Good Morning, Dear Friends,
I’m not quite sure where it originated, but most of us are familiar with Murphy’s Law. It reads as follows:
Nothing is as easy as it looks.
Everything takes longer than you expect.
If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that goes wrong first will be the one that will do the most damage.
Left to themselves, all things go from bad to worse.
If you work on a thing long enough to improve it, it will break.
If you think everything will be okay, you have surely overlooked something.
Mother Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
Most of us at times believe we are the victims of Murphy’s Law. But despite Murphy’s Law, there are people who manage to live happily even in adversity. How do they achieve this?
Something I’ve learned along the way is that happiness is an attitude of the heart and not a function of circumstance. A thoughtful poet once wrote, “Two men looked out from prison bars. One saw mud, the other stars.” If you’re a student of life, you understand the truth of that observation. Happy people are found in every conceivable circumstance and at all economic and social levels.
Once a news reporter from a large southern city wrote a series of articles about the street people of his city. In order to research his story, he decided to live as they did for a two-week period. He adopted their mode of dress, let his beard grow, and left all his money and credit cards at home. He made some interesting discoveries. Among them was the fact that many of the people seemed to be happy despite their circumstances. He said, “I found that there were about as many happy people living on the streets as there are in affluent suburbs.” It’s hard for us to imagine how people who have nothing can be happy. Perhaps the poet was right. Maybe there are people who always see the stars, even from behind prison bars.
In writing to the Philippians, the apostle Paul said, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:12-13). Murphy’s Law is not universal. We can be happy in any circumstance, for happiness is not a function of circumstance. It is an attitude of the heart.
In the name of Christ who gives us strength,
