OH WELL! BOO-HOO! NOW WHAT? -- Devotional for September 9, from "Goods Seeds"

They passed through Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they came to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them. So they went to Troas. There Paul had a vision in the night of a man of Macedonia standing on the shore and pleading, “Come over and help us!” Paul concluded that God was calling him to preach there instead. (Acts 16:6-10)

In the film dramatization of Julia Child’s life, she gets word that her publishers have decided to scrap the cookbook they’d encouraged her to write. After six years of preparation, the project is abandoned! Her loving husband worries that she’ll feel abandoned, too. Indeed, she sits in stunned silence for a moment, giving time for the facts to sink in, but not enough time to get a pity party started! We know that from what happened next: with a definite, if not defiant, smile, she says, “Oh well! Boo-hoo! Now what? What can we learn from her interesting response: 1) Oh well – meaning, “I did what I could and what I thought I should. But the project failed. So what! It may be a failure, but I’m not! I am not the personification of my project. It may be dead, but I’m still very much alive! 2) Boo-hoo! This is telling us we must allow time and space for grieving, a very necessary step. But there’s some good self-talk here, too: “I’m not going to be a baby about this, or make it bigger than it is” – which naturally leads to 3) Now what?” This is a positive look to future possibilities: “Maybe this bad news sets the stage for much better news, down the line. (The cookbook eventually does get published, by the way, becoming the definitive and hugely popular resource on French cooking). But I don’t need to know – don’t even want to know – the final outcome. I just need to know what to do now, that’s all. For the shaken but uninjured rider who has just been thrown from a horse, the advice is always: “Get up and get right back on. Let that horse know who’s boss!” Paul and his mission team were at a loss as to where they should go with the gospel. Every turn seemed to be met with an obstacle of one kind or another. Then, in the middle of a sleepless night, while replaying over and over his disappointment about all the closed doors, God sent Paul a vision. Yes, in the night God turned on the light, and Paul awoke with a clear blueprint of what they must do. He booked passage to Greece before stopping, even, for his favorite breakfast bagel! How about you and me? Are we at the “Boo-hoo” stage of life? Then maybe it’s time to move into “Oh well,” for sooner or later God will reveal the what and where of our next assignment. But in the meantime, our duty is clear: find out the “Now what?” and get busy doing it!