Choosing Your Attitude

A couple of days ago, I picked p a book I haven't read in over 30 years, "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl. In it he talks about his personal experiences and observations as prisoner number 119,104 in the Nazi concentration camp system.

It is filled with terrible truths and awesome insights - I highly recommend it.  One particular revelation from his experience and observation that keeps rolling around in my head is that when the Nazis took everything from them, their freedom, their possessions, the clothes off their backs and even shaved every hair from their bodies - what alone remains is, "the last of the human freedoms, the ability to choose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances."

Satan, through the work of evil men or tragic circumstance, can rob you of every thing you you hold dear. He can reduce you to poverty or rob you of a loved one.  But your attitude, that remains in your control.

We often hear how that poverty is the root behind all the anger and rage of those who live in our inner cities. We hear how they are a product of their environment and can hardly be blamed for the violent acts they commit. However, some of the biggest smiles and deepest laughter cames from some of the poorest people I ever saw in Honduras and the Virgin Islands.

How do we explain this reality?  Attitude is a choice!  Jesus put it this way,“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matt 6:22-23).  In other words, if you choose to focus on the pain or the problems or the injustice, your attitude will become dark plunging your spirit into darkness. But, if you focus on the possibilities, the solutions and the good that can be found, your attitude will be brighter, lifting your spirit out of darkness.

Circumstances are often beyond our control but our response to them never is. Paul, writing from prison, wrote in Phil 4:12,  "I have learned the secret of being content in any circumstance."  That secret was revealed in verse 13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  Regardless of Paul's circumstance, he chose to keep his eyes on Jesus and the victory that was assured in Him.

Its your attitude, choose wisely. Jus' Sayn.