What to do when we have a bad day

When things go bad, go south,  we find ourselves habitually reacting in the same ways. Observe yourself.  Generally these reactions  fall into one of a few.
We are panicked. We lose our cool  and don’t know  what to do. This is more a fear than anything.

We are perturbed.  We get really angry and want to  see the situation  gone and blame either God or others,  rarely ourselves.

We are persistent  We play the Stoic.  Some people find themselves putting up with the problems.  They just endure it indifferently.  Some people really don’t care what happens to them.  This indifference can kill the soul.
I believe that God calls us to something deeper. The trials  produce  four major spiritual fruits in their season:

1. Penitence
Saint Paul  said he was not less than the greatest of the Apostles, Peter,  yet he was treated as off scouring of the earth, or to use the vernacular,  treated as scum.
It caused him  to  be penitent to reflect on who he was and who God is.  Constantly in his epixtles he says he was “the least of the apostles”.  He is the “chief of sinners,”  and every other epithet he could muster.  Many of us do not know what sin  is except superficially, thinking that if we haven’t killed anyone we are alright.  However,  the essence of our fall is the introduction of evil  desire into the heart, not just for carnal  pleasure, but desire for anything to gratify ourselves rather than God.

2. Patience
The great apostle  was hated by his own  congregations.  They accused him of not being an apostle because he seemed to be unfavored by God.  He learned to endure great  things by his trials.  Spiritual  patience is like a workout.  We must work the muscle out and it hurts.  Without the extra weight on it,  it cannot grow.

3. Perfection
Trials make us perfect. Not sinless, albeit mature.  The trials of the Christian  perfect us and cause us to live more like Christ. Hear what St. James said to his congregation,

“Let patience have her perfect work, that you may be mature and complete lacking nothing.”( James 1:5)

4.  Performance
St. Paul said he was set forth  to be a theatron-  literally a theatre spectacle- for other people to behold.  We are sometimes placed in difficult situations because God wants to display  His grace in us through the world. 
Let us take courage in our our trials rather than being defeated.  Let us rejoice in Christ,  as Paul said,  “who gives us always the victory!”