A Change for the Better

Be glad in the Lord always! Again I say, be glad! Let your gentleness show in your treatment of all people. The Lord is near. Don’t be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all of your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks. Then the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. From now on, brothers and sisters, if anything is excellent and if anything is admirable, focus your thoughts on these things: all that is true, all that is holy, all that is just, all that is pure, all that is lovely, and all that is worthy of praise. Practice these things: whatever you learned, received, heard, or saw in us. The God of peace will be with you.   

--Philippians 4:4-9

 In my previous blog, I wrote about challenging assumptions that drag us down and keep us from achieving the kind of future that God envisions for us.  We need to go one step further.  We do not need to just challenge and put aside our false assumptions, we need to embrace something different.’’

Paul describes a life to the church at Philippi that focuses on the true, holy, just, pure, lovely, and worthy of praise. He encourages the church to rejoice and to be glad even in the face of hardship and persecution.

Why should we be so concerned about feelings?  Does it matter how we feel as long as we are faithful? Actually, it matters a great deal.  How we feel directly impacts the decisions we make and our ability to think creatively.  Robert Quinn, in his Deep Change Field Guide cited Barbara Fredrickson’s research into the impact of positive emotions on openness and learning.  She described something called a “positivity ratio” which is the frequency of positive feelings divided by the frequency of negative feelings for a specific period of time.(DCFG 132)

“Fredrickson found that there is a tipping point around with the effects of the positivity ratio change dramatically.  When we experience fewer than three positive feelings for each negative feeling, we tend to spiral downward and become increasingly rigid…Above the ratio of three to one, we are pulled upward…[becoming] increasingly open and creative.” DCFG 132

For those of us who are naturally cynical, this can be quite a challenge.  What can we do?  I know people who keep folders of positive notes and cards they receive to read when they need a lift.  Others take time to journal a specific number of things each day in which they have been blessed.  Imagine if, as part of a mealtime routine, we shared the blessings we anticipate for the day or the blessings we received!  Small steps help us to see that God is at work and that God is Good (All the time!).  It reminds me of an old hymn that I miss being in the United Methodist Hymnal called Count Your Blessings:

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?

Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?

Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,

And you will keep singing as the days go by.

So, amid the conflict whether great or small,

Do not be discouraged, God is over all;

Count your many blessings, angels will attend,

Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.

Refrain:

Count your blessings, name them one by one,

Count your blessings, see what God hath done!

Count your blessings, name them one by one,

Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.

--Public Domain

Let’s open our eyes and see the ways in which God is at work today.  How God is using all things, every thing, for good.  Then let us rejoice that we are constantly surrounded by God’s…

Grace and Peace,