Cheer me up.By Neil Earle
“How are things in the United States?” my family asked me when I made my annual August visit to far-off Newfoundland.
“A lot better now that the Olympics are here,” I answered.
The London Games at least had the merit of sweeping the mass shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin off the TV screens for a while. Then, too, a nasty Presidential election campaign (“scathing” said Bob Scheiffer of ABC News) is not exactly improving morale for the 310,000,000 people almost forced to watch the spectacle.
Negativism. We don’t often see it in that light but it is truly a curse of our age.
“There’s no need to worry, nothing’s going to turn out right,” is almost the resigned mantra of our over-communicated generation.
But…it doesn’t have to be that way.
There are legitimate and workable Biblical remedies against the endemic despair that sometimes gets to us all.
A good place to start is in Philippians 4:6-8, with a letter – paradoxically – written from a man under house arrest.
Around 61 AD the legendary Christian apostle was under close guard in the city of Rome, held under phony charges of blasphemy and causing riots. He chose to take the high road of encouraging his followers in the colony of Phillipi in northern Greece to seize the offensive when life seems to be ganging up on you.
“Do not be anxious about anything,” Paul began. Sounds pollyanish but here he was a Roman prisoner and the emperor to hear his case was a man named Nero. Jail was nothing new for Paul. He knew there was one particular mental state that was a fearsome antidote to despair and he gave it: “But in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Thankfulness is the one true gift we can give back to God. At the very least we can always say, “I’m here, thank you God for that.” And the result is a steadying and a calming down that begins to soothe the troubled psyche. In Biblical language, “He restoreth my soul.”
Cheer me up.Can you list five things you are exceedingly thankful for right now? Ten? Go ahead and jot it down. The exercise can be very therapeutic. You will be surprised. From St. Paul to John Bunyan down to Nelson Mandela people have learned that even a prison sentence is no excuse to give up on life, turn negative. “There’s nothing good or ill but thinking makes it so.” It’s no good kicking against the pricks. Drowning our pain in booze or drugs only adds newer even fiercer problems. But cooperating with what life is doing while remaining watchful for opportunities to outflank and outthink our negative experiences – that is key out of our harassments.
In Philippians 4:8-9 Paul shows us what to keep our minds focused on, a forward leaning strategy that can deflect the negativism that’s out there and can to seep into our spirit from the world, from other people and even from our own defeats. Here it is, with commentary as we go:
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true (Isn’t it true that the British did a superb job hosting the world this summer?), whatever is noble (did you see the 200 meter run winner swapping a souvenir with the legless Blade Runner from South Africa?), whatever is right (in spite of all attacks and gross sins the Church of Jesus Christ is still alive, active, doing good works and forgoing ahead – maybe its best gift to the modern world is handing on such documents as this Letter to the Philippians as a prime ally in the fight against stress), whatever is lovely (there are beautiful things in God’s word – try Hebrews 13: 5-6, for example), whatever is admirable (Jesus said Father forgive them to those who were driving nails though hid hands – that should excite our admiration and awe), if anything is excellent or praiseworthy (Isn’t it great how the world comes together every four years in the spirit of peaceful competition – and the terrorists did not win!) – think about such things.”
There’s short list to get us started, only a brief starter form the Bible’s list of “Recipes for a PMA – a Positive Mental Attitude” but let’s get a bit more detailed. Here are four specific strategies to pull us out of our negative spirals that affect us all from time to time.
First, guard your emotions. The bad news can really get us down, even more so when we hear of people trying to get us all stirred up for one side of an argument against another. Think: Is this issue, this crusade, this so-called “great cause” that media and modern culture wants to rub our noises in – this really worth getting upset about? One commentator calls such events “the Indignation Hour” and it has a corollary – “This too shall pass.”
“Pick your fights carefully” is good advice from several fields and we can translate that into the fact that we don’t have to go through life feeling we have to adopt someone else’s extreme position on every issue. Ask: Who’s that manipulating my emotions? The Bible says don’t fight with someone who hasn’t done you any harm (Proverbs 3:30). So far as I know that includes both President Obama and Governor Romney.
One person who called himself a pacifist called me up indignant over some military analogy I had made. Yet this caller was well past draft age. He would most likely never have to fight in a battle. With this overall context in mind I asked him: “What’s the Big Deal for you?” Aren’t you getting all in a stew about something that is outside your emotional field of force.
President Richard Mouw of Fuller Seminary issued Uncommon Decency in 2010 to expose what he calls “the crusading spirit” among God’s people. “Many Christians are spiritual crusaders,” writes Mouw, “They take a no-holds-barred approach to theological or moral arguments with other people. They are not about to listen carefully to their opponents, and anything goes when it comes to their choice of tactics.”
