Sacred Insight: Living it out in community
How does this scripture apply to how you relate to your own community – whether fellow believers or those who are not yet believers?
Do you know a Debbie Downer? A person with a special gift for sucking the joy out of any situation?
Here’s an example…
“Hey Debbie, that’s a great coat you’ve got on!”
“Thanks. I just wish I had some gloves to go with it.”
“Hey Debbie, you’re going to do great at your concert solo”
“I’ll probably mess up.”
“Hey Debbie, you just won free tickets to Disney World!”
“It’ll probably rain.”
In other words, a Debbie Downer is someone who’s gotten into the habit of thinking negatively, anticipating trouble and worrying about everything. See, the way we think is a product of practice, and practice makes … well, habits. Habits are either good or bad little loops in our brains that get literally etched in our neural pathways, and the longer they go on, the harder they become to break. Research has shown that the best way to break a bad habit is to replace it with a good one. The instruction of our scripture “Do not be anxious” can be a particularly hard habit to break because being anxious gives us the illusion of control. And the illusion of control appeals to the human ego, which is a particularly stubborn force that absolutely hates surrendering any kind of control, real or imagined.
So, what do you do when your mind snaps back to worrying without your even meaning to – like a rubber band, seemingly beyond your control? Simply not worrying is like being hungry and not thinking about being hungry.
You’ve got to hijack your undesirable thoughts with good thoughts and replace the habit of worry with the habit of thinking positively. Our scripture gives us a perfect prescription for tackling worry and it comes in two parts.
- Take your worries to the Lord in prayer, remembering to weave a liberal portion of thanks into your petitions.
- When anxious thoughts pop up, notice them and then consciously choose to replace the scenario you may be ruminating over with a scenario that is lovely, excellent and praiseworthy.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8
You may notice that, in God’s solution for the problem of worry, we must be active participants in the process.
Commit to setting aside time to pray, train your mind on thankfulness and consciously work at establishing the habit of thinking about lovely things, anticipating God’s goodness.
With God’s help and your own diligence, you will find that it’s difficult to anticipate the worst case scenario if your mind is already busy thanking God for what you have been given and for the assurance that God loves you and has a plan for you.
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11
How does this scripture apply to how you relate to your own community – whether fellow believers or those who are not yet believers?
Do you have a worry habit? What are the things that you tend to worry about?
Take a handful of those worries/negative thoughts and rewrite the script. How can the scenario you worry about become a blessing to you and others? How might God be protecting you?
Live It Out: Speak blessings out loud over your community. Who are the people in your different communities? Family, friends, work, school? Practice thankfulness by showing gratitude to the people around you. Tell all of your people that you can, why you are thankful for them.