WHO WINS IF YOU DO NOTHING BUT BATTLE LIFE?

(New additions two or three time a week)

How would you like to have lived centuries ago in a small village whose walls were broken down? The enemy was coming and all you had to offer for protection was a sign that read, “We are currently taking bids on how much it will cost to repair these walls.” Wouldn’t have felt terribly safe, would you? Protected by a wannabe. Protected by a future improvement program.

Well, the book of Proverbs has a mind tingler on the subject. It reads “He that hath no rule of his own spirit is like a city whose walls are broken down.”

On the church calendar, this is the Lenten Season. It is traditionally a time for soul searching and repentance. For reflection. For taking stock of who we are and who we want to become. 40 days for special effort - but better, 365 days of on-going follow-through.

It may be an old joke, but there really are people who, when you say “Good morning” to them, basically meet you with a broken-down-wall attitude, “What do you mean by that remark?” Obviously they are badly in need of some soul searching, reflection and repentance,,, and hopefully you are not one of those they.

Have you ever wondered how any intelligent individual could behave in such a manner that actually drives away the very people he or she wants and needs? How can anyone smart sometimes act so dumb?

Well, actually it is surprisingly simple. Psychologists tell us that intelligence isn’t everything we think it’s cracked up to be. It actually influences only 20% of our decisions. The rest of our actions fall heir to our emotional responses.

Psychiatrists say that anger is the hardest emotion to master. Few of us need a doctor to tell us that. Several years ago, some people were advocating that we should let it all hang out. It was called “Scream Therapy” - that if you didn’t scream on a regular basis you would perpetually steam. In other words, gain control by losing control.

The theory, thank goodness, didn’t last. Certainly there is a better way of doing it, infinitely better than having screaming sessions. It is called “reframing” or “reinterpreting” what has just happened in a more positive light. I’ve been doing this for years, I just didn’t have a name for it. It made sense to me that if someone gave me a hard time, it was because they had just finished having a hard time, or the night before, or were just having a bad day. I figured it was a waste of time and common sense to take aggressive words or actions personally.

Yes, some people really are nasty and mean on a regular basis, and they do not like you, along with a host of other people they do not like. But they are in the minority

One of the things I like about most Christians is that they are like Avis - they try harder. And the Apostle Paul tells us that this is exactly what we have to do. In his letter to the Ephesians he says, “You were taught, in regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on a new self…”

What we are talking about is a personality upgrade. A faith-lift might be another way of putting it.

There is a classic story of the artist Michelangelo pushing a gigantic rock down a cobbled street and being asked by someone why he is going to such extremes and effort. “Because,” answered the great sculptor, “there is an angel inside that rock and I am going to let him out.”

Don’t ever underestimate your potential because, my dear friends, there is an angel inside of all of us wanting to be let all the way out.

Do you trust God? Or let me put it this way, can God trust you? Can God trust you to put your best foot forward? To remember and try with all your strength to obey His commandments? To stumble because you tripped up but not to lie there, rather get up and try again?

If you lie down with dogs you will rise up with fleas said ole Ben Franklin. If you rise up daily with Christ by your side, you will rise up a better man or woman because you will feel eternity poking at your soul.

*May we invite you to watch Neil in four of his One Man Dramas that earned him the quote from a nationally known program chairman “may be the new Hal Holbrook” Just click on the link on the right on this blog and enjoy on your computer.(no charge)