I’m Just Feeling Cranky

Sometimes, if you’re like me, you just feel irritable.  The other day, I was working a shift in the middle of the day.  My sweetie likes to come and visit me during my lunch break.  I know he likes it so I let him.  This day as I got in the car, he asked what I wanted to do.  I said, “I don’t care I just need to get away from people for a little bit.”  Sometimes, when you’re in retail, when you’re on lunch you just want some alone time.  We ended up at a local fast food place for a quick lunch, which was really supper.  As we went in we were greeted by the youth pastor of our church and his wife.  They are always delightful and generous. The handed us some coupons and we chatted a little as we ordered.   We ordered and they sat in one part and we sat in another part of the dining room.  Later, as we got up to leave our pastors wife came up and apologized for not asking us to sit with them.  I was humbled and amazed because I never expect that kind of treatment from people.  Her next words made me smile.  She said, “I was just feeling cranky.”  If you knew her, you would know that it’s almost impossible to think of her as cranky.  She always treats everyone with gentleness and respect.   I loved that she could be honest and just admit that she felt cranky and out of sorts.   It seemed like a burden had been lifted; as if it was “ok” to this way once in a while.  I assured her it was fine and it really was because, truth be told, I was tired and would not have been good company.  As I reflected on this, I wondered, “Who said we as Christians we can never feel irritated or down?”  I know we should never want to “wallow” in misery and self-pity but if we are honest, sometimes things can get to us as Christians we have bad moments and we can get irritated.  We do have ways of dealing with these feelings but sometimes others need to know that we are human and have these feelings so they can hopefully see that we deal with our feelings in a positive manner.  Sometimes I think we as Christians feel that we can never admit to our negative feelings.  Funny thing is ummmmm…. God already knows, and others, even Christians, may need to see our humanness.    Sometimes we need to just be honest and say I’m feeling cranky. No, we don’t need to unpack and stay there but if you’re like me I can sometimes feel irritable for no reason.  So if you happen to be “cranky pants” today it’s ok.  Allow yourself a moment of cranky and move on.  God still loves you and we will too.