the kitchen, cleaning the juice from the wall, floor, cabinets, countertop, refrigerator, window, etc.

I finished the cleaning just in time to get all three kids headed toward leaving.  As with all families, we have a routine.  I holler, “let’s go!”  The kids bundle up in their jackets and grab their backpacks.  I remind them that they have, once again, forgotten to turn off EVERY LIGHT IN THE HOUSE (yes, I have become my father), and we all pile in the pickup for or short, two minute, sojourn to the school.  Only this morning, the trusty old truck did not start.  It didn’t even click.  There was no noise at all, save the subtle jingling of the keys and the sudden onset of Lamaze style breathing from yours truly, the one who is now wondering how I am going to get these kids to school on time.  I had left the two-way radio on the night before.  During the summer, that is typically not a problem.  When the nights turn cold, that thing can drain a battery faster than John can splatter juice on a kitchen wall!  No problem.  I am super Dad!  A quick call to a good friend who I knew was also taking his kids to school at that very moment and would be passing within a couple of blocks of the house assured me this was going to work.  By the time he pulled up, I had the jumper cables hooked to my truck.  We hooked them to his.  It cranked on the second try!  Off to school.  Thanks Roy!

On the way to the school, I received a phone call which reminded me that I needed to send out some email early.  The plan was to go home and grab the laptop and head for the office as usual.  Because I had this email on my mind, I wanted to get it done before I forgot so I sat down in my chair at the house to breathe a moment and brush off the stressful events of the morning.  Then I would send the email, pack up the computer, and be in the office by 8:00!

I had just received this machine.  I had had it literally for a week.  My old trusty Macbook pro (on which I am currently typing) is beginning to show signs of age after nearly seven years of constant use.  So I had ordered a new one.  A brand new shiny one!  It had been delivered late in the day on the Tuesday before.  I had an evening meeting that day so I waited until Wednesday to set it up.  It’s now Wednesday again and I opened the thing only to realize that I had completely fried it the night before. 

Advent is coming and with it comes some extra hours of work.  I had several projects going and wanted to get some of them completed so I had worked late on Tuesday night.  At about 9:30, I had finished all I could get done and reached over to take a big swig of the cup of coffee I had sitting on the table beside my recliner.  As the gulp reached the back of my throat, I felt the dreaded but ever recognizable movement of a large insect struggling to be freed from the yawning maw of the predator who was about consume it.  It was visceral.  It was completely involuntary.  It was a rapid and absolute reversal of the natural act of swallowing.  Yes.  I spewed coffee, bug and all, forth!  It splattered my shiny new Macbook Pro.  It splattered the floor, and the chair and the shirt I was wearing.  It was not quite the mess John would make with the juice but it was a mess.  I realized at that moment that I needed to clean off the computer so I dried everything up quickly, believing that I had saved it.  That is, until Wednesday morning when I opened the thing up and realized that it would not even power up.  Emitting from it was the unmistakable aroma of coffee and electrical fire...

All before 8:00 AM.

I was reminded of Judith Viorst’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad, Day.  Of course I had just purchased a new computer so a trip to Australia was out of the question.  The money was spent.  My stomach was in knots.  My body was tense.  I was angry and sad and mostly scared.  It was one of those very human moments.  I felt I needed to do something to fix this mess.  I kept finding myself returning to the computer to make sure it was dead.  My grief was so seeped in reality that (I now recognize) I was in a deep state of denial.  I had killed my beloved new computer.

I called Apple to see what I could do.  I called American Express to see if this was covered under my purchase protection plan.  I called my little brother (the Mac genius) to see if there was anything he knew I could do to reverse the course of damage only to learn that I was, in fact, going to be without the new Mac for some time and that there would be a cost.

At that moment, it seemed as though the world were ending.  Life was bad.  Things were stressful.  As it turns out, the American Express Purchase Protection Plan covered most of the cost of the repair.  I dropped the computer off at the Apple store in El Paso that Saturday.  It was delivered to my door the following Tuesday which I thought was amazing since it had been sent to Memphis, Tennessee.  Add to that the fact that it was the week of Thanksgiving and I am even more impressed with Apple’s ability to handle such a crisis. I am now back to editing this blog with the new machine!

As it turns out, the situation was not so bad.  In the moment, it seemed horrible.  But the truth of the matter is that I can afford healthy juice for my child to drop in a world where there are children who have no food.  A truck with a dead battery (I did end up having to replace that battery, by the way) certainly beats no truck at all.  I am reminded of those who have no transportation and are forced to face the elements to move around their world, some without shoes.  Who am I to complain about a ruined computer in a house that’s wired with wireless internet?  There are homes around the globe with no electricity, much less incredibly advanced technology.  In cleaning that wall that morning, I forgot to give thanks for the wall itself.  Many in the world don’t have walls at all.

I don’t mean to say that we can’t have bad days.  We all have them.  I think we would all have to agree that my Wednesday morning qualified.  We have a right to moments of sadness and anger and frustration and fear.  We have a right to raw humanity.  Put into perspective, though, a bad day for me is a pretty good day compared to everyday for a huge percentage of the population of the world.  When my father (also a minister) got wind of my morning, I got a text message from him saying, “Give thanks in all things.”  It is good, sound, Biblical advice.  Take a look at 1 Thessalonians 5 for that little jewel.  My response was, “too soon.”  Too soon for what?  I was returning his text with an iPhone 4S for Pete’s sake!

I have three healthy, well fed children to make messes in my house.  I have a wonderful, loving wife.  We both have jobs.  We each have cars.  We have a house with walls and heaters to keep us warm and nobody inside those walls has anything to fear from one another.  We have an incredible church in a remarkable community of loving people.

Forgive me, O Lord, for forgetting the blessings.