Tuesday; February 7

What do you do when you have a close call with disaster? I believe there are one of two ways people react to brushes with calamity. The first is to be thankful that what could have happened didn’t happen. Whether we assign it to fate, good fortune or divine intervention, we appreciate the fact that somehow we avoided the negative impact of misfortune. While a hearty “Thank God” would be in order, even a “Whew, that was close, I am glad it wasn’t as bad as it could have been” can help us maintain a healthy attitude. Now, I mentioned there were two reactions – the other is to obsess about what might have happened even though it didn’t. We might play the worst case scenario of what almost befell us over and over in our minds. We might continually focus and refocus on what went wrong that took us to the precipice of disaster. When taken to the extreme, this can lead us to over-evaluating our failures that led up to the incident and preoccupying our minds with just how close we came to messing up our lives. When this happens, it isn’t as much about learning our lessons, it is more about beating ourselves up for putting ourselves in that situation.

As you contemplate these two attitudes, ask yourself which best describes you? Then, follow-up with the question, which is the healthiest approach to dealing with near misses? No, we shouldn’t be so cavalier about what (didn’t) happen that we fail to be cautious, but those of us who tend to obsess over it often fail to be thankful for whatever delivered us – especially when we were delivered by the Lord. Rather than feeling thankful, we are torn up inside and that pressure continues to build up to the point where we perceive anything that happens as our own personal failure. Eventually that could lead beyond seeing missteps as failures and turn into viewing ourselves as failures.

We are all going to have close calls. When we do, let’s be thankful for what didn’t happen rather than fixating about what could have happened.

Think About It!

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