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Personally Speaking
Optimist or pessimist? Is your glass half full or half empty? According to staffers at the renowned Mayo Clinic, your answer to the second question not only answers the first, but it also reflects your attitudes toward yourself and life in general, each of which plays an important part in how well you live and possibly even how long you live. It almost goes without saying that positive thinkers are far more likely to reach their goals than negative thinkers. If your thought patterns have that much bearing on your happiness and well-being, it makes sense to stop from time to time to examine the way you think and to work at making positive thinking a habit.
In explaining their approach to this subject, the Mayo team writes in terms of self-talk--the endless stream of thoughts that run through your head every day. Self-talk can be positive or negative, and so can its outcome. Positive self-talk promotes positive action and progress, while negative self-talk triggers discouragement and defeat.
Some self-talk is based on fact, and some on fallacy. The first step to becoming a more positive thinker is to learn to distinguish between the two, and to reject the false. It is not true, for example, that you can never do anything right. Rejecting such outright lies eliminates a lot of the negative. Other negative self-talk has an element of truth, like "I probably won't be able do this because I've never done it before." That can be countered with affirmative statements, like "Here's a chance to learn something new."
But what about the negative self-talk that stems from hard truths, like a serious accident or illness or the loss of a loved one? How can we think positively about those? There are good answers to that, too, but I'm not going to give them away here. You'll find them on the following pages.
Keith Phillips For Activated
The New York Cabby Miracle
Joyce Suttin
It had been a rough few months. I desperately wanted a baby, to have a little one to hold in my arms, to call my own. Twice I had miscarried. I held these hurts up before God, shaking them in His face and saying, "See what You did when I trusted You to answer my prayer and give me a baby?" I just couldn't move on.
But this day I was moving on, at least physically. My husband and I were moving to New York to work at a mission on the lower East Side. I needed the change. Dan had gone ahead to his parents' apartment in Manhattan, while I had made a detour through Boston to return a child we had been caring for to his parents. During the long bus ride, I curled against the window and wept.
My doctor thought that my last pregnancy had been what they call a hysterical pregnancy--all of the symptoms had been in my head. That had been a humiliating blow, insult to injury. I had been so sure!
We come to the point where we realize that we need to trust Him with every part of our lives.
Now I wasn't sure what I wanted. As I tried to get comfortable on the bus, I doubted everything I had always believed and encouraged others to believe. What business did I have doing missionary work? How could I tell others to trust in God when my own faith was at an all-time low? My life was spinning out of control.
After what seemed like forever, we arrived at the bus terminal in New York City. I had been to New York a few times to visit Dan's parents, but always felt overwhelmed. The city was too big, too busy, too impersonal. I usually walked around like a tourist, looking up. I wasn't looking at the skyscrapers, though; I was searching for a patch of blue sky.
I found my way to a pay phone and called my in-laws' number, desperate to hear Dan's voice. Some of what little money I had with me was eaten by broken payphones, but I wasn't worried yet. Dan would pick me up soon.
When I finally found a phone that worked and got through to the number, there was no answer. I bought a cup of coffee and tried again. Still no answer.
I stepped out on the street by a taxi stand, and realized it was getting dark. City lights blurred the tears that once more filled my eyes.
I went back inside and tried again. Still no answer. I wasn't prepared for this. I hadn't been clear with Dan about my arrival time, and I didn't have his parents' address or know how to get there. Besides, no one was home. All I had was the address of the mission on the Lower East Side where we would be working, in an area known as Hell's Kitchen.
Fear began to set in as I stepped outside once more and hailed a taxi. When I gave the cabby the address of the mission, he asked gruffly, "Really?" He flicked on his meter and pulled away from the curb.
The meter seemed to turn over faster than the tires as we inched our way through traffic. I pulled out my wallet and counted the bills again. The amount on the meter was rapidly approaching the amount of cash I had with me. I had thought when I jumped into the taxi that if I didn't have enough money, I could run into the mission and get the rest, but now I was having misgivings.
I leaned over to get a better look at the driver in the glow of passing street lights. His face had the hard, deep lines of an ex-con or a gang member. I recalled his gruff tone when he questioned the address I had given him. Then a very large scar caught my attention. It went halfway around his neck. This was not a man I could easily relate to or make small talk with.
