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Ah, the sounds of Spring Break are reverberating through our house. The kids are playing "Burrito" and "Santa with Schnoogie Bear" where they wrap each other or our snarling Beagle puppy in their comforter and then scream bloody murder that they want out. I knew there was a reason I love the drudgery and fast pace of a school day!
Today's tool is the "It's Not About You Brush."Does anyone ever find themselves in a funk when the world is against you? I've been there a few times lately...those moments when I think surely I must have done something to make so-and-so mad. Or so-and-so must not like me much right now. A friend hasn't called me back. I get left off an email. I get a look from somebody. I haven't heard from a family member or friend in a long while. All that, and SURELY it's something I've done or the I'm doing or that I should be doing. I am at fault here. I am so wrong, somehow...someway. It's all about me. Me. Me. Me. Call it paranoia or self-obsession or misplaced concern, but at the end of the day those thoughts revolve around only one person: me.
I was having said thoughts about some dried up communication lines with a family member when Caddy handed me "The BRUSH." The Brush is a reminder that these situations are not about me, in most cases. They are a direct reflection of someone else's unhappiness or challenge or busy life. If I haven't acted out or been ugly, then chances are I need to brush off whatever misplaced concerns I have about myself and refocus that energy on ways I can reach out to others.
The Brush smooths out the tangles, frees us of guilt and with a pop on the fanny, helps us address these negative feelings in terms of others, not ourselves.
During this Holy Week leading into Easter, how relieving it is to use the tools God has given us to refocus on others — and on Him. This week, let's all turn our conscience from "dead works" to worshiping the living God. Not our own paranoid thoughts.
Hebrews 9: "For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!"
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