Found yourself yet?

Big Talbot Island FL

“Self is the only prison that can bind the soul.”  - Henry Van Dyke

“You have the answer.  Just get quiet enough to hear it.”  - Pat Obuchowski

     Say I own a retail store for many years and have worked at it so long and so hard that in many ways the business has become “me.”  I have supported my family in a fashion with this business, but over time I have built up an inventory of items that were not popular and did not sell.  I develop a dim view of the business – such a dim view that I stress constantly about the huge backlog of undesirable items I am carrying.  Out of concern for my family most times I don’t talk the business at all with them; I withdraw from our mutual activities and become morose in general.  Other times my bottled up fears and regrets for bad purchasing decisions gets to big that I blow up in anger over unrelated and seemingly trivial things.  This goes on until I am in so much misery that I am seeking prescriptions to try to cope with my bottled up anxieties.

     Now say that someone comes along and sees potential in the store and offers a very good price subject to me staying on to manage it.  They guarantee me a good salary regardless of if the store does well or not.  No sooner do I take the offer than all kinds of things in my life change.  I no longer avoid the issue of all of the undesirable items I have built up – they immediately get inventoried and gotten rid of without remorse.  When potential problems arise I simply ask the new owner what they would like me to do about them.  I am back stronger than ever in my commitment to my family, community and friends, fully engaged in and enjoying life.

     What changed?  I am essentially doing the same things.  What changed was my attitudes, the way I viewed my life in general.  And this is to me precisely what happens those days I enlist God as my employer.  I have a new attitude and outlook on life.  I do not regret past bad decisions, I atone for what I can and move on.  I am no longer consumed with this notion of “winning” or “losing,” I am freed up to take things as they come in a realistic perspective.  Everyone around me benefits as I am again interested in them and how I can be useful in their life rather than the business of juggling the negativities roaming about my brain.  I have given up myself- and received the entire world as compensation.

Today, may I surrender my will.  

Email me if you like, DONATE if you can, READ TODAY’S ARTICLE if you have time, but whatever you do be sure to Have a Great Thursday !!

David