Small Setbacks

“The person who lies awake at night, who is gloomy, who is in a bad humor, has usually not suffered some great blow; he has simply been unable to turn small setbacks into encounters with God.” A.G. Dorronsoro

As I’ve gotten older—married with kids, settled into my career—I’ve started to notice what older generations have said about time flying by. Part of it is that each day seems very similar to the one before and the one after.

When you’re young, there’s so much change. Every new day, every season, every year in school brings something different. Summer vacations feel like entire lifetimes. But it’s the routine, the monotony, that makes the days blend together as an adult.

And when I think of this quote, I think of how often each day has these little setbacks, these little struggles, these little frustrations. It’s not the big ones that come so often—though of course our lives are punctuated by great blows. But the opportunity to encounter God is most often in these daily small crosses.

The frustrating coworker. The cold you can’t shake. The broken dishwasher. The traffic that makes you late. The kid who won’t listen. The bill you forgot about.

These are still encounters with God. Opportunities we don’t want to miss.

It’s the accumulation of small frustrations that wears us down. The ones we don’t think are worth bringing to God. The ones we just stew over, complain about, let ruin our mood and our day.

But what if we treated them differently? What if each small setback was a chance to turn to God instead of turning inward?

The days might still blend together, but we’d be meeting God in all of them.