Another Polar Bear...

Woe is meeeee, for I am a Polar Bear who cannot swim...

Cute, Fluffy White Polar Bear from "Balto"

When I was 16, I fell suddenly ill with heart problems and spent some time at Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth having numerous, uncomfortable tests done on my heart. During the long tests, a doctor or nurse would turn on the TV where the movie "Balto" was most always playing.....ok not most always, ALWAYS playing. I had to have seen that movie at least 15 times. My favorite character was a small, fluffy polar bear who couldn't swim. He spent the entire movie saying in his cute, British accent, "woooeee is me, for I am a Polar Bear who cannot swim." When I met Steve some time later, I showed him the movie, and he quickly picked up the famously cute line. When one of us is down or feeling sorry for ourselves, we metamorphasize into that small, fluffy polar bear and focus on the bad. "Woe is me...." we begin to say. Being the funny guy that Steve is, he'll dramatically drape his arm across his forehead, whip out the 'I am a cute British Polar Bear accent' and say in a cute high pitched voice, "WOE is me, for I am a Polar Bear who cannot swim..." It makes me laugh every time and it reminds me that God has given us so much to be thankful for, that it probably hurts His heart when we turn into mornful baby polar bears who cannot swim.
We've had sort of a rocky week with this house selling business. First our garbage disposal died and then our air conditioning...to be honest I've probably spent about an hour or two in my polar bear outfit, feeling defeated/sad/frustrated about the entire situation, but then I remembered an important lesson that God has spent the last 28 years trying to teach me. God is in charge. He has a plan for all of this, and most importantly, He has a plan for me and my family. Without God, there is no hope. Nathan keeps asking me when God is going to sell our house (mostly because he is tired of cleaning his room and living at the mall playground), and I can look him in the eye and tell him that even though we don't know, God does, and God will take care of us. Even if we are polar bears who can't swim sometimes, at least we are polar bears and polar bears are pretty cute.