If you wanna be somebody else
If you’re tired of fighting battles with yourself
If you wanna be somebody else
Change your mind.
These lyrics from Sister Hazel’s 1997 album …somewhere more familiar (and later from their 2000 Fortress album) echo Romans 12:2. I got to thinking about these tonight because I have been going through some struggles with my own attitude as it relates to the church I am priviledged to pastor. I shared with a friend that I find myself regularly wavering between frustration with the way things are and a genuine hopeful belief in what we can become and what God can accomplish through us.
What I find is that when I focus on the negative, my approach to the people is negative. If I think about where we aren’t I do things like avoid answering the phone or sending e-mails. I may even dread (or at least not look forward to) going to our community gatherings on Sunday morning. I spent some time today in that frustrated end of the pendulum I swing on. In talking to my friend I began to think about what I believe we will, through God’s grace, become. In the midst of that I received a returned call from a member of our community that I had had some miscommunication with earlier this week. It could have been a difficult and draining conversation. Instead it was invigorating. Not because of anything in particular except that I came away reminded of the positive future of this people of God in this place and time. An hour later my work phone line rang. To my surprise I jumped up to answer it. (I’m at home by myself, not ignoring my family for church stuff.) Normally, after a long day I ignore the phone. I answered it and, it wasn’t much of a conversation…just someone looking for a phone number…but in a strange way it invigorated me.
My prayer for and focus on the positive hope that God has for us as his church had changed my mind. Say what you want about the “power of positive thinking” but I’m convinced that part of the practice of discipleship is doing even when you don’t feel like it and that through doing your feelings can change. This is true about our relationships with people and with God. My critical and negative thinking won’t change anyone else. It will just bring me down and make me ineffective. I’ll be feeding exactly what frustrates me rather than bringing light into the situation. When I feel those feelings setting in I need to sit down, pray and focus on the good that exist and the great future God has in store for us. By doing that I will be changed.
What things do you need to change your mind about?
