TheDiscipleMD

The other day, as I was surfing the channels on my TV, I happened upon the classic 1954 Hitchcock film, “Rear Window.”  Jimmy Stewart has the lead role, and Grace Kelly is his love interest. During the movie, they exchange this line.

Lisa:(Grace Kelly), “I wish I were creative.

Jeff: (Jimmy Stewart), “You are. You’re great at creating difficult situations.

Like Grace Kelly’s character, some of us seem to “create difficult situations” out of little or nothing.  If there is no crisis in our lives, we will create one because we have become comfortable with our “lifestyle” of misery. Misery has become so ‘normal’ for us that when we are not feeling that way, we manufacture it in our lives to feel comfortable.   And the attention some of us garner by manufacturing daily crises is worth, to us, the price.  The problem, of course, is that in “manufacturing misery” out of little or nothing, we make everyone around us miserable and unhappy. Unfortunately, we have a hard time understanding that by living our lives as such, we pay the highest price of all.  Our lives are full of sorrow.

This life will produce enough misery naturally without our help.  Too often, we make “too much” out of “too little.” My wife and I went out to dinner recently with another couple of our own age. The other woman mentioned that, looking back on raising her children, she realized that she worried too much about too many things that were of little consequence. She had ‘created’ misery in her life.

As we continue down the path of life, we don’t need to manufacture difficult situations of misery.  They will appear without our help.  As the old saying goes, “Don’t sweat the small stuff!” Let us be of good cheer, and its influence will buoy us up throughout life’s trials.  Misery loves company, as the old saying goes. So let’s not go knocking on its door when no invitation has been sent.