By Les Ferguson, Jr.
Columnist

 

I’ve been working in my shop today and still have more to do. I’m making cutting boards shaped like Mississippi. A good friend taught me his technique and helped me create a template. 

I’m making these out of teak for my realtor wife to give as closing gifts. The only reward I get is a double joy: creating something that looks nice and receiving my wife’s appreciation. That’s all the payment I could ask for! 

At any rate, I took a quick lunch break and then settled into my $40 shop recliner to watch a little TV. As I write this, I’m still waiting. My TV turns on; however, there’s no picture, just a blank black screen. I can hear the Roku stick powering up, but that’s all. I’ve tried turning it off and on, and I’ve unplugged it in hopes of it resetting. Yet here I am, writing a newspaper column instead of enjoying what has always been my trusty TV. 

As you can probably imagine, my life is tough and challenging. It’s a desperate situation around here. If the TV never comes back on, I’ll have to buy another one and waste my precious time installing and setting it up. A guy could really get upset about the unfairness of it all. 

Hopefully, you know that none of the above TV drama constitutes a catastrophe of any size. It doesn’t rise to the occasion of true heartache, loss, grief, and struggle that many face daily. In fact, in the greater scheme of things, it’s just a minor irritation, if even that.

It’s funny and often sad at the amount of drama and trauma we can manufacture. Many of us are good at making proverbial mountains out of molehills. 

Should we even mention how easily offended our culture can be? Yes, let’s go there. 

Being offended is a choice. Not everything has to become an occasion for offense. Sometimes, we need to laugh at ourselves. Often, we should embrace the old cliché and let slights and insults roll off us like water off a duck’s back.

It’s like my TV. I was ready to take it out and shoot it because I spent far too much time trying to get it to come on. Any more time spent being frustrated or irritated was a waste. Even worse, had I shot the TV, that would have been the waste of a good bullet. 

How easily we forget what matters! The Psalmist says, “Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.” Psalms‬ 90‬:12‬ NLT‬‬

That dumb TV? It started working at the end of the day!