For Better or Worse, God is in the Details

I have heard members of my religion exclaim that “God is in the details” and “God micromanages our lives” and “we should turn it all over to God.” I start almost every day ready to turn it all over to God and go back to bed, but I suppose that’s not how it works. The trouble with believing these sentiments to their fullest is that doing so can lead you to believe that God is conspiring against you half or more of the time.

In Massachusetts, we had a mild winter with three plowable storms and most of our precipitation in rain. But no one informed El Nino and Mother Nature it was fine for winter to come to an end, so we have been averaging rain probably twice a week and temperatures easily ten degrees below normal. Almost every track meet has occurred in cool to cold weather, often with rain on the horizon, usually with a bitter wind blowing. Graham was supposed to go to a statewide invitational on Friday, but his coaches bailed on it because weather conditions were not favorable for good times. Graham has improved his 800 meter PR but not by nearly as much as he had hoped. We have started this week with sunny days and temperatures in the seventies, but the Patriot League meet is scheduled for Wednesday . . . forecast, rain and highs in the low sixties.

This morning, as I drove him to school, Graham sighed and said, “Why does God give crappy weather for every meet day and not want me to improve in track?” Naturally, I told him the truth: “Well, rain is God crying, so you should ask yourself what you did to make Him sad. Maybe you need to catch up on your seminary work faster.” Look, folks, it’s awe-inspiring power to be able to control the weather!

All right, fine, that’s not what I said. In fact, I said, “Well, you know, opposition in all things and all that,” and Graham changed the subject.

Speaking of opposition in all things, we picked up Lindsay from Pennsylvania this week. She is home for the summer and will be working at Beth Israel Plymouth as well as at Chick Fil A. She is also still rehabbing her knee, and she is demanding that we do huge weight workouts to get her “jacked for wrestling season.” We brought Dobby out to pick her up. Dobby and Lindsay have a complicated relationship, a fact I have alluded to before. He ran right to her and gave her kisses and the like, but he also does not fully appreciate the amount of snuggles she demands. This picture pretty well tells you the nature of their relationship.

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