(This week I laid my talk out in bullet points)
·
Watching Olympics
o
All participants
have a common story
o
A willingness to
do the work
o
Fight through
negative thinking
o
Maintain a
positive approach
·
Pole vaulter story from
Norman Vincent Peale in, "Power of Positive Thinking":
o
Up for
scholarship – make a vault he’s already made before and get athletic
scholarship
o
I imagine this is
a lot of pressure on him
o
(Have you noticed
that when the pressure gets on us, interior inferior thinking rises to the
forefront of our thinking?)
o
Pole vaulter
looks at the pole then at the bar - “I don’t have what it takes.”
o
Coach: “I want
you to throw your heart over the bar. In
your imagination and in your eyesight only see things above the bar.”
·
So often we look
below the bar and then looking up at the bar, it seems so high and we think, “I
don’t have what it takes.”
·
If you would,
ahead of time, visualize everything above the bar and nothing below the bar,
the lifting power of God with throw you up and over every obstacle in
life.
·
It will work
every time because you are more than flesh and bone – that is the least of you
–
·
You have the
spirit of God with you and God is giving you the strength and courage to go
anywhere you want to go (God can only do for you what God can do through you)
·
Col 3:2 “Set your
mind on what is above, not what is on the earth.”
·
If you wish to
keep up comfortable place in mind, and have a peaceful soul, you must distance
yourself, at least somewhat, from negative distractions around you.
·
But distancing
yourself isn't easy, especially when so many negatives are struggling to get
your attention, and your participation.
·
C.S. Lewis
advised, "Aim at heaven…" That's a wise reminder. You're likely to
hit what you aim at.
·
Indy car drives
are taught not to look at the wall because they’ll crash if they do.
·
In other words
you’re going to go in the direction you look to… so aim high – aim at heaven.
When
you do, you’ll be strengthened in character as you improve every aspect of your
life.
·
(Tell my own struggles
with poor self esteem)
o
Plagued with poor
self esteem
o
Never ever
believed in myself as worthy, but always as a failure, not good enough
o
Put many hours
and personal funds into “wooing” a potential buyer, finding temporary housing
for him and his family; took his wife out everyday looking for houses; wife
called one night to tell me she found a piece of property with another Realtor.
o
That was, “The straw
that broke the camel’s back” after a lifetime of self-esteem self abuse
o
Sought
professional help and brought God into the equation
o
Began reciting,
“God is the strength on which I depend” in emotionally challenging times. (Quote
is the title of Lesson 47 in A Course in Miracles)
·
There is a
biblical counterpart: Phil 4:13, “I can do all things through God who
strengthens me.”
·
Each week we
close our service by reciting The Prayer for Protection and we affirm, “Wherever
I am, God is, and all is well.”
What
this prayer is affirming is that we are
not alone.
o
We are not alone
– God is with us always (all ways)
·
We all have this
habit – when we realize we’ve been unconscious we get upset with/at ourselves…
isn’t that accepting the call to participate in negativity?
o
When you have a
spiritual realization, what do you do, get upset or be grateful? Realizing that you’ve been unconscious is reason
for rejoicing because now I’m conscious again!
·
Would you be
willing to focus your attention “above the bar?” Would you be willing, for the next 24 hours,
to deliberately speak in positive
terms about everything in your life? Would you be willing to speak, positively,
about your job, your health, your relationships, your marriage, and your
future?
o
Would you be
willing to GO OUT OF YOUR WAY to
speak, optimistically, about everything? The pessimistic way doesn’t work—it
NEVER did. Look for the positive in everything… talk positively.
·
Look above the
bar.
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