Dear Friends,
We are exploring part three of Everything Isn't Terrible, and I thought I would just share some of my favorite quotes along with a few comments. This section is titled Your Anxious Career but there's great info here about all of our relations with other people.
Quote one: “Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.”
This is actually a quote from Margaret Mead. I like it because I am unique and so are you and, in our uniqueness, God loves us.
Quote 2: “Attacking and avoiding, or fight and flight, is what our anxious self does best.”
I like this quote because we do all these things… none of us reacts to anxiety in the same way. Wouldn't it be nice to always remember this so that we can offer grace to one another?
Quote 3: “Success rarely affords the opportunity for self-improvement that rejection offers us, because why work on yourself when you got what you wanted.”
When have you benefited from rejection? Or what have you learned about yourself through struggle? Sometimes, when I look back at my life I am thankful at the things that I once wanted, but that I did not receive.
Quote 4: “Though fear can be a motivator, it rarely turns us into our best selves.”
This is a good final quote because it is so important to ministry. Oftentimes fear of God, as in fear of going to hell, has been used to convince people they should follow Jesus. But choosing to follow someone because you're afraid of what might happen if you don't is not going to bring out anyone's best self. I think this is why Jesus constantly taught us that what he wanted from us was/is to love our neighbor and to love God. I put it in this order (which is a reverse from presentation in the Bible) because I think that the only way we can show our love of God is by loving our neighbor. This isn't easy, as we all know, but it is how we are invited to respond to the love that God has so graciously given to us.
Peace in Christ,
Pastor Nancy