“My brothers and sisters, count it pure joy when you are involved in every sort of trial. Remember that when your faith is tested this makes for endurance.” James 1:2-3
Michael was always a natural motivator. If someone was having a bad day, he’d be the one saying, “Look on the positive side.” He believed life is all about choices, and he chose how to live each day.
One day Michael had a work accident and fell from a tower. He underwent an 18-hour surgery to get rods placed in his back, followed by painful weeks in intensive care and finally, rehabilitation.
Throughout this entire ordeal and long after it, when asked how he was, he replied, “Great!”
Even on the day of the accident, Michael made decisions that affected his care and recovery. When he recalls the fall, he remembers lying on the ground in extreme pain, waiting for help to arrive. The first thing that went through his mind was his soon-to-be-born daughter. Then, still on the ground in pain, he remembered he had two choices: he could choose to live, or he could choose to die.
He chose to live. He remembers the encouraging paramedics who kept telling him he was going to be fine. But when they wheeled him into the ER, he saw the sober expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses.
In their eyes he read, “He’s a dead man.” This did not help. He got scared.
He knew he needed to take action. There was a lot of chaos in the ER, and one nurse was shouting questions to be heard above the noise. She asked him if he was allergic to anything. He answered, “Yes, I’m allergic to something.”
That made the entire care team stop for a moment. When he had their attention, he answered he was allergic to gravity. The care team laughed, and the mood lightened. He then said, “I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.”
It is easy to choose to be happy – to choose to live – when things are going our way. But when we fall, both figuratively and literally, it is harder to remain positive. We don’t like to be tested because, too often, we fear we will fail.
In those times of trial and tribulation, we need to remember we can choose to call on God for help. No matter how hard we fall, He will always lift us up.
But first we need to choose to live in Him in order to allow Him to live in us.
Watering the Seeds
When have you chosen to be happy in spite of your circumstances?
Do you know someone who is positive all the time? What makes them so positive?