As I leaned back in the seat, the total on the meter raced past the amount in my purse. I should have been more patient. I should have waited at the bus station and kept calling. I flashed back to every creepy headline I had ever read about cab drivers kidnapping and molesting female passengers. I had made a horrible mistake!
Then I did something I should have done earlier. I forgot my grievances against God and prayed. "Lord, I'm in a predicament! Please show me what to do. Should I ask him to stop and get stranded in the middle of New York City, I know not where? He doesn't look like the kind of person who would understand or be sympathetic. Please forgive me for my foolishness and my bad attitude toward You. Protect me, and show me if there's anything I can do to help You get me safely to my destination."
The answer came forcefully to my mind. "Tell this man about Me, like everything depends on it." Before I could reason my way out of it, I took a deep breath and began.
"I need to make a confession. This taxi ride is costing a lot more than I expected, and I don't have enough money with me to pay for it. I should have said something sooner. I am on my way to a mission, where my husband and I will be working. I am not very familiar with New York, and I didn't realize how long it would take. I am so sorry. When we get there I will have to run inside and get some more money. My husband and I try to live like Jesus did, preaching the Gospel to everyone we meet, and we trust Him to supply our needs day by day."
As I continued, Jesus gave me the words to say, "You know, so many people need to feel Jesus' loving, healing touch. He has all the answers they need, whatever their need. He can heal every hurt, every heartache. His answers are just a prayer away. Have you ever asked Jesus into your heart?"
There was a long, heavy silence, then a cough, then sobbing. I leaned forward and saw a tear roll down the cabby's cheek.
"My grandma used to take me to church when I was a little kid," he began in a deep voice filled with emotion. "She would talk to me about Jesus. I even prayed with her. But then she died and nobody has talked to me about Jesus since. You are right. There are so many people who need to be healed. I need to be healed. I have led a horrible life. My grandma would be so ashamed of me for all the bad things I have done. I don't think Jesus would forgive me now."
It was my turn to choke back tears. "Jesus hung on the cross between two criminals. One of them asked for His forgiveness, and Jesus said, 'This day you will be with Me in Paradise.' Jesus said once that He didn't come to preach to the good people or the people who thought they didn't need His help. He preached to the drunks and the prostitutes, the people who knew they needed Him. He will be there for you, too. All you have to do is to ask Him to forgive you, and He will. He will forgive anything."
My own recent past flashed through my mind--my doubts and failure to keep trusting the Lord when things seemed to go so terribly wrong. "He can even forgive us for doubting Him," I said, my voice breaking. "When we come to the point where we realize that we need to trust Him with every part of our lives, when we accept the fact that He knows exactly what we need and will answer our prayers in His perfect time, that's when He is able to do His greatest miracles."
"Don't worry about the money," the cabby said. "I'll take you wherever you need to go, and pay for it myself. What you are doing is really important. Hell's Kitchen is full of people who need to hear about Heaven. I'll pray more now, and I will try to be a better person. God sent you to me."
We arrived at the mission, and he got out and helped me with my bags. I hugged him and told him Jesus would never fail him. He waited until someone came out to greet me, and then he smiled and waved as he drove off.
So that is how I arrived safely at the mission. I got through to my husband, who apologized for not staying by the phone. He had expected me to arrive on a later bus.
The folks I told about the cabby were shocked. New York cabbies are notoriously some of the hardest people in the world, they said. They never give free rides to anybody. That was a miracle.
But I knew that the real miracle had not been the free taxi ride. The miracle had been that two people who both needed to be closer to God had felt His loving touch. It took the tears running down the face of this seemingly hardhearted cabby to make me see that. The words God gave me for him were just what I needed to hear. God had sent him to me.
P.S. It wasn't long before I began to feel changes in my body, as well. Something was growing inside of me. It was the new life I'd been praying for.
Joyce Suttin ia a member of the Family International in the U.S.
Just Sing!
Mila Govorukha
I was awakened early by a choir of birds. Singing, chirping, chanting, chiming, and conversing, their melodies were loud, joyful, and everywhere--nature's own surround sound. Some friends and I were camping in a wooded area near Mostar, the 600-year-old city that was often in the news during the Yugoslav Wars of the early 1990s.
The birds' notes rose in pitch and volume, then swung to a whisper, then reached a crescendo again, victorious, full of inspiration and joy. The difficulties facing this ethnically divided country were clearly the furthest thing from their little minds. Nearly 15 years after the official end of the war, Croatian Catholics, Bosnian Muslims, and Serb Orthodox are still learning how to live in the same cities, how to work together, and how to forgive.
