Monday, June 27th, 2011
Christian Positive Thinking
A very old, but very cheerful lady in a nursing home, would get up every morning. And with the help of a nurse, she would look in the mirror. One morning, the nurse pointed out, “Mrs. Jones, you have just three hairs remaining on your head. Mrs. Jones smiled and said, “I think I’ll braid my hair today.” So the nurse helped her braid her three hairs, and she had a great day.
The next week, the two women looked into the mirror and the nurse said, “Mrs. Jones, you have just two hairs remaining. “Hmm, two hairs… I guess I’ll part it down the center today.” She duly parted her two hairs, and as always, she had a great day.
A week or so later, during their morning ritual, the nurse said, “Mrs. Jones, you’re down to just one hair.” “I know-a ponytail will be perfect.” And again she had a great day.
The next morning when they looked in the mirror, she was completely bald. By this time a group of nurses had gathered to see how Mrs. Jones would handle this news.
“Finally bald huh,” she said, “How wonderful! I won’t have to waste time doing my hair any more.”
Our passage this morning is about Christian Positive Thinking.
Now you might say, “Wait a minute, I thought as conservative Christians we were against the Positive Thinking of Norman Vincent Peale.”
He’s the one who said, “Change your thoughts and you change the world.”
Positive Thinking has been very popular in the world of psychology- filtering down even to children’s books like The Little Engine That Could. Do you remember that one? As he pulls his heavy load up the mountain, he says, “I think I can. I think I can.” And therefore-he could.
So let me at the outset, point out that there are some significant differences between Christian positive thinking described here by Paul and secular positive thinking.
