Thursday, July 27, 2006
Some of our fun family memories are the days when I would read stories to my kids. And I did my best to bring those old stories to life. I remember one of their favorites was Winnie the Pooh, so we had Winnie the Pooh and Piglet and Christopher Robin. Oh, and of course, Eeyore. Remember the donkey in Winnie the Pooh? He's the one who usually managed to see the dark side of everything. There always seemed to be something wrong in Eeyore's world.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Eeyore Complex."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Nehemiah 8:10. We're talking about Eeyore, and we probably all know a two-legged Eeyore. Those are the people who respond to the pressures and problems of life by throwing a party - a pity party for themselves. You know any of them? The last time I looked in the dictionary, there were 192 words that began with self, but there are few of them as damaging as self-pity.
Here's the cure: Nehemiah had been through all kinds of burdens and challenges and attacks. Here is what he says, "Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." This joy of the Lord has nothing to do with your environment. It does have to do with your in-vironment. See, this joy gives the ability to look for God in any situation and to ask the question, "Now, how could God use this?" I may not particularly like what's going on right now, but God has okayed it. It had to get through my Father's hands before it could get to me, so God must be able to work through this. Where is He at work here?
Focus on what's good about the situation or what could be good. Concentrate on the positive. Sometimes when I'm tired and I'm stressed, I hear some Eeyore coming out of my mouth. I start to complain, I start to see the negatives, I start to see the problems, I'm critical. You know, this could go wrong, this is looking bad, and oh, that's pretty bleak. What happens? You make a gray day darker because you drag everybody else down with you with your Eeyore complex. It's amazing how a negative person can be a cloud that blocks out the sun for everyone. Play back the tape of some of your recent conversations. What do you hear? Is it the joy of the Lord or do you hear a lot of "poor me" talk?
I remember a day when I woke up really, really depleted. I had a marathon schedule ahead of me - like a lot of days - and I decided that that day in my first conscious moment I was going to focus on Jesus' strength. Oh, I could have been thinking about my sore throat, or I could have focused on the fact that I'd only had three hours sleep, but instead of the negatives, I said, "Now today I'm just going to keep thinking about the strength of Jesus, not the weakness of Ron." Well, I found myself energized for that whole long day by focusing on the joy of the Lord. I cannot tell you how many days there have been like that since. It works! The joy of the Lord is your strength, and conversely, I'll tell you there is nothing that will de-energize you as fast as complaining, self-pity, negativity and down talk.
When you look out a dirty window, everything looks dirty. The joy of the Lord can clean that window through which you're looking at everything else in your life. Look for the Lord. Look for His goodness in your day-to-day living. Go after some God sightings in your day. He's all over the place. Talk about the good things, and if you hear the voice of old Eeyore, turn the page.