Negativity

15 Dec

“Learning to distance yourself from all the negativity is one of the greatest lessons to achieve inner peace.”  ~ Roy T. Bennett

This is a bit of a continuation from yesterday’s reflection.  I do not often have a “Part Two”; however, I thought that this was important.  Yesterday, we reflected upon the necessity to name it, claim it, and tame it.  While that may sound like a simple recipe, for many people, it can case a lot of grief.

The reason for that is very simple.  When we begin to delve deep within ourselves and name our deficiencies, we can become morose or depressed.  We might even feel tempted to give up and throw it all aside.  “Why should we try?” we say to ourselves.  “Why should we even bother? Surely, God wouldn’t want to have anything to do with me.”  But, God does.  He wants to have something to do with us.  As a matter of fact, He wants to have everything to do with us.

God loves us.  Completely.  Unconditionally.  Eternally.  The problem is that we do not love ourselves as God loves us.  We do not love ourselves the way God loves us because we do not see ourselves the way God sees us.  God loves us, defects and all.  When we see ourselves, we cannot see past the defects in our lives in order to love ourselves.

There is a difference between naming the deficiencies in our lives and identifying with them.  They are not who we are.  They are just the things that we say or do that should not be said or done.  If left unchecked, they can take us over which is why we try to address them and deal with them.  But we are the unique creations of God who have a great heritage in store.  That is what we have been reflecting upon throughout this season.

God distanced Himself from all the negativity of the world not by leaving us but by entering the world.  He became one of us in order to redeem us all.  That is the lesson that we can learn to bring us true inner peace.

Look in the mirror each day.  Smile at yourself and tell yourself, “God loves you!”  Because, He does.

FAITH ACTION:  Perhaps you can deal with some of the negativity in your life by going to confession this afternoon.