Real Problems

Discretion will protect you,

and understanding will guard you.

(Proverbs 2:11)

I will face issues today that I could think of as problems. I might be tempted to call them problems. They will bother me as if they are problems. I will feel these situations are truly problematic.

But they aren’t — not in light of what others are facing today. Real problems. Life-altering problems. Problems that will still sting a month from now, a year from now, ten years from now. My friend Jade battling cancer, hoping to live long enough to see her daughter graduate from high school, is a problem. My daughter forgetting to get a permission slip signed and my having to run up to the school to take care of it is an inconvenience — not a problem.

Indeed, I’ll have hard things to face today. I’ll have things that make me sad today. I’ll have setbacks and interruptions and inconveniences I will deal with today. But not problems.

Oh, that I would know the difference. And when I come to the realization that what I have aren’t really problems, I can look at my hard things and see they aren’t so hard after all.

I can look at the things that make me sad today and choose to be a little less sad. I can face setbacks without getting set back. I can be interrupted and choose to look for God in the midst of it all. Because I know what real problems are. And what I have aren’t those.

I think it’s good to know the difference between an inconvenience and a real problem. Don’t you?