Such people are walking human incendiaries exploding on contact. They can “go off” at the slightest provocation if something they feel sure they are “right” about is at stake. Mouw cites the case of the abortion debaters. He believes abortion is a regrettable taking of a human life but he does not believe it is murder in each and every case any more than a wife who feels forced to remove her husband’s life support after a number of years may be breaking the law in some places. These actions are regrettable and unfortunate but it does not constitute murder for Mouw. Even the Mosaic Law made careful distinction between murder – the premeditated intent to cause someone harm – and manslaughter (Deuteronomy 19:4-7).
As Mouw adds, even his “right-to-life” friends admit that murder is a rather harsh and sweeping word in such cases but…they are too infected with the win-at-all costs mentality to consider backing off from glandular reactions. These are the attitudes that often pervade society and that account for so much bitterness and animosity in our culture. The Bible’s counsel here is wise and calming:
“Evil people are restless unless they are making trouble. They can’t get a good night’s sleep unless they make life miserable for somebody. Perversity is their food and drink, violence their drug of choice…Dear friend, take my advice: it will add years to your life…Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evil men. Avoid it, do not travel on it, turn from it and go on your own way” (Proverbs 4:14-16, Message, NIV translations).
Wow, how sound and sane – avoid it, do not go that way, pass by it, turn from it. Can anything be clearer? We can control that TV tuner – we don’t have to watch or listen to that stuff. We can excuse ourselves from lunch room gossip. It doesn’t have to cling to us.
A second principle here is to remember past victories or deliverances. Our positive or negative attitudes have a lot to do with what we choose to dwell on in our inner selves. As the wide old Book of Proverbs – 3000 years ahead of Sigmund Freud – “AS a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:9). The Bible cautions against a brooding, negative, resentful spirit. King Saul went down that road and tried to assassinate young David (1 Samuel 18, 19). The infamous Judas brooded negatively over other people’s motives and became putty in the hands of a dark force indeed (John 12:1-6).
On the other hand the Bible in both Testaments resonates with the spirit of thankful magnification of the Great God for his countless interventions on behalf of his people. The Psalms are particularly rich here. Notice:
“Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him, tell of all his wonderful works…Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles and the judgments he pronounced.(Psalm 105:15).
A man wrapped up himself makes a small passage and when we isolate ourselves from the way God has intervened for us in our lives we lose a great source of motive force to fuel our future requests to God, as Paul intimated. Hence the practicality that even secular counselors such as Wayne Dyer advises in listing ten things you are thankful for and to keep that list in sight. Remembering God’s intervention in our own personal history can be great source of positive inspiration to deflect the negativism that seeps in from the wired world.
Third, ask for help.
Proverbs 3:5 says not to lean to out own understanding and in addition to the help from God there is help from people we have met who could be great sources of wisdom and advice for us in this uncertain time. Some call this “networking” or leveraging the past. I often wonder how can anyone can navigate the future any more without the help of a capable doctor or an accountant. As our health priorities escalate we need to seek good counsel, not some unknown cure that is packaged within the cover of a book with a far-out title. As a Canadian living in America I have to get the best financial advice I can afford when I report two income tax forms to two separate governments.
Reach out. Network. Don’t be too proud to resurrect former contacts. I remember when pondering whether to go back to Graduate School in 1989 that I decided to ask a former fellow-student from the Sixties for a recommendation. When I phoned up he said, “Neil Earle! I was just wondering about whatever happened to you.” We hadn’t talked for about 22 years so imagine what a lift that was to help me make the right decision. God is no respecter of persons. He is for us if we reach out and ask for his help and guidance.
Fourth, have the Mind of Christ.
This is from Philippians 2:5 and while it means true humility in that passage the call to “abide in Christ” resonates across the New Testament. Remember, Jesus is God and he states his willingness to come to our aid when we found ourselves in distressed or depressed circumstances. “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” he says in Matthew 11:28. Jesus as the Logos was the Creator of all we see about us, visible and invisible. He knows how things work, He knows how our minds and spirits work and he can give us the “breaks” if we are truly in line with his plan for our lives.
How do we build the mind of Christ?
First, set aside some time for prayer and meditation. Be intentional – “Please don’t disturb me for the next two hours.” Flip through a Bible to remind yourself of passages you once knew that once spoke powerfully to your spirit as you were setting out in the Christian life. The sense of connection may not be immediate but hang in there. Wait on the Lord. Let God come to you in the Spirit, listen rather than list your demands. The Holy Spirit is a gentle dove and he will begin to insistently place the very thoughts you need in your mind to arm you for the daily battle. Ask for encouragement for God’s defences for you against the negative spirit of this world.
And if you ask, the answers will come. The Ruler of all things, the very Wisdom of the Universe can be on your side. Has he not said so?
“So I say to you; Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be open” (Luke 11:9-10).
You know this promise is true. It’s as solid as writing a black check on the bank of heaven. Thousands escape the Curse of Negativism every day. You can be one of them.