positive thinking

MLK Day: More Than Monday

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mlkToday is more than just another Monday.  It’s the day that has been set aside to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Dr. King is remembered for his life of dedication, and his speeches that focused on forgiveness, peace, righting wrongs, and loving one another.

Since today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I share a few quotes to honor him:

  • Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
  • Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.
  • Only in the darkness can you see the stars.
  • We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
  • The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
  • It does not matter how long you live, but how well you do it.
  • When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.
  • To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

Please give some careful consideration to this last quote.  I suggest that you focus on it, and make it a prayer throughout this week:

Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself.

 

Depression: An Emotional Hole

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A-5-Minute-by-Craig-SunterLife would be boringly bland if it were not for our emotions.  I’m thankful that I can scan the horizon of humanity and see faces of innocence framed in smiles that run from ear to ear.  What would a party be if a child never had the gift of joy when he unwrapped a toy?

Emotions are God’s gift to His creation, and I believe He intended for you to have a life filled with gigglicious moments—those times that are delicious with laughter.

When I think of emotions, I wonder about Adam and Eve.  They never had a second of sadness, and they were never disappointed; not, until they sinned and disobeyed God.  Their lives of delight were immediately overcome by fright and despair as they tried to hide from God.

The negative and debilitating emotions that Adam and Eve experienced in the Garden are the same feelings that still afflict thousands of people today.  Some research by the National Institute of Mental Health confirms this:

  • 60% of our fears are over things that will never happen.
  • 30% of our fears are focused on things that happened in the past
  • 90 % of our fears are somewhat insignificant
  • 88% of our fears are health-related (hypochondriacs)

The Anxiety and Depression Society of America has stated that anxiety disorders are the most common forms of mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older (18% of U.S. population). Uncontrolled worry can have a debilitating effect on a person’s appetite, relationships, job performance, and sleep–all of which can be precursors to depression.

While your situation may be different from those of another person, the circumstances of life should not circumvent your emotional health.  Circumstances are external events that trigger an internal and emotional response.  Even though you cannot control all of the externals, you can learn to manage the internals.

The simple truth is that you either control your thoughts or they control you. A key means of controlling your thoughts is to be introspective with a proper perspective. This is a technique that is at least as old as the Apostle Paul, who said: “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise—dwell on these things.”

It takes discipline and practice to make this a habit. This is because many people are born with a negative bias in the way they see life. Research indicates that the brain is more likely to focus on negative feelings instead of positive feelings. This has been referred to as the FUD Factor (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt). When our thoughts are left unattended they wander into the wilderness of negativity and stumble into the cesspool of distress.

This is one reason Paul said that we need to bring “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).” Some thoughts can be wonderfully captivating; however, others are so powerful in their negativity a person becomes a prisoner of his own mind.

When you give some thought to your pattern of thinking, you become aware of your self-talk; and, you can begin to identify it as wholesome conversation that builds your self-esteem and glorifies God or an attack on who you are in Christ.  When you begin to recognize the pattern of your thoughts, you’ve taken the first step into transformative thinking that will renew your mind (Romans 12:2).

A Soothing Touch

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holiday-stress-680x380With Christmas in the air and the holiday preparations underfoot, how are you doing?  Are you feeling overwhelmed by your commitments and underwhelmed by your resources?

According to a survey done by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, you’re not the only one who feels this way.  Here are the Top 10 things that people say they dislike at Christmas:

  • Crowds and long lines
  • Gaining weight
  • Going into debt
  • Gift shopping
  • Traveling
  • Seeing certain relatives
  • Seasonal music
  • Disappointing gifts
  • Having to attend holiday parties or events
  • Holiday tipping

Even the Psalmist admitted to feeling overwhelmed: If I say, “My foot is slipping,” your loyal love, O Lord, supports me. When worries threaten to overwhelm me, your soothing touch makes me happy (Psalm 94:18-19).

If you’re needing a little soothing, the Psalms reassure you that God will hear the sound of your pleading, and He is your strength and shield (Psalm 28:6-9); and He has promised to be present in the thick of danger, and to preserve your life from the anger of your enemies (Psalm 138:7).

The Terminated and the Terminator

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FEAR1-1024x734IT:  IT can get you in its bear-like grip and paralyze you.  IT can loom so large in your life that you can’t see beyond it.  IT can be so heavy that you are too weak to carry IT.  IT can seem so foreboding that IT fills your mind with worry.

Everyone has an IT, but not the same one, nor to the same degree:  IT may seem to have no end, while other ITs appear to come and go.

The fear of IT may leave you fret-filled and fret-full.  Whenever tragedy strikes, your IT monitor scans the horizon for potential harm and the news media fills your IT tank with fear that’s fresh and toxic.

When fear begins to creep into your life and consume your thoughts, remember there’s “grace to help in time of need,” and it flows from the throne of God.

