Circumstances, the events or conditions in our lives that we experience, don’t have an inherent value besides what we assign to them. A flat tire, while certainly a negative experience, is still just an event. Most of us have probably heard the saying, “attitude is everything.” Again, it’s not a difficult concept to embrace, but I think as we encounter various circumstances during the course of a typical day, we forget that we are in the business of assigning power, minute by minute, to our experiences.

As Christians, our prayers may include asking God to keep our families safe, to provide for us financially, to give us our favorite parking spot at the supermarket. Do we worship a living God who knows us intimately, who we trust to provide for us through all that we encounter? Or do we make of our God a servant who is responsible for fulfilling our every whim? Of course we serve a loving God who wants every good thing for His children, but our relationship will be stymied if we choose to rely on a temporal view instead of God’s eternal view. Only one of those two attitudes can cause us to survive and thrive through a voyage that may bring us fair or contrary winds.