Have you had a bad day recently? I am not talking something tragic, which I know many have suffered. I am referring to a simple bad day. A day when more things seem to go wrong than right.
It can be difficult in the midst of day to day difficulties to maintain levity of heart. We can all too often and all too easily slip into self-pity and discouragement. I want to offer to you an antidote for this. Two choices you can make that will act as a capable defense against discouragement:
Gratitude and humour.
Thanksgiving and laughter are powerful weapons. I will let this humourous story about a commercial diver convey my sentiments. It is from a brother to his sister…
“Hi sis,
Just another note from your bottom-dwelling brother. Last week I had a bad day at the office. I know you’ve been feeling down lately at work, so I thought I would share my dilemma with you to make you realize it’s not so bad after all.
Before I can tell you what happened to me, I first must bore you with a few technicalities of my job. As you know, my office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a suit to the office. It’s a wet suit.
This time of year the water is quite cool. So what we do to keep warm is this: we have a diesel powered industrial water heater. This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the water out of the sea. It heats it to a delightful temperature. It then pumps it down to the diver through a garden hose, which is taped to the air hose.
Now this sounds like a darn good plan, and I’ve used it several times with no complaints. What I do, when I get to the bottom and start working, is take the hose and stuff it down the back of my wet suit. This floods my whole suit with warm water. It’s like working in a Jacuzzi.
Everything was going well until all of a sudden, my butt started to itch. So, of course, I scratched it. This only made things worse. Within a few seconds my butt started to burn. I pulled the hose out from my back, but the damage was done. In agony I realized what had happened.
The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into my suit. Now, since I don’t have any hair on my back, the jellyfish couldn’t stick to it, however, the crack of my butt was not as fortunate. When I scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually grinding the jellyfish into the crack of my butt.
I informed the dive supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator. His instructions were unclear due to the fact that he, along with five other divers, were all laughing hysterically.
Needless to say, I aborted the dive.
I was instructed to make three agonizing in-water decompression stops totaling thirty-five minutes before I could reach the surface to begin my chamber dry decompression. When I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing but my brass helmet.
As I climbed out of the water, the medic, with tears of laughter running down his face, handed me a tube of cream and told me to rub it on my butt as soon as I got in the chamber. The cream put the fire out, but I couldn’t go to the bathroom for two days because my butt was swollen shut.
So, the next time you’re having a bad day at work, think about how much worse it would be if you had a jellyfish shoved up your butt. Now repeat to yourself, ‘I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.’
Whenever you have a bad day, ask yourself, is this a Jellyfish Bad Day? May you NEVER have a Jellyfish Bad Day!
Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.”
I must say, I have never experienced a Jelly Fish bad day, but I love the way this man maintained his sense of humour and gratitude.
May we do the same.
1 Thessalonians 5:18
“give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:4
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”
Proverbs 17:22
“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”