It was Christmas Eve, 2007, when 77-year-old Robert Schoff decided to find the source of a clog in his septic system.  He dug a hole, lost his balance, and became stuck in the opening of his septic tank. The Des Moines, Iowa, man was sure that he was going to die.  He yelled for his wife for an hour, but she did not hear him.  However, she did walk by a window and see his feet sticking up in the air.  Two Polk County sheriff’s deputies pulled him out of the mire.  It will not be a top ten holiday fond memory, for sure (AP report via Fox News, 12/26/07).

Probably none of us have fallen headfirst into the same bad situation that Schoff did, but all of us have moments in life that just stink!  Job, the great sufferer, said that life was “full of turmoil” (Job 14:1).  James, by inspiration, dubbed them “various trials” (Jas. 1:2).  These tumultuous trials range from irritations and inconveniences to full-blown, five alarm burdens.  It may be mistreatment.  It could be physical or financial.  It might be emotional or spiritual.  Eventually, it will be all of these for most of us.  What do you do when you fall head first into the unpleasant?

Watch your attitude and speech!  Trials and troubles can turn you bitter.  This will boil over into your speech.  You will sound negative and you will become focused, even obsessed, with complaining about your problems.  You do not want others to associate you with bitter complaints and angry tirades.  Paul writes, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice” (Eph. 4:31).  This is a sin-problem that otherwise, basically good people fight, grumbling and growling about those septic tank situations of their lives.

Use it as an opportunity to glorify God!  Such runs contrary to worldly wisdom.  The world preaches that we cry foul, that we howl long and loud for everyone else to hear, that we play the victim, or that we obsess about the matter.  The Christian, realizing the vastness of his or her influence, instead follows the great examples of the faithful in scripture like Job (Job 1:21), Paul (Phil. 4:10-12), and the prophets (Jas. 5:10).  Peter tells us to glorify God if we suffer in our Christian lives (1 Pet. 4:16).  How hard that might be, yet how much more effective that makes us as His light and salt in this dark, unsavory world!

Count your blessings, not your crosses!  Really, isn’t it a matter of upon what we choose to focus?  In every life, rainstorms fall.  In every life!  So, why are some cloud-watchers and others silver-lining-finders?  We decide how trials effect us.  That is somewhat frightening.  Habits are formed by repetitious decisions!  Each trial that comes, we react.  The way we reacted to the last trial sets the trend for how we are more likely to react the next time.  The old poem, in part, goes, “Count your blessings, not your crosses; count your gains and not your losses; count your joys and not your woes; count your friends and not your foes.”  No matter who we are, our negatives cannot outweigh our positives–especially if we are “in Christ” (cf. Eph. 1:3).

I am not minimizing the presence, pain, and perplexity of your problems or mine.  I am suggesting a proper perspective.  Cast an eye to Calvary, whereupon the perfect Man hung.  Peer into the prison, where Paul sat waiting for Nero to behead him.  Watch, listen, and learn!  You will find yourself in some foul places in life.  Don’t let them infect you.  Let them improve you!

Neal Pollard