As the Operation Christmas Child Benefit Rally is open to everyone, regardless of spiritual persuasion, I’ve intentionally refrained from posting anything to do with my faith, but not today. For months and months I hoped, I prayed and I planned on today’s weather being sunny and warm. Does anyone see the problem with this statement? The Operation Christmas Child Benefit Rally isn’t about me and it isn’t about you. Today’s event is solely about the children we will serve. They don’t know the rain has changed our plans. They don’t have the leisure of complaining about the weather from the security and comfort of climate-controlled home. It’s more than likely that their little bellies are not full with anything like the delicious French Toast my wife made for breakfast this morning. As I sit here looking out at the rain, I cannot help but smile. If we take a moment to look beyond ourselves we see that today’s weather serves as a beautiful reminder. No matter how hard we hope, pray and plan, we will inevitably be met with life’s unexpected disappointments. It could be an untimely death, maybe you’ve discovered that you’ve been lied to or someone has been gossiping about you, perhaps it’s rained on a day you thought would be sunny... There are so many variables outside of our control; things that happen to us that we would have preferred not to have experienced. Yet, what is ALWAYS within our control is how we choose to respond to these circumstances. When met with lies, we can respond with truth. When met with anger, we can respond with peace. When met with hate, we can respond with love. No matter what we face, we can and must understand that we never surrender our ability, more importantly our responsibility to control our response. I didn’t want rain today but it’s here nonetheless. I suppose I could forego the OCC Benefit Rally altogether... It’s raining, wet and cold... I don’t need to be there; there will be plenty of other people to help the kids... I’d be more comfortable right here inside... Do any of these thoughts sound familiar? As I said earlier, this event isn’t about me and it’s not about you. And so, although I cannot control the weather, I can and will control my response to it! I’m going to gather my leather jacket and chaps, I’m going to strap shoeboxes on the back of my motorcycle and make my way to Green Mountain Harley Davidson. I may be wet and cold but know that I’ll be there with a smile, eagerly waiting to meet and enjoy this very special day with each and every one of you. Note, if you’re traveling from afar, don’t feel like you need to ride your motorcycle, get there as safely as you can. Furthermore, don’t worry about being “out” in the rain; we’ve made alternate arrangements and will be enjoying our time together inside.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 14:05:51 +0000
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