Do you struggle with an sense of impending doom?
Are you waiting for the other shoe to drop?
Do people say you see trouble where there isn’t any? Yet? 😉
I bend toward this perspective because in my early years, danger was indeed around the corner. Our minds shape themselves around patterns they observe during childhood, while the brain is developing. We form conclusions about life and the world at large based on these patterns. Mine did and I figured out I wasn’t safe in my home.
As an adult, you may wonder why you’re so glass-half-empty or subscribe to Murphy’s Law, but if your childhood involved things going wrong in big ways repeatedly, your mind believes this is the way of things. What your kid mind couldn’t know, is that things aren’t the same everywhere. What happened in your family, school, or country doesn’t happen always to everyone.
Many of us who lean toward a “the world is ending” mindset feel bad about it.
We notice things we worry about that never happen and feel silly at best. Being identified as a pessimist is a cause for shame. But we have to remember all of us developed brains as children and lacked information. Therefore, all our minds reflect a slice of truth, not the whole truth. For example, if I’ve only seen orange and black tigers, I won’t understand that some tigers are white and black. When I see one, I can adjust my idea of what tigers look like.
You may struggle with negativity, but everyone struggles in the absence of complete truth and it’s nothing to be ashamed about. It’s actually one of the reasons we need God, who is Truth. We cannot be aware of all that is and how different people experience life because we’re limited. But because we have God, we have access to complete Truth. She knows why it’s hard for you to expect good gifts when you’ve reached out your hand and had it slapped away. But Jesus told us God is not that way. She loves us more than a father who loves to give good gifts. Matthew 7:11
As you’re holding onto that idea, and even as it feels like it’s slipping through your tight fingers, know your faith is remarkable. Like Jesus stood in the street long ago and said He’d never seen such faith as the gentile woman, He marvels at you. With so much evidence to the contrary, here you are straining to believe in a God of goodness. Do you have any idea how precious you are?
There is glory burning inside you.
The Godlikeness, the will to connect no matter what, it burns bright in you.
