Just a Thought

This past week I celebrated my 65^th birthday and thought, wow… how the heck did that happen? Obviously, it wasn’t a typical birthday celebration due to the Coronavirus, but I still thought it was great because one of my kids called me first thing in the morning to wish me Happy Birthday and then later on I got to actually see my other three kids (and assorted grandkids), albeit from a distance. My family is really important to me, so all day long my thoughts were on them, which was great because it kept me from having depressing thoughts about all the crazy Corona crap going on right now.

Thoughts. Isn’t it funny how important our thoughts are, especially in challenging times. Our thoughts are always in motion, always fluid, sometimes going in the right direction, sometimes going in the wrong direction. But thoughts always precede action and if they don’t, that’s when we’re usually in trouble. (Explains why…when I’m in trouble with my wife, I always say, “I’m sorry, honey, I just wasn’t thinking!)

So wouldn’t it be great if we could control our thoughts better and wash out the negative ones? For example, I keep having really bad thoughts about some really bad things I want to do to my neighbor. The problem is that we have a horrible neighbor who acts like there is no such thing as Covid-19. He and his wife sit on their back patio, just two feet away from our small patio, drinking every evening and smoking big cigars. Their cigar smoke blows right across our patio and into our home. So with the virus going on, every evening my wife (who is super high risk due to lung issues) and I have to retreat into our home and close all the windows. Talk about “cabin-fever”. But that’s not all. This same neighbor has a jacuzzi on the roof of their three-story mansion and two days ago they were up their partying at 1:00am in the morning, tossing empty beer cans down onto the roof of our house. And those are only two of the smaller problems they create for us on a regular basis.

But getting back to controlling my thoughts better. I haven’t acted on any of my bad thoughts…yet! But just having bad thoughts makes me feel rotten inside, like I’ve been poisoned by the bad actions of a few bad apples. I don’t want those bad apples to keep making me have bad thoughts, and I definitely don’t want to act on them because that would go against my Christian faith. So I did some research,

- The first concept I discovered is… “What we focus on, we magnify”. So, I guess we shouldn’t focus on the negative because when we do, we make the problem bigger than it really is.

- The second concept isn’t complicated either… “All people are flawed human beings, me included.” So, before I judge people, I guess I better stop and take a hard look at myself first.

Combining those two concepts led me to realize that the power doesn’t lie with my bad neighbor. I alone have the power to control my thoughts and my actions. So, from now on, when rotten apples (or beer cans) fall from the sky, I’m going to redirect my thoughts and focus on what an awesome family I have… And then I’m going to invite all of them over, hand out cigars, and turn up the freakin’ music! (Just kidding!)

Give people the grace to be human.

~ Max Lucado