Spending My Energy
I am sure you have sometimes been discouraged as you looked around at people, things and circumstances. I found myself in that place last week. It seemed everywhere I turned, I was meeting negatives and failures in both my own efforts and those around about me. I began to fall emotionally into this place of deep sadness and even fear that I could not fix anything or make things right or work stuff out!
Finding yourself in this type of mood can happen in all kinds of scenarios, both secular and sacred. You can get to this place in your home, business, neighborhood, church-you name it-it can come upon you! I don’t like that place and I certainly don’t want to stay in that condition, but, for awhile, there I was being a real Eeyore type, sitting in the mud puddle throwing mud over myself-woe is me!!
Sometimes, wisdom can come from the strangest places-even from an oldest grown son. Such was the case for me! My precious oldest son, Daniel, sat up talking with his ol’ mom late one night as I tearfully shared the state I was in! He listened patiently and then asked me some thought-provoking questions that really helped me sort through this situation. He suggested I think about where I felt the most satisfied-what was I doing when I had the most satisfying experiences-where I believed I had some impact and truly was, as my motto says in my speaking business, “making a difference one person at a time”! As I thought about those questions, I got excited about some things I had been overlooking and had even forgotten-things Daniel helped remind me of! I want to share one of those “somethings” with you in this post.
As I looked over the last many years of my life, my greatest joys have come when I was sharing with people truths that mattered. It made no difference if I was sharing them in a secular or sacred arena, the truths of the good life and the best way to live-truths that make life a great experience-were the same. Those truths challenge and encourage whether dealing with people, things or circumstances! Those truths come straight from the Word of God and they are intended for universal application.
If a person were to look at the basis for all that is good and worthwhile in life, all that makes life meaningful and stable, all that makes life run smoothly, they would find that foundation in the Word of God. The very founding of this nation was based on godly principles and, if a person would really be honest and open to truth and would lay aside their own desire to be in charge, all the good in a life comes from that foundation. Having attributes like being kind, honest, genuine, trustworthy, moral, generous, loving and self-controlled make for a better life for anyone. Contrast that with meanness, dishonesty, falsehood, being untrustworthy, immoral, selfish, hateful and uncontrolled and it is very easy to see which list would make for a better life. You want to be around people who are the former and certainly don’t like hanging around those who are the latter!!
So, what does all this have to do with where I found myself last week? Just this, I only have enough energy to work on having those good attributes in my own life. Trying to fix everyone else or everything else is not my job! Trying to be a person who represents Christ well in all the arenas of my life takes all of my effort, BUT, if I concentrate there and seek to exalt Him in my own life, I can possibly be the kind of person others want to be around and be like!! Maybe I need to stop trying to change people, things and circumstances and focus on changing ME and maybe that will result in me being different and truly making a difference in lives one person at a time. Food for thought!