Oh, spring

Ah, it's 71 degrees and sunny, and life is about as grand as it becomes.

Mary and I walked almost two miles near noon after a 7 a.m. Bible study and a preaching class.

It's just about as peaceful as peaceful can get.

The apostle Paul, who knew some difficult days, says of this sort of thing: "whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

I can almost hear him searching his mind for something to grasp onto that is good, but he does at the end. He says, whatever you can come up with that is pleasing, think about that. You can almost hear the other shoe drop. You really can. You can almost hear him say "no matter what you're going through."

That works, you see. If you're going through difficult times, through financial problems, through parenting that is less than wonderful. Whatever there is that is attempting to bring you way, way down, there is a way to combat it. Think pleasant thoughts. Really. You have the choice.

Use your memory to find those times when things were better. Use your skills to do something that gives you pleasure. Think about what you would love to do in the future that you've never had a chance to or simply not gotten around to.

Whatever is pleasant, whatever gives you joy, whatever lays a layer of peace onto a dreadful day, week or year...do it.

It is the balm that treats the problem.

Paul finishes by saying, "Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you."

As conceited as that sounds, I try to do that which Paul writes about as often as I can for I know no one who seems to have been more filled with the Spirit. His next thought in his letter to the church in Phillip says it all for me. "I've learned by now to be content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, whatever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am."

That's life in a Paulian nutshell, friends. Whatever we have, God gave it to us. So think about that. It will brighten even a near perfect spring day.