The Pitfall Of Positive Thinking Part 2

Dear Victoria, Emma, and Caedmon,

This is a follow up to my last letter to you.  I really don't like writing things in segments because I really loose my train of thought but this is important and I'm hoping I can pick it up again.

I left you with a question.  Which positive thinker get's the job?  Well the answer is pretty deep but comically spiral at the same time.  The joking answer is that the less positive person get's the job because the more positive person will have to be a strong enough thinker to handle the (shhhhh) negative answer.  Therefore, he or she is the stronger positive thinker because they will respond with more of a "well, then, that was not meant to happen and whatever happens will be better.  I want to say really quick, that many of the positive thinkers responses in life are not bad at all, and in fact, I support their outlook many times.  I'm just wanting you guys to get to the bottom of their thinking and ask yourselves two questions:

1. What do these people put their trust in?  For truly we all put trust (or dare we,  DARE we, call it what it is...FAITH) in something or someone. 
2. What do I therefore put MY trust in? 

The real answer, getting back to the question however, makes us have to ask another question.  IF positive thinking has power, if it truly has power in our lives, then how can two people not get what they want?  At this point it really does not matter if "destiny" had a better plan for them and this job was not really the best.  It does not matter how they positively respond to getting the job or not getting it, as this point in our logic I only ask you to think about if that thinking has power or not.  I say it does not.  The only power positive thinking has is the power to ....

COPE WELL.

SO, notice that there is a difference between the power to MAKE THINGS HAPPEN and the power to COPE WITH WHAT HAPPENS.   You guys really need to see that difference.  The reason is, that one is delusional and one accepts that we are not in control.  Something, or someone else is orchestrating our lives.  

I believe that many people truly think that positive thinking gives them the power to navigate their lives.  They put faith in THEMSELVES.  I will tell you how practically this is played out.  

After I wrote part 1 of this to you about a week ago, I went to work.  My boss, who is a very nice lady but definitely believes in the power of positive thought, presented me with the best illustrative material I could ask for.  I literally wanted to laugh and thank her for giving me such great material for you guys!  Of course, I had to respect her as I aught and remember that when one is deceived, he really truly has no idea he is or he would be otherwise...not deceived! 

I thanked her for putting up the outside light where I work.  I work late and cannot see out but people can see in.  It is nice to see who is standing outside looking in.  She says to me "Well, the way I think, and the way I choose to live my life, is that you don't think those things or those bad things will happen to you."  "Do you know who Natalie Woods is?"  

"The actress?" I reply.  "Yes."

"Do you know what she was most afraid of?"  

"Yes, drowning" I answer

"Do you know how she died?" 

"She drowned."  

I think she said something like "there you go" as her great crescendo/ finito moment.  I inside was seeing the absolute absurdity of this.  I will tell you here in a moment.  

As thoughts scurried through my head raising red flags left and right, jumping to logical conclusions, comparing to what the core of my faith is, I decided there was one simple thing I needed to say.  One very powerful crescendo of my own.  

"I believe in the sovereignty of God."  

She did not pick up from there and I did not expect her to. 

So, here my children are the facts: 

If this way of thinking is true, if we have this power, then we should be the most STRESSED OUT people on the planet!! We are quite frankly doomed!!  Dare you even THINK about what bad things may happen to us.  We had better become the most disciplined minds ever.  Oh, and think as well what we could change and do, and rule over with our positive thoughts!  If they have power, we could rule the world!  We could have whatever we wanted!  We could pick all good things to come to us.  If something bad happens, we should learn better than to think of it next time.  

Quite honestly, that stress level makes me sick in my stomach.  

Positive thinking will never change our lives.  It WILL work with helping us cope with our lives.  It will help us choose to respond well, but even in that it will wear out at times and fail to even hit us as we cope with life's hardships   

Worse than that, living a life of positive only thinking is the enemy's attempt to make you think there is no sin, no evil, no suffering.  He really wants you to be convinced of that.  There is no negative, the negative things are only there to help you grow and learn!  Therefore, they are not truly negative. 

Ah, the freedom of our Christian faith!!! I can say I had a shitty day and it's okay!  I can speak that things were rough, tough and horrid and they were!  I can say that I hope they get better and they may or may not!  I can not just be positive, I can have a real and genuine foundation for my positive thoughts, gratitude and trust in the sovereign God I worship.  

God wants us to recognize the struggle of this life.  When we see the bad clearly, we can realize better the cure, the balm, the salvation.  We do not have to fear tough times, we can say we are truly okay with them. Not because we know they will help us become stronger positive thinkers, but because we belong to the King of Kings who promises to make all things good!  That is not always realized here, some of it is, but I have to tell you, most of it is for eternity.  Your life is here is like one grain of rice compared to the storehouse of time in eternity.  

As a believer, if you choose to follow Christ in your lives, you should be beyond positive, you should be something deeper and real, you should be JOYFUL.  You should be bubbling with JOY that is not based on your circumstance but on your foundation of strength.  You can say something is bad, you can weep, and your heart can still have HOPE.  HOPE will show itself in you through JOY.  JOY does not have an expiration date like your positive outlook does.  

Don't look for life to get fixed all the time.  Positive thinkers of today push their smiling agenda on others and the hurting look at them as if they are the most annoying creatures on the earth at the time.  Why is that?  Because at the time of pain, huge pain the positive thinker coming along with their band-aid thinking looks like no help to the man who has lost his limbs.  What good does that band-aid do him?  It does not save him.    

He does not even want to hear it because his reality is truer than these delusions   

The positive thinker lives in fear, truly, down underneath all their band-aids.  You do not have to fear.  You know that good and bad happens.  You know that both have been allowed and will come your way.  You don't control them, you are not in control at all.  You are however....

