I went to the store last Sunday evening after church to pick up some food for our monthly men’s breakfast that we would be having the next morning. I hadn’t been in the store in over a week because of the great ice storm of 2026. The last time I went was the night before the storm hit, and to say that it was an adventure is an understatement. That night, the parking lot was packed, the aisles were packed, and the checkout lines were packed. The only things that weren’t packed were the bread shelves, the toilet paper shelves, and the bottled water shelves. One thing you can count on in Texas is that if someone whispers “Winter storm,” we will stock up on Mrs. Beards, Ozarka, and Charmin.
But this trip was a couple of days after we started to thaw a little bit and come out of our shells. I got to the store about 8:30 in the evening, and found a parking spot right up front, a rare treat. After going in and taking a test drive of three or four shopping carts, I settled on a sleek version that had three of its four wheels working and headed to the grocery section.
Once there, I saw just how much impact the storm had. My first stop was the meat section for bacon and sausage. As soon as I came around the corner, I was met with empty shelves. The supply chain apparently had been adversely affected by the weather. There were only 3 packages of bacon in the entire store, a brand I’ve never used, but I grabbed them as quickly as I could before anyone else could lay claim to them. Same thing with the sausage, on the very bottom in the very back, a half dozen packages of “Hot” sausage were all that was available.
And so, it went. Biscuits? Just a few cans left, again, a type that we’ve never used. Eggs? Of the entire egg section, there were only four cartons left. And they were “Cage-free organic brown eggs, packaged in an environmentally friendly container.” I grabbed two of the four cartons and headed to the checkout. The good news? There were no lines. The bad news? After my scanning my second tube of sausage, the dreaded self-check-out message showed up on the screen: “Please wait for an associate.” Luckily, it didn’t take long, and a few minutes later, I was heading across the parking lot with my three-wheeled cart, off-brand bacon, spicy sausage, and politically correct eggs.
Now there’s one of two ways I could have looked at that shopping trip. With irritation and frustration because the shelves were almost empty, they didn’t have what I wanted, the cart had an alignment problem, and the register didn’t work…Or I could realize that in a world where there are people who have no idea where their next meal is coming from, how blessed I was to have a bounty in my basket. The thing is that the choice was mine on how I wanted to react to it.
If there is one thing that is consistent throughout the Word of God, it’s that He has given us the power to choose. And that power of choice includes our attitude. You see it time and again where individuals and groups must decide how they are going to look at a situation. When the Israelites in the Old Testament were wandering in the desert, God literally rained down food from heaven on them. The book of Psalms records:
He rained down manna for the people to eat,
He gave them the grain of heaven.
Men ate the bread of angels ;
He sent them all the food they could eat.
(Psalm 78:24-25)
But you know what the people saw? Not the bread of angels…and they let it be known:
"Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!"
(Numbers 21:5)
The choice was theirs on what their attitude was going to be. And they made a bad choice, complaining about the angel food cake that God Himself was literally handing to them.
We live in a world today of constant complaints, criticisms, and almost unreal expectations. Let’s face it, folks, we’re spoiled and have a lot more in common with the ancient Israelites than we might want to admit when we begin to complain about what God has blessed us with.
We need to remember what James wrote:
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
(James 1:16)
The choice is ours, what kind of attitude we have out there in the world. It’s our choice how we look at things and how we respond to things. Let’s work on choosing praise and thanksgiving.
And I must admit, the spicy sausage was really good.
Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits —
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
(Psalm 103:1-5)
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