I first noticed Jack diving backwards into the pool at Covenant College. It was 1973 and we were both starting school as freshmen. He was wearing a floppy hat and one wild-looking pair of jams. I didn’t know it was Jack at the time, actually. I was unpacking and happened to look out the window at this guy who was clearly part duck. He knew all kinds of ways to enter the water, and was happily exercising his options.
When we met later, he had that same pair of jams on. I learned later that he had rescued them from the trash on more than one occasion, for while they were a favorite of his, they were not a favorite of his mother’s. Mom tried unsuccessfully to sneak them out of the house, but Jack always tracked them down, and put them on again.
This morning while the coffee was brewing, it occurred to me that we put on favorite attitudes as surely as we put on favorite clothes. What we choose affects the way we look and act.
(Think dressing up with a feather boa, football helmet, high heels, and purple evening gloves. Why, yes, I do have in mind a former student who wore them all at once. But his name is safe with me.)
So anyway, the coffee was brewing, the music was playing, the cats were fed, and the shades were up, letting in the early morning light. I was gearing up for another day. And I heard Steven Curtis Chapman sing:
This is not how it should be
This is not how it could be
But this is how it is
And our God is in control
Across the room I could see a picture of Jack, dressed in a tux this time, holding my hand as we entered our son’s wedding reception a mere two months before he died.
This is not where we planned to be
When we started this journey
But this is where we are
And our God is in control
And I was thinking about how my day and my whole life will go if I believe this. There’s not just the stuff that happens in life, but the way we think about it that affects everything that follows. We put on an attitude, a mindset, in addition to our clothes du jour.
Though this first taste is bitter
There will be sweetness forever
When we finally taste and SEE
That our God is in control
Dressed with this knowledge, let’s dive into the day.