“I’d look on the bright side … if I could find it.”
Eeyore, in Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne
Bad news. No news. Cold, blustery, rainy, dreary days. Headaches. Toothaches. Back aches. Old age. Cold coffee. Stale toast. Spam emails. Hangnails. What gets you down? What is that thing, when it pushes your buttons, you find it majorly challenging to look past? to push through? to ignore? to reframe? What makes you sound a bit like Eeyore, even if you only do the ‘woe is me’ marathon in your head? What is it that causes the bright side to go into hiding? Here’s a suggestion: make a list of all the things that, for you, fit one or more of those conditions. If you’re like me there’ll be several. Once you have them all written down, or typed in, picture each of them printed on helium balloons that you can then release into the air. Watch them soar up and out of sight, up into the atmosphere and beyond, where God catches them. Then picture them being observed in God’s hands, being pondered by Him. What might His response be to all of life’s burrs and stickers and brambles? Can we make God’s perspective ours? Can we observe those hiders of the bright side from a 40,000’ perspective? And laugh, with God, about them? For sure, yucky stuff happens in life but it’s our attitude toward it that determines the outcome, allowing or preventing our continued forward motion.
Jesus continues hoping and waiting for his Church to complete the assignment outlined at the end of Matthew’s Gospel account 2000 years ago. His smiling, open-armed encouragement is constant. His Spirit dances with anticipation at the prospect of our fuller engagement in Kingdom ventures and possibly even more at our distancing our souls from the trauma and degradation and noisome blather assailing our eardrums. It’s there, in the quieting security of his Presence, that we discover our fullest equipping for the joy-filled, guaranteed success of the ‘work’ ahead. Onward and upward! PD
