A Possible Cure for Negativity

Have you ever met a sick doctor?

Trust me. You don’t want to.

In the last 2 weeks I’d diagnosed myself with 17 different diseases and come up with a few still unnamed ones to explain my symptoms.

And I still felt like poop.

I tried taking one of every pill I had in my house to help cure what I had.

Didn’t work.

I finally did what any normal person would have done.

I slept.

For 12 hours straight.

While my cough this morning still suggests the remote possibility of TB or lung cancer, at least I don’t feel quite like death marched all over me anymore and that’s a start.

Anyway, I’d written a blog post during my illness that in hindsight sounded grim (read it here if you want to feel a little bit depressed).

I’d also tried to record a podcast in which I sound like my pet turtle died. Thank God I had the mental fortitude not to share it with the world.

All this physical turmoil got me thinking that perhaps much of our negativity these days is due to fatigue.

We have mental fatigue and the result is that we sound grim.

Right now if there’s one thing that every human (including you eeyores out there) agree on is that the negativity on Facebook is through the roof.

Some are suggesting that people are quitting Facebook like never before (don’t hold your breath, but can you even imagine life without FB? A dream that alas might never be fulfilled in this lifetime).

The thing is, we don’t have to quit FB.

We don’t have to stop talking.

But we might benefit from taking a nap.

Tired of the never ending avalanche of opinions.

Tired of the continuous stream of 140 characters.

Tired of the 24/7/366 ongoing barrage of argumentative “must make a FB update or else” need to speak all the time.

I’m tired even thinking about it, aren’t you?

We’re told that we ought to engage. That we must speak up for what we believe in.

I don’t disagree.

But I wonder if we would do it better if we did it out of a place of clarity and rest.

If perhaps we would find better solutions by weighing our opinions more carefully, sometimes choosing not to speak, occasionally deleted a post that might simply be too grim.

If perhaps we fought the pressure to always have to say something about everything.

If instead we chose to fix our minds on all that is good in our world.

We are living in the best days possible.

Think about it: this week I literally had 55 options of pills to take when I was sick – right there in my own medicine cabinet. I had the freedom to actually sleep for 12 hours (is that even humanly possible??). That I have a blog and a podcast and the means to talk to any of you anytime anywhere is incredible. Unbelievable. Totally awesome!!

We are living in the greatest days imaginable.

I know that right now the world feels dark and chaotic.

But remember that the darker the world the brighter the light of Jesus can shine through us.

We’ve been given a gift – but I wonder if we’re too tired to recognize it.

Oh, and come to think of it, I haven’t even coughed once the entire time it took me to write this blog post!

Featured Resource: