Peace, Be Still |
David Foster Wallace in his famous commencement speech refers to the default settings he returns to—self-centredness, negativity, judgmentalism.
What are your default settings? The things your thoughts turn to when your mind is empty, bored or fallow, say on a too-long walk on a circuit, or in a traffic jam, or interminable queue?
When I am bored or tired, my default settings sometimes lapse into paltry concerns. I might wonder about whether our savings plan is on track (it often isn’t J). I might think about ways to fine-tune our family business so that it is more profitable. I think about this blog and how to grow it. I might fret and worry—about my writing, or whichever relationship is currently annoying me, etc.
And so I am trying to change my default settings: the framework through which I see the world, and process experience, to something more energizing, joy-filled, and full of the positivity which radiates through the Sermon on the Mount.
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These are the spiritual default settings to which I return to find peace. The God contact lenses I put on to see my life sanely!
Rejoice, always.
In everything give thanks.
There is usually a silver lining in situations which one can thank God for anyway.
And when I cannot see it, I thank God for his power to bring good out of all things, even situations which seem irredeemably bleak, even seeds which seem shrivelled and unpromising.
2 If you have aught against any, forgive. Keep the stream of your inner life positive.
Releasing debts is a quick way of returning to peace
3 Do not worry about anything at all (Matt 6).
4 Do not be afraid (Matt 28:10).
5 Prayer changes things. It is the greatest power in the world. Nothing is impossible with God. Prayer can move our mountains.
These are the core convictions I return to when I am frazzled, stressed, negative, empty and bleak, and are part of my shortcut back to God. And spiritual health and sanity.
How about you? What are your spiritual default settings, or core convictions?
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Anita Mathias says
Thanks, LA. Hope you enjoyed your camping trip!
LA says
I am, by nature, a very chipper person and always trying to see the best in everything. People hate camping with me because I'm up at the crack of dawn singing with the birds. So, my spiritual default setting is generally very positive. I know God will do great and wondrous things in my life and I pray for others to see that light and rejoice in it too. I do have difficulty with my own impatience, but I'm only impatient with people who are acting like idiots who aren't idiots (just pretending to be). I try to meet people where they are at, but there are some people who have a false modesty that just drives me crazy. I also get impatient with people who aren't “real” – people with masks and hidden agendas.
Do I get down in the doldrums? Yes, I do…I definitely do – usually when I'm unable to “do”. Doing really helps keep my spirits where they naturally are.
Anita Mathias says
Cool. The “sovereignty of God” is too theological a concept to warm my heart. That God loves me, and that all the events that happen to me are filtered through his loving power (and that he has the power to alter my circumstances) warms my heart far more. Though it's just another way of saying the same thing!!
prochaskas says
I suppose my main default is to seek the perspective of knowing / remembering that God is sovereign everywhere and at all times and over everything — even if we should lose everything.
That relationship trumps nearly everything.
That compassion and respect should trump everything else in relationship.
My negative defaults are to feel left all alone to carry all the weight of all the responsibility for myself and everyone else, and to feel unwanted and unvalued and ridiculed, and worthy of it. And, sometimes, not quite a default but something that comes up in the darkest moments, to fear that the whole God thing is a wicked oppressive deceitful lie.