Much Ado About Nothing
See that graphic of a Wheat field with those affirming words about Who is in control and I’m not? I purposely put my name there as a reminder!
I turned on my Mac, put my finger on the touchpad ID but it didn’t open. Nada. Then I manually input my password. Nada. How can this be? Maybe it’s wanting my Apple password, but nada. I requested a new password. Nada. An hour later, I called Apple. Too early. At 7 am, my call was answered by a kind rep. I explained my dilemma. He struggled, but determined he’d stay with me until we figured it out. Then I remembered I responded to an onscreen message the night before: “Your Mac needs an update”. So, I responded with “Update”. Soon it was time to go to bed and closed my computer. While the kind rep continued to probe my mind for passwords, suddenly my Mac powered down and up again and whoa-la! It was back to normal. The rep said that I didn’t allow the update to finish before I closed my computer the night before. That’s why it wasn’t accepting the password.
That was a two-hour “much ado about nothing”! When will I learn that most of the hassles and frustrations I face – are nothing more than “much ado about nothing”. Why do I let myself get in such a tizzy? For instance, I was picking up a Wendy’s snack for my grandson before I picked him up at school. The line of cars was moving so slow, I knew I would be late to get him. I backed out of the line, parked, and went inside to order. Maybe I saved 3 minutes by going inside. Then the traffic getting to his school was super slow. I texted Bryson. “I may be late. Slow traffic!” His response: “No problem!” I get to the school and wait five minutes for him. He took advantage of the delay to get some reps in – his usual pattern each day anyway. My haste was “much ado about nothing”!|
That line “much ado about nothing” was one of Shakespeare’s works where two contrasting couples each love each other but then they don’t but then they do again. In the end both couples get married and live happily ever after!
I don’t mean to trivialize REAL concerns because life happens and there are instances when it is “much ado about SOMETHING”. And whether it’s nothing OR something, we have a recourse reaction and it is found in “What would Jesus do?”
I look back on the many seasons of my life and now I realize that most of my “much ados” panned out with God in Master control of it all. Whether our troubles or concerns are of mammoth proportions or as minor as getting to the school to pick up my grandson on time, God sees. He is not some remote, distant deity Who is not touched by what we go through. Hebrews 4:15 says: “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same testings we do, yet He did not sin.” Our Lord experienced all our temptations and did so without falling into sin. Christ has a unique understanding of our plight. Jesus feels for us since He experienced those testings as well. Instead of a cold, emotionless judge, or a flawed, fickle spirit, we have a Savior Who we rely and depend on. We “Trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean NOT to our own understanding. In all our ways, we acknowledge Him, and He directs our paths (through sorrow, grief, pain AND through waiting in a long line for our take-out or our groceries or the DMV line.) (Proverbs 3:5-6) He knows. And He offers us His power to conquer because “The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us and He quickens our mortal bodies. ” (Romans 8:11)
Our Lord cares about our nothings AND our somethings. May we cast those cares on Him because He cares for us so much! (1 Peter 5:7)