A Disappointing Day

Everybody has them—those days when nothing goes quite right. Today may have been one of those days for me.

I started my day early, exchanging my morning cup of tea in the comfort of my favorite chair for a bracing cup of coffee in my cluttered office. I had more work to do than hours in this busy day. The plan of attack was to begin early and stay late.

I had barely downloaded the files for my first project when the interruptions began. Inconceivable! The front office wouldn't even open for at least an hour. It was a pattern that set the tone for the day. There were emails to craft, major communications to edit, videos to post, guests to contact, employees to direct, questions to answer and a field trip to the elementary school our church has adopted.

Sensing my productivity draining away through a widening hole in my will, I concluded a change of environment would be beneficial. I saved the necessary documents to online storage for at home retrieval, packed up my brief case and grabbed an armload of paperwork too large to fit into any carrying bag I had available.

I ran two work related errands and arrived at home, commandeering the breakfast table as a place to sort my paperwork. I opened my Dropbox to begin working, only to discover that my work computer had failed to sync the necessary files with the cloud. Arghh. It will be an early morning again tomorrow.

Fortunately I had a diversion in my blog to write, one that would accompany a picture I had scanned and emailed myself. Or so I thought. The email that was clearly evident in my inbox earlier today is nowhere to be found tonight. Writing finished. Blog not posted. The words make little sense apart from the picture. So now I am writing this blog about my frustrating day.

I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with Solomon, very obviously the wisest of all men. He must have had a few days like mine.

So what do people get in this life for all their hard work and anxiety? Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night their minds cannot rest. It is all meaningless. So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Ecclesiastes 2:22-23

On days like today I cannot center my identity, my self-worth or my joy on the yield of my unproductive hands. If I did, such a disappointing day would drive me to despair.

But I have found an antidote to a disappointing day. When the fruit of my day is unsatisfactory, I can find my satisfaction in God and in the gifts he has given.

Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God. For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him? God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to those who please him. Ecclesiastes 2:24-26a.