The Difference in a Day

Funny thing, the difference a day will make.

I have allergies. Nothing serious.  I rarely take medication for it. If I know I'll be around something that gets to me, I'll take Allegra or something mild ahead of time. That almost always works. If I get hives I'll take Benadryl, but that's a rare thing anymore.

As many of you know, I still work part-time at the shop where I started blowing glass years ago. And last week, as I was walking across the parking lot and into work, I got this funny tickle in my nose. I believe that it had to do with the nice breeze and the pretty, yellow goldenrod that was blooming close by. Well that tickle turned into a full-blown sneezing, eye watering, nose dripping fiasco. The only allergy medicine that I could find was Benadryl. I'm super sensitive to Benadryl and so I stay away from it as much as possible. If I need to take it I usually cut a tablet in half. Yeah, I know, I'm an overgrown wimp, but one tablet can really knock me out. 

So I suffered for a while, but the watery eyes and nose were too much. And so I took half a Benadryl. It seemed like forever until it kicked in, but finally it did. And then I was miserable in a different way. I slogged through the day, getting the job done but not exactly being in a joyful state. 

 The next day I took an Allegra before heading to work. What a difference a day can make! Or maybe I should say, "what a difference a pill can make." But I'm not endorsed by anyone and so I'll keep to the topic of things other than medicine.

Usually it takes a little more than just a different day to make things better. Sometimes a day can make a difference. But if you wake up in the same patch of goldenrod each day, and don't do anything about it, you'll be miserable. You might get used to the sneezing, but without some other help, the sneezing probably won't go away.

And life can be like that. We get up and walk out into the big world and get hit by all kinds of things. We can learn to cope, but that won't guarantee that the next day will be better.

 But there are those little, beforehand things that can help. For me, it's that good cup of morning coffee alongside a little time to ponder and focus on why I'm here. All of that dunked into a few words from the good book is what it takes.

 I don't believe that we were all placed here for precisely the same reason. But I do believe that we are each here for a specific reason. 

Here’s how Paul wrote it;

“For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.”

And that's how I enter my day. 

 Benadryl just won't cut it for me.