I went for a walk along the narrow river and took in the scene--the potholed asphalt road lined with bench frames with no seats, the bridge that had been all but destroyed, the small café without doors or glass in the windows, the flowerbeds overrun with weeds. Don't step onto the grass, I reminded myself. There could be mines! For a few moments I forgot about the birds. Why did this happen? Who was responsible for this mess?
With all your being, with all your strength, just sing!
As I neared the teetering remains of the bridge, I saw a bird on one of the rails. Could she remember? Could she have seen someone die here, or have heard the shooting?
Then the bird began to sing, and I forgot about all those questions. Her tiny body quaked as her song burst forth. The music seemed to come from all of her. The sounds poured out with such force and conviction that I wanted to sing too. She seemed to be singing about the rising sun, about a new morning, about the blue sky, about a new day full of hope, about beautiful flowers and the gentle forest, about cool, flowing, sparkling waters that wash the old away. She wasn't thinking about how she looked or her performance. She was just singing with all of her being.
I don't know how long I sat there watching her, but I forgot about everything else. I listened and sang along. I sang about the feeling of freedom I felt rising in me, about new possibilities, about new ways of looking at life, about a new day full of hope, about the beauty of creation and its gentle Creator, about a great love that washes away mistakes of the past. It felt good, it felt great, and it felt liberating.
Forget about ethnic differences. Forget about broken relationships. Forget about the other guy's mistake that never ended in an apology. Learn from the birds. With all your being, with all your strength, just sing!
Mila Govorukha is a member of the Family International in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Answers from God
For all the negative things we say to ourselves, God has given us His positive responses in the Bible.
You say, "It's impossible." God says, "All things are possible with Me" (Matthew 19:26).
You say, "I'm so tired." God says, "I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28-30).
You say, "Nobody really loves me." God says, "I love you" (John 3:16 and 13:34).
You say, "I can't go on." God says, "My grace is sufficient and I will always be there to help you" (2 Corinthians 12:9 and Psalm 91:15).
You say, "I can't figure things out." God says, "I will direct your steps" (Proverbs 3:5-6).
You say, "I can't do this." God says, "You don't have to do it.--I will" (2 Chronicles 20:17).
You say, "It's not worth it." God says, "It will be worth it" (Romans 8:18).
You say, "I can't forgive myself." God says, "I forgive you" (1 John 1:9 and Romans 8:1).
You say, "I can't manage." God says, "I will supply all your needs" (Philippians 4:19).
You say, "I'm not able." God says, "You can do it with My help" (Philippians 4:13 and 2 Corinthians 3:5).
You say, "I'm afraid." God says, "Be not afraid, for I am with you" (Jeremiah 42:11).
You say, "I'm always worried and frustrated." God says, "Give your cares to Me" (1 Peter 5:7).
You say, "I don't have enough faith." God says, "I've given everyone a measure of faith" (Romans 12:3b).
You say, "I'm not smart enough." God says, "I give you wisdom" (James 1:5 and 1 Corinthians 1:30).
You say, "I feel all alone." God says, "I will never leave you or forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5).
Greater Ends
Alex Peterson
In The Horse and His Boy, one of the seven novels in C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia series, a boy named Shasta dreams of traveling to the unknown north, which turns out to include the magical land of Narnia. One night Shasta overhears the fisherman he has been led to believe is his father sell him to a noble from a neighboring kingdom. (We find out much later that Shasta had been shipwrecked as a baby and was found by the fisherman.) As Shasta awaits his new master in the stable, he is surprised to find out that the noble's stallion, Bree, is a talking horse from Narnia. Bree explains that he was kidnapped as a foal and sold as a warhorse, and suggests that they escape together. Their journey north is long and perilous, and they have several encounters with lions along the way.
During the first, Shasta and Bree meet two others who are trying to escape to Narnia--Aravis, a young aristocrat who is being pressured into marrying an unsavory character, and her talking mare, Hwin, who was also kidnapped from Narnia. The four decide to travel together.
When Shasta is separated from the others, he arrives first at their prearranged meeting place and must spend the night alone at the spooky ancient tombs. He is awakened by a rustling in the brush, but it is only a cat, who settles in at Shasta's side. When Shasta is awakened again by the cry of jackals, followed by the terrifying roar of a lion, he opens his eyes and is relieved to find only the cat.
