A DIFFERENT ATTITUDE

Most of us have heard the cliché: “Your attitude determines your altitude.” There’s a reason why some clichés are repeated over and over again. The reason? Because there’s truth contained in the words. I recently spent a little Google-time searching for quotes regarding ATTITUDE. Here’s a few which I thought were excellent:

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference” (Winston Churchill)

“Great effort springs naturally from great attitude.”  (Pat Riley)

“There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.” (W. Clement Stone)

“Attitude is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what people do or day. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill.” (Charles R. Swindoll)

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” (Thomas Jefferson)

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” (Zig Ziglar)

“Happiness doesn’t depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude.” (Dale Carnegie)

“Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.” (Ralph Marston)

“Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude towards it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are.” (Norman Vincent Peale)

“Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.” (Vince Lombardi)

“Winning is not everything, but wanting to win is.” (Vince Lombardi)

In the story of Exodus, only two of the twelve spies returned from an exploratory trip to the land that was promised to the Israelites and gave a good report to their leader, Moses. Joshua and Caleb, the two spies, both told Moses, “We can do this!” I absolutely love what Numbers 14:22 (God’s Word and Good News translations) says specifically about Caleb: “…my servant Caleb has a different attitude.” The challenge for all of us today is to be people with a “different attitude.” With the help of the Holy Spirit we can rise above all the negativity, cynicism and skepticism of the day, and be people of faith, hope and love. More about ATTTITUDE in my next post.

A NEW FAD: SKINNY GLASSES

I have new eyeglasses. For the first time in my life the eye doc fitted me with bifocals. No comments about getting old, my feelings are easily hurt. I’m pretty sure something is not quite right with my new spectacles because they change the shape of things. When I look through the lenses, which is the whole point of glasses the last time I checked, everything becomes more vertical. It’s not so much that it changes the way I drive or makes it difficult to pick things up, it’s just that everything is, err, skinny. When I look at myself in a mirror I see someone who is 10 pounds lighter and 10 pounds younger. Not necessarily a bad thing, come to think of it. My youngest daughter, Kristen, calls them my “skinny glasses.” There could be a market for these types of glasses. Instead of dieting and exercise, just get MBR Skinny Glasses. Of course, there’s one small problem: While my new glasses change what I see, it doesn’t change what others see when they look at me.  Oh, well, my first million-dollar idea is toast.

Everyday, when each of us wakes up in the morning, we have a very important choice to make. This choice involves how we’re going to look at our world. We can choose to focus on all that’s wrong in the world, and allow ourselves to be overwhelmed with negativity OR we can choose to focus on what’s right in our world, and move forward with a positive attitude. This is really a simple concept, but one which is very important. I have found that a pretty much any point in my life I will have some amazingly wonderful things happening and some equally amazingly painful things, at the same time. Rare are the times when life is all good or all bad. Most of the time, I’m faced with the choice I’ve just described: How am I going to look at my world today?

Recently I had a conversation with someone I’ve known for a long time, but I haven’t seen in many years. When I was around this person years ago, I knew them to be the type of person that could very easily and quickly become very negative. In our brief conversation, this person once again showed this side of their personality. I was saddened because it means they haven’t really changed. They haven’t allowed the love and life of Christ to transform them into a new person. There’s a lot of cynicism, skepticism and negativity in our world today. In this year of a presidential election, it’s likely to get worse before it gets better. Romans 12:2 offers a great challenge to all of us: “Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” (New Living Translation) Maybe it’s time for a little self-evaluation, where you take the opportunity to intentionally think about what you think about. Most of us would do well to change the way we think and what we choose to focus on, so take the challenge.

All of the above to say, my world is looking much better since I started wearing my skinny glasses!

GOD IS AT WORK

There are certain chapters in the Bible that provide an instant source of strength and encouragement. For me Isaiah 43 is one of those, especially when facing challenging circumstances. In my humble opinion, the words of the Lord “you are mine” (V1) and “I will be with you” are right at the top. The promise of God’s presence is a hugely calming comfort when life is dealing a shot of ugliness. I encourage you to read Isaiah 43 and draw strength and hope from the word of the Lord.

In today’s blog post I want to focus for a few minutes on verse 19: “For I am about to do a brand-new thing. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness for my people to come home. I will create rivers for them in the desert!” (NLT) There are a couple of things in this verse that could easily be missed: First, the Lord declares: “I have already begun.” To state the obvious, which is not always so obvious: God is at work in the invisible before what He’s doing is made visible. Just because you and I don’t see evidence of His hand at work in our lives it doesn’t mean He’s not doing things behind the veil of the visible. As you’ve probably noticed life can get pretty involved and detailed. When God is up to something in our lives He is arranging things so they align with His purposes and plans. This is rarely a one-step process; it’s many steps, involving many people, places and things. We should never assume God is ignoring our cries for help and turning His back on our desperation. He has “already begun” to cause “everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” (Romans 8:28 NLT)

The second thing I see in verse 19 is the question: “Do you not see it?” To me this raises the strong possibility that you and I are often unaware of what God is up to in our lives, especially in the early stages of Him doing “a brand-new thing.” Even though it feels more like winter today (sorry for whining), spring is coming alive in nature. By the time a flower blooms it has gone through multiple stages that have been entirely invisible to the eye. These stages are absolutely necessary for the flower to get to the point where it can blossom. In the genius of our Creator He’s designed these stages to occur with predictability and purpose, each stage and step leading to the next and ultimately resulting in a colorful display of His amazing creativity. The point is, we don’t doubt spring will eventually displace winter but we do sometimes doubt whether God is working for our good. As Jesus taught in Matthew 6:28 the God who tends the lilies of the field cares even more for you and I.

I conclude with this final thought. There’s a strong possibility you never once doubted whether the trees and flowers, which have been dormant all winter, would blossom this spring. You’ve come to expect that nature, with predictability and dependability, will once again be arrayed in a display of beautiful color. The same Creator who established the seasons (Psalm 104:19) is the same God who is working in your life today. You can be confident He is working, and what He’s doing behind the veil of the visible will soon be displayed for you and everyone else to see. Oh, yeah, and it’s going to be good because He is good.