Up Next: May Flowers

(Originally written for the Park Victoria Vision, April 2011.)

Don’t you just love an optimist? Someone who is always looking for the “bright side”, even when it seems as though the sun hasn’t been seen here in Milpitas this calendar year? (Let me just say that if it’s true that April showers bring May flowers and Mayflowers bring Pilgrims, we’re in for a mighty good Thanksgiving this year.)

There are plenty of pessimists in the world. Those whose Special Mission From God is to let you know what the Worst Case Scenario might be. And probably will be. But some of my more clever pessimist friends have applied for a name change. They’d rather be known as a “realist.”

In the mind of a pessimist/realist, they are helping people around them see what they’re missing. A dose of reality, they might say. And whether it is a friend or church member, they insist that it is for your own good or the health of the church that they must share their negative viewpoints with you.

The problem is that we don’t need a special revelation from the gifted “realist” to let us know where the faults are in our lives or our church. The Holy Spirit is more than able to reveal to us those areas in which we need to improve individually and corporately.

So is there room for bringing up the faults and failures of a friend or a problem in the church? Sure there is! But there are some pretty strict guidelines. Have you examined yourself first (Matt. 7:1-5)? Are you without blame (John 8:7)? Should the matter be discussed privately (Matt. 18:15-17)? Are you accusing an elder (1 Tim. 5:19, 20)?

Above all, we are to show love to one another (1 Pet. 4:8) which is to me, the biggest dose of reality for a “realist”. Which would you rather be, an “optimist” or a “realist”? Until you decide, try to stay dry out there!

Really? We NEED the rain?!!

I love eavesdropping on awkward conversations between strangers where neither person knows exactly what to say at the given moment but somehow feels compelled to say something anyway. Case in point: the checkout line at a grocery store.

Inevitably, the conversation in a checkout line is about the weather, at least these days when I feel like calling the SPCA to round up all the strays that keep pouring down. Cats and dogs? It has been raining more like Godzilla and King Kong.

Truly the remark that I love the most is, “Well, we need the rain!” after it has rained for 6 days straight with nothing but good ark-building weather in next week’s forecast too. Need the rain? With my faucets all working just fine before the heavy rains, that’s a tough sell at my house.


Sure, I'm thankful that, true to Scripture, "He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matt. 5:45), but I'm just glad that God promised that the world-wide flood idea isn't a do-it-againer (Gen. 9:11)

Ah, well. Let’s look on the “bright side”, shall we (if and when the sun decides to shine)? If it’s true that April showers bring May flowers and Mayflowers bring Pilgrims, we’re in for a mighty good Thanksgiving this year.

Which is why I’m at the grocery store at all.