God uses our external problems and our inner torments; He uses our failures and our successes, our trials and our temptations to achieve His purposes for our lives. If we are His, we are held by Him in a love that will never let us go. We need never fear the circumstances around us.--Coty Pinckney
After meeting up and learning of a plot by evildoers to invade Archenland, a small kingdom that borders Narnia, and then conquer Narnia itself, the four are off to warn Archenland's King Lune when another lion comes upon them. This causes the horses to run even faster, but the lion overtakes them and attacks Aravis. Shasta drives the lion away. The horses are exhausted, so Shasta leaves them and Aravis in the care of a kindly hermit and runs on foot to warn the king.
Shasta meets up with King Lune and his hunting party, delivers the message, and heads off with them on a borrowed horse, but gets separated in the fog. Lost and downcast, Shasta senses a presence walking beside him in the darkness. Eventually the two get into a conversation, and Shasta recounts what he sees as his many misfortunes, including his recent encounters with lions. The presence turns out to be Aslan, the "Great Lion" from the other Narnia books, who reveals that he was the single lion Shasta has encountered on his journey:
"I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis," Aslan tells Shasta. "I was the cat who comforted you among the tombs. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the [lifeboat] in which you lay, a child near death, so it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you."
A golden light breaks through the fog, and Shasta turns to see "pacing beside him, taller than the horse, a Lion. It was from the Lion that the light came. No one ever saw anything more terrible or beautiful."
Aslan vanishes, Shasta finds his way to Archenland, and King Lune then recognizes him as his own son Cor, the long lost elder twin of Prince Corin and therefore heir to the throne. Cor and Aravis eventually marry. "And after King Lune's death they made a good King and Queen of Archenland."
* * *
This children's fantasy contains some timeless truths: The difficulties we face in life are not left to chance. God allows each one for a specific purpose, all can ultimately work out for our good, and none are too great for us to overcome with God's help. The "lions" that we fear are actually our salvation, because without them we wouldn't reach our destination; we'd never become the people God wants us to be.
From our vantage point, troubles hardly seem like good things, but God knows what He's doing. He knows where we should be in every sphere of our lives, and He will help us get there if we will do our part, which begins with trusting Him that whatever troubles we encounter on the way are within His benevolent control.
God often lets us get to a point where our own resources aren't enough, but He never brings us to a point where our only choice is to give up. We always have the choice to turn to Him and draw on His resources to get us through, to depend more on Him. When we choose that, He never fails to come through for us one way or another.
Renewing Your Mind
Virginia Brandt Berg
I once talked with a woman who said she tried very hard to think only positive thoughts, but she was never able to keep it up for long. Even when she managed to appear optimistic, inwardly she was often in turmoil. Her self-help approach to positive thinking excluded God, so when things went wrong, she didn't have anything solid to hold on to.
That may seem paradoxical--faith in God being something substantial--but it's true. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). In the face of difficulty and disappointment, faith is far more effective than mere mental exercise because it is backed by promises that God has made in His Word--promises that bring about tangible results when believed and applied to real-life situations.
These promises not only have the power to change problem situations; they also have the power to change us. The Bible tells us to "be transformed by the renewing of the mind" (Romans 12:2). It is through those "exceedingly great and precious promises" that we "may be partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4).
There is no place where the mind can be as fully renewed as in the secret place of prayer
We can, by an act of our will, take our mind off of negative thoughts. Unless we fill that void, however, the negative thoughts will rush back in. What should we replace those negative thoughts with? What is more positive or more powerful than the living Word of the living God? When coupled with prayer, the uplifting, transforming Word of God can give you victory over every ugly, negative thought and its consequences.
As you make a consistent effort to replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts from God's Word, it will become a habit; you will learn to--as the Bible puts it--"bring your thoughts into captivity" (2 Corinthians 10:5).
This is very difficult to accomplish in the tumult of the world. We don't find the mind of God on the streets of social life or in the hobby shop. To connect with Him, find a place where there are no distractions. "When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly" (Matthew 6:6).
There is no place where the mind can be as fully renewed as in the secret place of prayer, alone with God. When we come aside from the temporal things that distract and harass us, and there in the presence of God we put our mind on the things of God, the transforming power of God then begins to work in us, and we are changed, renewed.