Charles Swindoll says, “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important: than facts, than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do, than appearances, than giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company. . . a church. . . a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one thing we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you. . . We are in charge of our attitudes.”
Swindoll is right. It is not what happens to us that is important, it is how we respond to what happens to us. It is not what life brings, but what we bring to life that matters. I have known many people who have come from good homes, and had many advantages in life, who never rose above mediocrity. On the other hand, I have known many people who have come from poverty and abuse who accomplished great things. I have known people who were exceedingly intelligent and gifted, who rarely contributed anything to the world. And I have known people who were very average in intelligence and ability who were great successes. Some were willing to believe and work hard in spite of great disadvantages, while others gave up before they started. They never really tried. Some rested on their laurels, while others had a dream. Some complained about what was wrong, and others put forth the effort to make things right. Some had faith in God, and others had faith in nothing. Some lived in cynicism and despair, while others in lesser circumstances lived in faith and hope.
I think there are some key areas of our attitude in life that are important. The first is this: Be authentic. In other words, be real. Be yourself. Authenticity is an attitude of honesty and humility. Don’t try to be someone you are not. Don’t wear a mask around others. Be the same person in public and private. One of the disappointing things about some of our national religious leaders this past year was that they were living two different lives. They were not authentic. Their public persona was vastly different from their personal life. It would have been far better for them to talk openly about their struggles, and admit their weaknesses, rather than to pretend everything was great. Far better for us to know of their struggles, so they could get help and we could pray for them, than have them pretend they had it all together, when they were actually falling apart. We would have had much more respect for them. It is so hard to hide secret parts of your life, and the bigger the secret is the harder it is to hide. The harder it is to hide, the more dysfunctional your life becomes.
It takes courage to be authentic. It doesn’t take any courage to wear a mask. One of the scriptures I love is about what it will be like when the kingdom of heaven arrives in its fullness. Paul says, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). I love that. It gives us such great freedom to be ourselves. And Paul writes that in his wonderful discourse on love in 1 Corinthians 13. So what we see is that in God’s kingdom we are fully known by God and others, and fully loved by God and others. This is the model for what it means to live in Christian community — to be the church. When someone opens up to us about a struggle in their lives, we don’t react with shock and shame. We are honored that someone has trusted us at a very deep level, and we seek to be an encourager and a listener. As we begin to know them at a deeper level, we grow to love them at a deeper level. A kind of relationship develops that was not possible before.
One of the things that has been a great blessing for me is that when new people come into our church and become a part of small group, they remark at how “real” the people of our church are. People are actually open and honest about their struggles and failures, their doubts and fears. They don’t pretend they have it all together. That is why we come together, to encourage and strengthen each other — to let people know that they are not alone. We are a family and we support each other.
A second key attitude that helps us to be more healthy is to: Be of good cheer. You can’t be of good cheer if you are constantly thinking about how bad and terrible the world is. If you are focused on the end of the world, you cannot enjoy the present moment. How can we ever convince the world that we have good news if all we talk about is bad news? And we don’t just have good news, we have the best news the world has ever heard — news that the world is desperately in need of. If you are angry at the world, you cannot be at peace in the world. If you are afraid of the world, you cannot minister to the world. You have to love the world as God loves the world. It was Jesus who said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Just this week I saw a book written by a very popular Christian author entitled The Last Christian Generation. In the book he says, “If trends continue, the next generation of the Church will not even be rightfully called Christian.” Did I miss something? When did this generation become Christian? He is discouraged about the lack of knowledge in people about Christian ideas and worldview. I understand that, but since when did the kingdom of God depend on what we were doing? Have we forgotten about the power of the Holy Spirit? We have always lived in a pagan culture. My hope is not in this generation, or the next, becoming a Christian generation, but in the kingdom of God continuing to move on regardless of how things may appear or what people do. God is going to do what he is going to do, regardless.
Do you believe good or evil is winning the day? If you believe evil is winning then you are saying that evil is stronger than good, the devil is more powerful than God. Jesus Christ has overcome the world. It is not that he will overcome the world when he returns. No, that will just be the evidence of what has been true all along. Jesus brought the kingdom of God into the world, and it has been advancing ever since. Jesus said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing” (Matthew 11:12). It is like leaven in the dough which does its work secretly. It is like the seed planted in the ground which grows unseen. It is like God appearing to Elijah, not in the earthquake, wind or fire, but in a gentle whisper. Elijah stood against the wind and survived the fire, but the word of God spoken in a whisper brought him to his knees. You cannot stop the kingdom of God any more than you can stop the tide or the rising of the sun. If you can hold back the summer, then you can hold back the kingdom of God. As Christians, we are full of anticipation and excitement about what God is doing.
Jurgen Moltmann says, “Expectation makes life good, for in expectation we can accept our whole present and find joy not only in its joy but also in its sorrow, happiness not only in its happiness but also in its pain. Thus hope goes on its way through the midst of happiness and pain, because in the promises of God it can see a future also for the transient, the dying and the dead. That is why it can be said that living without hope is like no longer living. Hell is hopelessness, and it is not for nothing that at the entrance to Dante’s hell there stand the words: ‘Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.’”
