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    Wednesday, November 6, 2024

    Psalm 119: 73-76

    73 Your hands have made me and fashioned me;
    give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments.
    74 Those who fear you will be glad when they see me, because I trust in your word.
    75 I know, O Lord, that your judgments are right and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
    76 Let your loving-kindness be my comfort, as you have promised to your servant.

     

    I was trained to watch the world. It’s easy to forget that, even though I spent years actually studying how best to see what really goes on every day in my own community and those which surround it. It was so long ago. Then, after years of formal study, I entered real newsrooms and learned how much I had to learn.

    It took me a long time, for instance, to realize how much my own emotional landscape determined what I could see and how I might react. My own fears and struggles shaped my response to events. Then I found, much to my own amazement, it was possible to reset the mechanism. Having covered some stormy political event, I could recover by simply driving down a country road, observing flowers and trees and speaking with real people who were just going about the daily task of living.

    It didn’t take me long to learn that the stormy event was not the crucially important thing, but rather the beauty of life itself.

    The Dalai Lama, after long decades of suffering and recovery from suffering, learned how important it was for us to understand our own minds.

    “… there are so many different states of mind – the diverse thoughts and emotions we experience on a daily basis. Some of these thoughts and emotions are harmful, even toxic, while others are healthy and healing. The former disturb our mind and cause much mental pain. The latter bring us true joyfulness.”

    It is possible, he argued, to inoculate one’s self from harmful thoughts and emotions, to develop a mental immunity. (The Book of Joy, 83-84.)

    Do bad things happen? Sure. Is suffering real? Certainly. But even when we find ourselves caught up in such moments, we can stop, look around, and find beauty. Doing so, we learn to trust and to endure.

    Thank you, God, for the gift of joy!

     

    Hymn of the day: It is Well with My Soul. Online at Rossford UMC - Media.

     

    Rev. Lawrence Keeler