Day 219 Reprogramming

I don't know about the rest of the world, but I find that some days are harder than others. Most of the difficulties that I face seem to be self inflicted. And what I mean by that is my reaction to the world around me is what usually spoils my day. This is not to say that we should be ignoring the world and doing whatever we want, but rather change our outlook and use those things that frustrate us for good.

Lately I have been questioning why I seem to continue to repeat behaviour patterns which have a negative impact on myself and others. My conclusion is that my pre-programmed decision making process is flawed. Over the years I have been good at analyzing situations and having answers already stored in my brain before a scenario has crossed my path. And when a certain issue arises, whiz, boom, bam the answer is shot out automatically like a pinball machine. I don't know if you have ever seen Adam Sandler's "Click" movie where he uses a universal remote to fast forward unpleasant portions of his life, but basically what ends up happening is that the remote forwards itself. You see the remote learns or is programmed to fast forward in certain situations and the character ends up with a life full of meaningless material things and no friends or family or memories of meaning.

This behaviour in myself has back fired on me from time to time. Not that it is all bad, in some circumstances and in emergency situations it is good to have those pre-programmed actions in place. But moving forward removal of these auto responses is necessary.  The only way I know of changing this behaviour is by repetition and replacement. Slowing down is also a major key to altering this problem, as the years go by each day seems to speed up and more things are piled on our plates. I am no longer worried about what is happening now, but that which is coming down the road. We as a population have been focusing way too much on what will be or can be that we are missing what really is. And in the process this can affect our reaction to the now.

I have chosen to follow the Bibles advice and reside in the word. For when I do so it seems to bring a calm to my day and mind allowing me to focus on things that are important and let go of those that are not. Somewhere along the way I have lost the art of relaxing in whatever circumstance I find myself. Paul who was in prison, isolated, probably hungry and tired still had the inner peace to write encouragement to the churches. In one such letter he mentions that he learned that in whatever state he found himself, he was content. It is my hope that this peace will soon be mine and that by really digging into and putting God's word into action will be the effective catalyst.