Dealing with negativity

For me personally through all the writing, preaching and conversations over the Passion weekend, the message I came away with was “the ability to sit in the sufferings and contradictions of our lives (Good Friday) whilst patiently waiting for transformation and something wonderfully new to happen (Resurrection)”. In ordinary everyday life the wait is a lot longer than 3 three days! I can narrow the message down just “to sit in the contradictions, hopeful and positive”. I find when I do this I better eradicate negativity from my mind and heart. I become comfortable with the contradictions I see all around me, and in me. Things may not be what they ought to be, but I trust that one day they will be - I don’t how or when, but I know in my passive waiting, and trust, they will. For example, I hear a great deal of negative political rhetoric about how bad things are, and how much worse they are going to get. It gets very gloomy listening to this said over and over again. And there may well be a great measure of truth in what is being said. The truth is also there is very little, if anything, I can do about it. So rather than descend into a pit of negativity I choose to live with the contradictions and remain positive. In the personal issues of my life I do the same. It turns out that in this ‘passive waiting’ I become energized to find constructive ways forward. Instead of succumbing to the negative political rhetoric, I spend time and energy making a positive difference in the small issues around me. I examine the wages I pay, the respect I give to those whose life circumstances are worse than mine, I offer lifts to people who have no formal mode of transport. The list is endless. I am not as helpless as I thought. In the personal issues of my life, the longer I ‘peacefully and positively’ live with the contradictions, the more I see a change in myself, and wonderful opportunities of a way forward begin to open up. It’s Good Friday but Sunday’s coming!