Dear Friends,
A man walked into a fortune teller's tent at a
carnival and paid his money to have his palms read. The fortune teller said,
"I see many things."
"Like what?" he asked.
"You will be poor and unhappy until
you're 45," said the fortune teller.
"Oh," he said
dejectedly. Then he had a thought. "What will happen when I'm 45?"
"You'll get used to
it."
Negative thinking often sets the tone for our
life. If we expect things to be bad, that is the way they will be. On the other
hand, if we expect things to be good, that's the way they will be.
In Alcoholics Anonymous,
people often talk about "stinkin thinkin."
A few years ago, I had an episode of
"stinkin thinkin." It was at a time when we were pre-recording
sermons during Covid. I was working on a Sunday message and trying to record it
while speaking into a computer screen. Preaching to a video camera was a new
and challenging assignment for me. It was not an easy or natural undertaking
for me, and I had continually reinforced that belief by telling myself again
and again how difficult it was.
I had just spent four excruciating hours
trying to record a 25-minute message, with Pastor Nick, who was overseeing the
taping. Again, and again, I would make a mistake and have to back up and start
all over again. Finally, in exasperation, I cried out, "This is
impossible," and guess what? It would continue to be impossible as
long as I persisted in reminding myself that this is the way it would continue
to be.
I told Pastor Nick that my mind was so filled
with negative thinking that I needed to go home and reassess my attitude. When
I arrived the next day to repeat the taping, I possessed an entirely different
attitude. I attacked the challenge, believing that I could accomplish the task
and within an hour I had completed the recording.
What had changed? It was my attitude. In the
intervening 24 hours, I had realized that my attitude was impacting my actions.
My negative expectations had become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In between recordings, the Holy Spirit had
reminded me of one of the first verses I memorized as a new believer:
Philippians 4:13, which proclaims, "I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me."
Shame on me. I had found myself giving up when
I should have been looking up. I had succumbed to "stinkin thinkin."
Ben Franklin once said, "Blessed is he
who expects nothing, for he shall receive it," and nothing was just what I
had received.
Dwelling upon past negative actions and
experiences will always get us in trouble. Reminding ourselves of our own
inadequacies and insufficiencies will keep us from achieving those significant
things God wants us to accomplish. Shame on me for forgetting this and
reminding myself of my weaknesses rather than His strength, and my past
experiences rather than His present power.
We need to be like the little engine that
could, who kept climbing to the top of the steep mountain all the while
repeating, "I think I can," "I think I can," "I think
I can." And then when we make it to the top, we can relax, enjoy the
feeling, look back down the mountain and proclaim because of God's power,
"I knew I could," "I knew I could," "I
knew I could."
Let us always remember that what seems to be
the end may really be a new beginning,
Yours in faith and
friendship,
Tom
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