Pastor Ron Burcham
Pastor Ron Burcham
At·ti·tude – a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person’s behavior.
The other day I came across a favorite quote from Chuck Swindoll.
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and this is our attitude – I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me, and 90 percent how I react to it – we are in charge of our attitude.” (Dr. Charles Swindoll)
Let’s test out Dr. Swindoll’s belief. We are still years away from the Presidential election, but the candidates are lining up and the rhetoric is filling the air. Your attitude, your settled way of thinking or feeling about that fact, will be reflected in your behavior:
One attitude could cause you to curse at the TV each time a candidate is in the news, or when they starting running ads. The mention of the election causes you to start spouting off about how they are all crooks and liars!
A different attitude could cause you to stop and reflect on the great freedoms that we have in our country. The fact is that we have a say in who our elected officials will be, and that we can vote without fear of violence at the polls. This time of year, we might even offer up a prayer of gratitude to God for our founding fathers and their courage; offering thanksgiving for all of the military personnel putting their life in harm’s way to protect you and this country.
It comes down to attitude.
The Bible even speaks of the importance of attitude:
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus…being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.”
(Philippians 2:5, 8)
The fact of the matter is, mankind sinned and does not live as God created us to live. God could have many different attitudes towards us including just writing us off for lost, but instead we see the attitude of a servant in Jesus – God’s son. In Him we have ultimate freedom, freedom for our sin.
I wonder how different our daily lives would be if we indeed had the same attitude as Jesus?
In Christ,
Pastor Ron Burcham
Risen Savior Lutheran Church