I caught myself indulging in a little “stinking thinking” this week. You know, the things your mind tells you that you know are not true, but you believe anyway. Stuff like, “you are such a failure.” “You’ll never get better.” “You are not sick, just lazy.” We all have that little voice in our heads. And we all fall into “stinking thinking'” without noticing. All of us.
No test or temptation that comes your way
is beyond the course of what others have had to face.
1 Corinthians 10:13a The Message
But we need not be at its mercy. We have a Resource.
All you need to remember is that God will never let you down;
he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit;
he’ll always be there to help you come through it.
1 Corinthians 10:13b The Message
For me, it starts with thinking about the things I have, not the things I don’t.
I have a comfortable bed when I need to lie down.
I have a cuddly cat.
I have a sunny, temperate day, full of birdsong and flowers.
I can sleep when I need to, eat when I want to.
There is nowhere I have to be, no one I have to please.
I can just be. However I feel, I can feel. I can just be.
But those are just for starters. The important thing is to remember is that all power is God’s power: the power of the sun that feels so good on my face is God’s power. The power of the medicine that stops the miserable coughing. The power, in me, that my body uses to deal with illness. It might not always work the way I want it to, but it works. And those are things well worth celebrating. And receiving with gratitude.
And that’s the cure for stinking thinking. Gratitude.
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.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 The Message
Got it. Maybe I won’t feel better, but I will be better. And I definitely like it better.
And speaking of better, it’s time to take more medicine.