Can you find the hidden leprechaun? (It’s a bit trickier this time)
How is it possible to focus on the good, when there are also bad things that happen in the world?
Have you ever been outside on a dark, cloudy day? All you can see is darkness, and then suddenly, almost imperceptibly at first, a ray of sunshine breaks through the clouds. Before you know it, that one of ray of light has brightened the entire sky. Yes, there are still clouds, but that one ray of light has cracked through the clouds and soon many of its other friendly rays of light have broken through until finally the color of the clouds has even changed from a grey color to a lighter color and then after some time the clouds will even disappear entirely. That is the nature of clouds, they will disappear and they will reappear.
Your world is like that sky, sometimes it is dark and cloudy with just a few rays of light and other times your life is all sunny, with hardly any clouds in the sky. In your life, you will have seasons of each, just like in the world. You will have seasons that have more clouds and less sun, and seasons of more sun and less clouds just like in the winter it’s cloudy and in the summer it is hot and sunny. That is the nature of how the seasons work.
In our lives, there will be winters and their will be summers and in the world at large there will be winters and their will be summers. No matter how dark the winter feels we can generally find at least a few rays of light. I have often been told that I am incredibley optimistic as if it were a bad thing. Being optimistic, does not mean that everything is perfect in my life, my life has had heartache, challenges, delays and more. The only thing being an optimist means is that I choose to focus more on the rays of the light shining through the clouds, than the clouds themselves.
Sometimes life really can feel unfair. But what does unfair even mean? Unfair is simply a thought that passes through our mind, when our current life, or the state of the world does not meet our expectations. You can’t point to unfair on a map, or put it in a bucket, which simply means it is just a thought that we create. We decide what unfair means to us, the same way we get to decide what everything really means to us.
What if you were able to understand that there are going to be times in your life that you think are unfair and then did everything in your power to make the situation better.
I remember one time I had a business partner that secretly kicked me out of a business we started together and cost me a lot of potential money. For an entire summer, I was so mad and told everyone about it. I’m laughing now as I write this… because it took me just a little while to realize NOBODY CARED! I realized that everyone is dealing with all of their own challenges and really didn’t want to hear about mine. The really funny thing is that company went on to do nothing in the world. I had worries and complained for nothing! It was a huge blessing that it didn’t work out.
The nature of life, is sometimes life is not going to go according to your expectations. You can also still acknowledge the clouds without focusing on them. It’s okay to acknowledge the hard situations you face in your life and the world without being consumed by them.
Everyday you make a choice: Will you focus on the clouds or the sun? Even when it’s only a tiny ray of light,
the more you focus on the light, the more that you will see the light. And even when everything feels dark, hopeless, and unfair that’s when your needed the most.
When the world feels at it’s darkest, that is when it most needs your light!
Ghandi is often attributed to saying, “BE the change that you wish to see in the world.”
Sometimes we feel that complaining, screaming and yelling will change the world, but it doesn’t! The only thing that can change the world is more understanding, love and kindness. The Jesus said it best, “Pray for your enemies and those that despitefully use you. Maybe, just maybe that was so that when we begin to pray for those that use us or hurt us it can soften their hearts; but maybe its really so that we can be able to love that person and see things from their point of view. We can understand their pain, their heartache, and their misfortune.
When we really seek to understand another human being, we see that they are just that, a human being. They have hopes, dreams, and challenges. They have been through hardships in their lives, and their own injustices. All people are born with an innate sense of well being. Everyone of them has been through their own experiences that have changed them and made them who they are. If they went though cloudy seasons and focused on how awful it was in their lives, then they got more frustrated and unhappy. If they went through cloudy seasons and focused on the good, then they probably become happier.
Remember the counsel in the scripture, Proverbs 15:1 “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.”
If you are upset with another person or group of people, have a conversation with them and get to understand their world better. Get to understand who they are as a person. Everyone is really doing the best the know how, given their frame of thinking in that moment.
As Stephen Covey said, First seek to understand, THEN be understood. If you could just understand another person a little bit better, it would change their life and yours. And if the entire world sought to understood everyone better, the entire world would be changed.
Just Start now, because it’s always better late than never! When you start, you make the impossible, possible!
-The “It’s Possible” Guy
Joseph
Remember You’re okay, start doing what’s possible in Your life and you will create miracles!
P.S. If this article has blessed your life, please share it! It may be just what someone else needs to hear, and they will thank you for it!