Things are sometimes worse than they seem!

     Pollyanna had this attitude that everything was fine and would only get better as time passed.  This resulted in many people over the ages being told they had "they were Pollyanna's".  Some of you may not be old enough to know this small fact.  Yes, you can use it whenever and wherever you like.  Some days things are not alright.  Some days everything seems like it's wrong.  Have you ever felt like you should literally go back to bed?  I have and so have lots of other people.  What all of us have every day is a dose of reality.
     While it would be nice if everything was great in our lives; things are not.  We do have coffee in the morning to help us get going.  That's nice  Most of us have someone who likes or loves us.  That too is nice.  We have food and clothing as well as shelter and that's nice too.  It's nice to remember these things.  However, they don't cover up all that is not so good.  Sometimes we are left saying, "There is nothing going right."  Notice the sky didn't fall when I said that.  We do shy away from reality for any number of reasons.  The most common is we don't feel that people want to hear any of the negative in our lives.  "They have enough problems of their own." we say.  "No one wants to hear the negative." we quip. 
     Some days we really do need the worst to happen.  What!?  Some days we really do need the worst to happen.  If all we had was Pollyanna's world every day we would soon take everything for granted.  Juxtaposed is such a fun and appropriate word to throw in here.  I hope some of you can have some satisfaction that it appeared here today.  Back to the topic at hand.  The really bad and the really good are extremes that happen all the time.  Not everything is at the extremes though.  On the 10 scale we find many different happenings all along the way.  Not everything that is good is good and not everything that is bad is bad.  Take chocolate for instance.  Chocolate is one of the ultimate good and bad items in life that cover the whole spectrum. 
     Good and bad take on another life when we put our wants versus our needs in the equation.  If our needs are being met we have little to complain about.  But we do complain because we live in a world of entitlement.  We are taught by pretty much everyone and most entities that we deserve that which is good and wonderful despite what it may do to our lives and the lives of others.  James tells us that we ask and do not receive because we ask with wrong motives.  Being the humans that we are, we have the tendency to be selfish.  In selfish mode we can only see our wants and then in a wrong context.  Again, I submit chocolate.  Chocolate is good and bad and also can be a need and a want.  Instead of wanting we could focus ourselves on our needs.
     When we focus on our needs, the marker between good and bad moves more towards the "good" and the bad seems to diminish.  That's the way it's supposed to be.  As a Christian we are called upon to be a light shining on the world around us.  If we only focus on all that is wonderful and good we do a disservice.  The truth is where we need to be. All the truth.  When we do this we actually give hope to those who have little or no hope.  When our world sees us as humans instead of Christian Pollyanna's change can take place.  Being real with people is a need, not a want.  We need to be real with ourselves and those around us.  Otherwise, our lives are unbelievable.  Who would believe that someone else is perfect?  No one. 
     Today we will go out and engage the world to whatever degree we can.  Don't hide parts of the world you live in.  God sees it all and knows it all anyway.  Your friends and family know more about you than you think.  People are waiting for you to be real with them.  It's not that they rejoice when the bad happens.  They don't want bad things to happen to you (hopefully).  They want and need someone to be real and come alongside them.  They want and need to not feel like a failure when their lives seem to be so rotten.  Share some rot.  Be real.  Help someone to get through their worst so they can be there when you are at your worst.  It happens to everyone.  Everyone.