We often wear our emotions on our sleeves.
When are happy, we express joy and gratitude. People can sense our enthusiasm and zest for life. And life presents us with an abundance of reasons for this bouncy positivity: family, friends, accomplishments, windfalls, and adventures to name a few.
However life also presents us with disappointment and sadness. When confronted with these more somber aspects of reality we instead exude a mixture of sorrow and frustration. The failure or struggle in one area of our life inevitably bleeds over into the others and can turn our whole outlook dour.
These attitudes and feelings in excess represent a reactive approach. Although often subconscious, it is we who allow ourselves to be victims of our circumstances. We who choose to allow the external to dictate the internal. The passage today challenges us to recalibrate.
“Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.”
This charge is no small imperative, nonetheless we have all witnessed it. While watching the US Open this past week I was impressed by not only the great tennis, but the ability for those who lose to respond in a gracious manner. While surely disappointed, they didn’t allow that to become the whole of their experience and were instead grateful to have had the opportunity.
The application of this passage surely extends beyond that of Grand Slam Tennis. We gain outstanding freedom when we internalize that we are not beholden to whim and chance, but possess the ultimate power to select our reaction and mood. Let us therefore properly exhibit control over the one thing we truly hold domain over: our attitudes.