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.  For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16).

Grace is somewhat like the manna in the days of Moses.  I’s present when needed, but it can’t be stockpiled for the future.  Grace never comes too late and never arrives too early.

The phrase “grace to help in time of need” can be thought of as, “grace for a well-timed help.”  We live in the context of the moment, and think in terms of hours, days, months, and years, but God lives in the scope of eternity. Because He understands and has full knowledge of the beginning, the present, and the end,  at the same time,  He comprehends what confounds us.

This is one reason God says: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).”

The next time IT begins to dominate your thoughts, remember that you’re not forgotten:  God knows your name and He knows your need.  You’re always on his mind, before His eyes, and at the center of His heart:

“Can a woman forget her nursing child or lack compassion for the child of her womb? Even if these forget, yet I will not forget you. Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands (Isaiah 49:15-16).

One of the best ways to manage the potential predicaments that IT sets before you, is to turn your thoughts to the promises of the Psalms, and the 145th Psalm is an IT Terminator:

The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and gracious in all His works. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them. The Lord preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh shall bless His holy name, Forever and ever (Psalm 145:17-21).

Instead of trying to live with IT, I encourage you to live without IT.

More Than A Twist and Shout

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twist-shout-greatest-hitsIt’s not quite the stuff of the Beatles Twist and Shout:  It’s better.  Psalm 95:1-3 has a lot of shouting, and it encourages you to twist your heart and soul into the presence of God:

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the Lord is the great God, and the great King above all gods. ~Psalm 95

  • These verses encourage you to sing out: I have trusted in Your mercy, so my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me. Psalm 13:5-6
  • They admonish you to be filled with joy within: Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous; and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!  Psalm 32:10-11
  • They suggest the need to express your thanks: I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving. Psalm 69:30
  • Instead of being quite, you’re instructed to shout up to the heavens, and to delight in God’s righteousness by shouting for joy and being glad. Psalm 35:7

As you make your plans for the weekend, I encourage you to reflect on this Psalm. It may serve as motivator to get you to make a joyful shout to the Lord; to serve Him with gladness; and to come before His presence with singing (Psalm 100).

Closer Than You Think

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GodIsCloserThanYouThink_480x340You’ve been there, or you know someone who has.  The sweet nectar of success has been replaced by a bitter taste and bad breath because the corporate carpet has been pulled out from under you.  Your coworkers no longer think of you as a friend, and they’re nervous when they see you.  They’re afraid your bad luck might be contagious.

No one seems to care, the phone calls have stopped, and you feel like you’re alone at the bottom of a dark pit of discouragement.  You hear a voice, but you’re not sure of the words.  Did it ask, “How is the view from down there?” Or, were the words, “It really isn’t too bad a view from down here.”

There’s a world of difference between “down there” and “down here,” and a wave of calm and comfort flows through you as you realize you’re not alone.  You never have been and you never will be.

In Acts 17, Paul said: “God gives everyone life, breath, and everything they have.  From one man he has made every nation of humanity to live all over the earth. He has given them the seasons of the year and the boundaries within which to live.  He has done this so that they would look for God, somehow reach for him, and find him. In fact, he is never far from any one of us.  Certainly, we live, move, and exist because of him.”

The bright lights might get a bit dim; your hope might get a little bruised; and, in the moment the powerful promises could lose their glamor; but, God is not absent.

As a man who was well acquainted with times of sorrow and joy, David contemplated God’s presence:

“Can I go anywhere apart from Your Spirit? Is there anywhere I can go to escape Your watchful presence? If I go up into heaven, You are there. If I make my bed in the realm of the dead, You are there. If I ride on the wings of morning, if I make my home in the most isolated part of the ocean, even then You will be there to guide me; Your right hand will embrace me, for You are always there. Even if I am afraid and think to myself, “There is no doubt that the darkness will swallow me, the light around me will soon be turned to night,” You can see in the dark, for it is not dark to Your eyes. For You the night is just as bright as the day. Darkness and light are the same to Your eyes.” ~Psalm 139

You’re not alone; Jesus promised to never leave you or forsake you.

The Pull of the Magnetic Pole

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magnet_attractAt some time in your life, you have probably heard a person described as having a “magnetic personality.”  When you were a child, there may have been a point in time when you were fascinated by the mysterious powers of a magnet.

When Richard Feynman, a physicist, was asked to explain magnetism he said:  “I really can’t do a good job, any job, of explaining magnetic forces” in terms familiar to the average person.  Feynman did go ahead and in the simplest terms say that all the “electrons in a magnet are spinning in the same direction.”  The spinning gives birth to the north and south poles in a magnet that creates its magnetic pull.

When you think about the pull of the polls, no one seems to be able to answer the question:  Why does every electron have these polls?

