I stood gazing out the living room window. A palm tree waved gently in the morning breeze. Three pelicans flew low over the surface of the blue-green water.

Peace flooded over me. Gratitude followed closely behind. Songs of praise burst forth. What an amazing start to my day.

I sat in a chair by the window and reached for my Bible sitting on the tile-topped table. Something caught my eye and I froze mid-reach. There by my right foot was a cockroach, laying on its back. And just like that my focus shifted. Praise took a back seat as dread took over.

Was it dead or just flipped over? My first instinct was to get as far away as possible. I knew, however, that would not be a wise decision. If I came back later and found it gone, thoughts of where and when it it could come back would plague me.

The only solution was to destroy it so there would be no doubt regarding its return. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be done from a distance. I needed to get close enough to take the necessary action. With no-one else to turn to, I summoned up all the brave I could and eliminated this blight on my day.

Looking back on the incident, I could draw a parallel to life circumstances. When everything is going well, it is easy to feel joy and gratitude. As nice as it would be to believe life will remain positive, experience tells me this is not the case.

The question is not if unpleasant things will happen but how will I react when they do? They show up with no advance warning. I have no opportunity to brace myself. Oftentimes, the struggle is not physical, but in the confines of my mind.

I’ve tried to ignore my troubling thoughts and hope the issue will not reappear. Sometimes it even seemed to work for a while. Eventually I would myself looking for them to make sure they weren’t going to pop up and destroy my carefully constructed facade. They were not gone, only hidden.

I’ve not only heard that problems buried alive never die, I’ve experienced it. As difficult as it was at the time, I needed to face the issue. The sooner I dealt with the problem, the sooner I was free to get back to living life fully. No more looking over my shoulder (or down at my feet).

I prefer to have these reminders delivered in a form other than a cockroach, but I know this delivery is one that I won’t soon forget!