Within your power…

Are you like me?(What a way to start a blog post! Now I feel like I oughta channel “Mr. T.” “Are you like me? If you are...I pity the fool!” But I digress).
Do you ever hear a quote and it gets in your mind and won’t go away? I’ve had one for about three months now. I haven’t done anything with it but it is powerful in my mind and keeps coming back. As close as I can remember the voice speaking is that of a woman. She says “Pastors, there is so much in our lives we can’t control, we ought to work awful hard to control those things we can.”
And, aside from the obvious part of that quote I can’t agree with, you know, she’s right. We can’t control how we are treated, we can’t control what people say about us, we can’t control much of our schedule or the responsibilities often thrust upon us, we can’t control what we are paid or how others behave. The congregation may crumble around us with our knowledge of the changes that would salvage it but often we can’t affect those changes so obvious to us.
There is indeed much we cannot control. But we can control the food that goes into our mouth and the words that come out. We can control the exercise we get - both physical and spiritual. We can control the rest we get and the worry that takes it. We can control much of what goes into our mind and what we chose to not allow in there. We can control our actions and our reactions. We can’t control the jobs we are offered but we can control the job we accept. We can’t control the salary we are presented with but we can control how we spend it. We can’t control the attitudes of others but we can control the atmosphere we create.
There is much we cannot control, think about all we can...now do it.