Let me change the direction of this discussion from the north and south to the east and west and from poles to souls.  Because the earth has a North Pole and a South Pole, it is easy to measure the distance between the two. There is no  East and West Pole.  You cannot measure the capacity of God’s mercy and His forgiveness for the soul of His children.

In Psalm 103, the Psalmist wrote:

For as the heavens are high above the earth,

So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;

As far as the East is from the West,

So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

When you fail Him, God does not push you away.  He pulls you to Himself with His mercy and grace.  The prophet Micah spoke of this when he said:

Where is the god who can compare with you—
    wiping the slate clean of guilt,
Turning a blind eye, a deaf ear,
    to the past sins of your purged and precious people?
You don’t nurse your anger and don’t stay angry long,
    for mercy is your specialty. That’s what you love most.
And compassion is on its way to us.
    You’ll stamp out our wrongdoing.
You’ll sink our sins
    to the bottom of the ocean.

Take one snippet of this verse with you as you go about your business today:  “Compassion is on its way to us.”  Let God pull you to Him, so you can bask in the warmth of His compassion.

 

Judge Scalia and Jiggery-Pokery

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scalia2According to Justice Antonin Scalia, the decision of the Supreme Court to allow health care subsidies nationwide is nothing less than “jiggery-pokery.”

After a little research, I’ve learned that jiggery-pokery is associated with the dishonest manipulation of the truth.  This is what Justice Scalia felt the majority of his fellow judges had done when they twisted the truth and skillfully sidestepped it by misinterpreting the words of the law.

Paul gave a jiggery-pokery warning to Christians in several different churches.  He alerted them to the danger of being deceived by “persuasive words, fine sounding arguments, and those who change the truth into a lie.”

Recognizing the truth in a world filled with deceit can be difficult.  This is why we need to heed the words of Paul:  “Do everything you can to present yourself to God as a man who is fully genuine, a worker unashamed of your mission, a guide capable of leading others along the correct path defined by the word of truth.”

The Man With The Better Idea

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thomas-edisonI have always been amazed at the brilliant and inventive mind of Thomas Edison.   During his lifetime, Edison developed many devices including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and his discoveries were the prototype of the modern day power grid.

To offer some insight into the mind of Edison, I have selected five simple but intriguing quotes that are credited to this wonderful man:

  • The man who doesn’t make up his mind to cultivate the habit of thinking misses the greatest pleasure in life.
  • The world owes nothing to any man, but every man owes something to the world.
  • I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. I wish I had more years left.
  • Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
  • I believe that the science of chemistry alone almost proves the existence of an intelligent creator.

In 1914, Edison’s factory burned to the ground destroying his one-of-a-kind prototypes.  Edison’s response to the catastrophe revealed his character: “Thank goodness all our mistakes were burned up. Now we can start fresh again.”

This remarkable statement by Edison, reminds me of Paul’s assessment of his life.  Notice the value he places on what he lost and what he gained, and how he contrasts the earthly and the eternal:  “But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.  More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith (Philippians 3:7-9).”

What do you value most, the earthly or the eternal?  Paul said: ” For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).“

Simply and Complexly Marvelous

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Beauty-of-NatureIf you want to spice up a conversation, bring either religion or politics into the discussion.  There are many diverse opinions on both subjects, and the topic of creation can stir the pot among both the believers and skeptics.

Some people believe in a random Big Bang form of creation, others espouse a view known as intelligent design, and then there are those who embrace the Genesis account of creation.

I find it hard to look at the intricate design of the world and believe it just happened by chance.  In Psalm 9, David writes:  “I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works.  I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.”

When was the last time you paused and reflected on the “marvelous works” of God?  What would a flower be without its fragrance?  How dark would the night skies be without the light of the moon and stars?  How different would birds be if they were drab in color and whistled and sang out of tune?

The sunrise, the sunset, and the rainbow are the canvas on which the Master Artist paints in vivid colors, and the day would be much different if it began and ended in a colorless brown instead of fire-red hues.  Speaking of fire, what would fire be without its warmth on a cold night or water without its refreshing coolness?

How about food?  What would chili be like if there was no spice or a breakfast roll without cinnamon?  And, it’s almost too painful to consider a world without the tantalizing flavors of ice cream and the aroma of freshly baked bread!

How mundane would life be without this complicated, yet marvelous thing we call love?  Isn’t love the WOW factor in everything that God created?

When you read the book of Genesis, you see God at work.  After He had spoken the physical world into existence, God formed Adam out of the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life.  Next in line was the creation of the animal kingdom, but God wasn’t finished until He created woman.

Adam thought he had seen it all, but then he saw Eve.  To Adam, she was the marvelous WOW-inducing work of God

Take sometime this week, to marvel at the works of God, and the way He has blessed you.