Christians are people of hope. For us, sorrow is always a temporary emotion, and joy is the norm. The reason is that we know that life overcomes death, love is stronger than hate, light overcomes darkness, good will ultimately triumph and Jesus reigns. Jesus came to have his joy live in us (John 15:11).
I was watching Lord of the Rings this past week, and there was this wonderful scene where Frodo, the Hobbit, is discouraged because of all the adversity he was going through. As they sit deep in the Mines of Moria, Frodo says to Gandalf, “I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.” Gandalf says to him: “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work, Frodo, than the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the ring. In which case you also were meant to have it, and that is an encouraging thought.” Frodo’s attitude changed when he realized that God’s hand was at work in his life, and that even the difficult circumstances could not deter God’s plan. To realize that is to experience joy. The Bible says, “A cheerful heart is good medicine” (Proverbs 17:22). In fact, a positive attitude and cheerful spirit is better than any medication you can take.
A third key attitude that helps us to be more healthy is to: Be aware of God. Sue and I were driving through Holmes County this last week, and she said to me, “Did you see that sign in the yard?” When I said that I had missed it, she said, “It says, ‘Jesus is coming!’” I smiled and said, “I have better news than that. He’s already here.” Sometimes we are so focused on the second coming that we forget that he has already come. He has not abandoned the world. He may not be living here the way he did in the time of the New Testament, but he is most certainly here. He has not gone away. He has established his kingdom and has defeated sin, hell and death. He lives in the world he has created.
Brennan Manning says, “I believe that the real difference in the American church is not between conservatives and liberals, fundamentalists and charismatics, nor between Republicans and Democrats. The real difference is between the aware and the unaware. When somebody is aware of that love — the same love that the Father has for Jesus — that person is just spontaneously grateful. Cries of thankfulness become the dominant characteristic of the interior life, and the byproduct of gratitude is joy. We’re not joyful and then become grateful — we’re grateful, and that makes us joyful.” When you are a grateful person you possess joy, even when you may possess little else.
What if you lived every moment as though God was all around you? What if you lived as though nothing could happen to you that God could not take care of? What if you lived as though you already had one foot in heaven, and that heaven was, in fact, all around you? What if you really lived as though your sins and failures were gone in the mind of God. What if you lived as though the power of the Holy Spirit lived in you, and you were walking around in a world created by God, loved by him and blessed by his presence? What if you lived believing that evil did not stand a chance, and that it is only a matter of time until it is gone altogether? What if you lived as though every person around you was a result of God’s will and creation, and that they were made in the likeness of God? What if you lived as though you were not meant to be alone, but an important part of the family of God? What if you saw the glory of God everywhere, and the image of God in every person? What if the very sight of a tree or cloud inspired you to worship, and you lived life in deep gratitude and thanksgiving? How different would you life be? A new awareness and attitude could literally change your life.
It was 1741, and an old man was wandering the streets of London. His name was George Frederick Handel. At this point, he was angry at life. His mind kept going back to the time when he was famous and had the applause of royalty and the elite of London. But now his mind was full of despair and hopelessness about the future, for the applause was gone. Others were now in the spotlight and envy began to possess him. Added to that, a cerebral hemorrhage paralyzed his right side. He could no longer write, and doctors gave little hope for recovery. The old composer traveled to France and began to soak in the baths which were said to have healing effects. The hot mineral baths seemed to help, and his health began to improve. Eventually, he was able to write once more, and his success returned.
But then he faced another reversal. Queen Caroline, who had been his staunch supporter, died. England found itself on hard economic times, and heating large auditoriums for concerts was not permitted. His performances were canceled, and he began to wonder where God was.
Then one night, as he returned from his walk, Charles Jennens was waiting at his home. Jennens explained that he had just finished writing a text for a musical that covered both the Old and New Testaments, and believed that Handel was the man to set it to music. Handel was indifferent as he began to read the words which Jennens had put together. But then his eyes fell on such words as ‘He was despised, rejected of men. . . he looked for someone to have pity on him, but there was no man; neither found he any to comfort him.’ His eyes raced ahead to the words: ‘He trusted in God. . . God did not leave his soul in hell. . . He will give you rest.’ And finally his eyes stopped on the words: ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth.’ He became aware of the presence of God. He was aware in a new and profound way, and as he picked up his pen the Spirit of God was moving, and music seemed to flow through him. He finished the first part in only seven days. The second section was completed in six days.
Many will remember that when the classical work was first performed in London, and the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ was sung by the choir, King George II was so moved that he stood to his feet. To this day, people still rise to their feet as the great chorus is sung in praise to God.
In reflecting on Handel’s Messiah, Joseph E. McCabe wrote: “Never again are we to look at the stars, as we did when we were children, and wonder how far it is to God. A being outside our world would be a spectator, looking on but taking no part in this life, where we try to be brave despite all the bafflement. A God who created, and withdrew, could be mighty, but he could not be love. Who could love a God remote, when suffering is our lot? Our God is closer than our problems, for they are out there to be faced; He is here, beside us, Emmanuel.”
That’s the kind of attitude I’m talking about.
Rodney J. Buchanan
January 7, 2007
Mulberry St. UMC
Mount Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
