In a negative world, you and I as believers are called to be positive. The old adage, “You are what you think!” is truer than you and I would ever believe. The story is told of a traveling salesman who got a flat tire on a dark, lonely road and then discovered he had no jack. He saw a light in a farmhouse down the road. As he walked toward the light, his mind was going full steam ahead: “Suppose no one comes to the door. Suppose they don’t have a jack, What if the guy won’t lend me his jack even if:he has one.” The harder his mind worked, the more agitated he became. When he finally reached the farmhouse and the door opened, the salesman punched the farmer in the nose and yelled, “Keep your lousy jack!”
You and I may smile at this story because it pokes fun at a common type of self-defeatist thinking. But regarding your own thought life, how often have you heard yourself thinking or saying, “Nothing ever goes the way I planned it to go.” “I’ll never get this done by the 5 o’clock deadline.” “I always mess up big time.”
Such inner thoughts shape our lives more than any other single force. Like it or not, you and I travel through life with our thoughts as navigator. If those thoughts spell doom and gloom, that’s where we’re headed, because put-down words sabotage confidence instead of offering support and encouragement.
There’s a story about a man who went to a psychiatrist. “What’s the trouble?” asked the doctor of the man. “Well, two months ago my grandfather died and left me $175,000. Last month, a cousin passed away and left me $100,000.” “Then why are you so depressed?” queried the psychiatrist. “This month, nothing!” was the reply.
St. Paul admonished the early church and us with these words: “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things!” (Philippians 4:8/NIV).
Taking Paul’s words seriously about accentuating the positive will make you think differently, and thus feel and act differently. As the poet John Milton wrote: “The mind…can make a heaven of hell, (and) a hell of heaven.” The choice is yours!
September/October 2001