RESPONSIBLE.

You are responsible to remember in whom you have believed.  You are responsible to be full of gratitude and contentment.  You are responsible to let the hope that is in you shine through in your joy. You are responsible to display the truest form of a positive thinker, one who is grounded in the purposes of God, willing to journey where he would have you, and looking for those you can love.  

More than anything, remember what Paul says in Phil 4:5 to let your gentleness be evident to all.  I really struggle with this but God is working on me.  Sometimes the most gentle thing you can do is listen to people with these thought processes, get to know them as people and say small things as to where YOUR hope is now and then.  Remember how bright an angel of light can be.  It looks totally good to them, it looks like the truth.  You may not be able to talk them out of it, you may only be able to show them the real truth that exposes their counterfeit thinking. So, be gentle little positive people.  One definition of positive is to be "fully assured".  One who is truly, fully assured in life has a foundation bigger than themselves or what life throws their way.  In time, as you pray for people, trust God to show them that their assurance is not full.  They have to see that from seeing fullness in you.  Don't expect them to just believe what you say.  Be patient and gentle...and fully assured. 

The Pitfall of Positive Thinking Part 1

Dear Victoria, Emma and Caedmon,

Quite honestly, my thoughts on this topic are what inspired me to start this for you guys.  It's a topic of our culture today that I believe will become more predominate as you grow up.

My dad use to tell me a lot about how the enemy comes as an angle of light.
 2 Cor 11:13-15 says:
 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.  No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness,whose end will be according to their deeds. 


What does it mean to be an "angel of light"?  It means to be a wolf in sheep clothing, to dress up in so much good that you think you are looking at the real deal.  It's involves Satan's finest tuned trait, deception.  In order to deceive most delicately and effectively, one must look the closest to the truth.  Therefore, when we look at a lot of deceptions, we will find truths on the surface, they will parallel up with truths, but their core, their foundation and their purposes will be lies.  The revelation of what lies beneath the surface will be   thinking we don't want to have. 



Today, it's very popular, and I see/hear it around me all the time, to discipline our minds and mouths toward positivity.  The first obvious thing to do her is to recognize that there is indeed power here.  It is powerful.  

So, what is positive thinking?  Well, quite simply it's being positive in your thought and word as life hits you along the way.  This really plays out on two main levels:  responding positively, and predicting positively. 


Responding positively: 


Many people have had crapy lives, for some reason, they have had one bad thing after another happen to them.  Some, choose to sit in a victim mentality and never move forward because of what has happened to them.  They often will blame their bad decisions or unproductive behavior on those who brought these negative things into their lives.  Others, will be positive thinkers.  They are much more pleasant to be around for sure (or so you will think for a while).  They choose to not let bad rule their lives, they choose to make the best of things.  They will say things like "I don't let that effect who I am" or "I had to keep making that mistake till I learned from it." Even on a daily basis they will look for the good in a bad day.  


Predicting positively: 


Here is where what comes out of the mouth of the positive thinker is crucial to them.  Before a day unfolds, they are careful to speak well of it, and to speak as if great things will happen.  They will look for good outcome as if it has all ready happened.  If something bad is looking like it will happen, they will say things like "Well, let's not speak of that, lets speak as if it will be fine."   They are afraid to speak bad things into existence , and they feel power to speak good things into existence. 


Notice that as I write this, so much of is sounds good, right!?  I mean, who wants to be around an "Eeyore" type all the time?  Wouldn't we all rather be around positive people?  Yes, of course.  Yet, have you not noticed by now in your lives that overly positive people can be just as annoying as those "Eeyore" types.  Either rant is exhausting!  Many times we don't want to listen to the positive person when we just need to absorb that something was indeed bad, we want the freedom to speak the negative.  We also feel that being positive does nothing to change our circumstances.  It's almost as if we are being asked to play pretend and the energy that takes eventually runs out on reality.  I'll talk more about this in a moment however.


Let's think about the power being generated here.  For, truly, it is powerful.  Both negative and positive thinking are very powerful in human thinking.  But here is where the problem arises.  Lets say two positive thinkers both want a job.  If the power of positive thinking gets you where you want to be in life, if it truly works then we have a problem....


Who get's the job????  If you powerfully think positively that you want what I want, does the most powerful thinker win?   


More on this tomorrow...I have a lot more to write for you on this topic. 

Of Cabbages and Kings

Dear Victoria, Emma, and Caedmon,

 Well, you of all people know mommy has lots of thoughts on things. It really struck me lately however that though I have an intense desire to map out those thoughts and write them down, the world may or may not like it or want to hear it. That made me ask myself "who is it then valuable to besides me?". That is when it struck me to write them to you. For, truly, it's not about being right on things, or convincing mass quantities of people to hold my convictions, it's about you guys. You are the future of whatever legacy of thought I write down. I often think of things I want to get down on paper once I've really processed them so I don't forget what that process was. I see no better reason or method of doing this than to write for you. I'm making this a view-able process but really, I'm not interested in feedback, these are conviction conclusions I've come to and they are important for me and for you. When I write to speak to other people, I feel sensitive to understanding that people will hold different views on things. This can really block my flow of thinking. You three are the ones who are going to face the world soon having to process things for yourself and you three are the ones I'm responsible before God for. I want you to learn to think, to process, and you will indeed come up with your own convictions. On that journey, I thank you for hearing what I've had to say. I hope it helps and I look forward to years and years of good hearty discussion with you.
 So, the time has come.... To talk of many things... :)