A Good Attitude
Every year I read a book by Viktor Frankl entitled Man’s Search for Meaning. Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist and neurologist who developed a therapy called Logotherapy (healing through meaning). He is best known for surviving the Holocaust, and his 184 page book details his experiences as well as the experiences of others in the camp.
In this page-turner of a book, Frankl begins to understand that the human body and mind has elasticity far beyond what he ever imagined as both he and his fellow prisoners endured nakedness in freezing weather, and months of living on the very brink of starvation. He illustrates the torment when he describes a fellow prisoner writhing during the night in a deep sleep and having a nightmare. Frankl writes, “I wanted to wake the poor man. Suddenly I drew back [my hand]. No dream, no matter how horrible, could be as bad as the reality of the camp which surrounded us.”
Have you ever been there? Has life ever seemed so bleak that the worst of nightmares delivered more comfort than your waking hours. Most of us will never be able to relate with Viktor Frankl in spite of the fact that life can throw us some curve balls now and again.
Time does not allow us to elaborate on this particular text, but in Acts 16, we find Paul and Silas chained to a Roman guard in a Philipian jail. The text tells us, “at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God." Singing and praying hymns?
After sitting and pondering about their circumstances, I decided that alongside them being filled with the Holy Spirit, they also simply decided to have good attitudes.
No matter what circumstances that I find myself facing, my attitude about them will determine whether the road ahead will seem more bumpier than it actually is, or whether the actual bumpy road ahead might seem smoother than what it is.
Romans 8:28 tells us, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Did you catch the phrase, “all things?”
Viktor Frankl writes, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” According to the experience of Frankl, we have a choice in the matter.
I am not in the midst of an undetermined trial or a set of unpredictable circumstances. Not yet anyway. It is my hope and prayer, however, that I, like Mr. Frankl and Paul and Silas, will choose to have a good attitude when they arrive at my doorstep.
Pastor Adam
In this page-turner of a book, Frankl begins to understand that the human body and mind has elasticity far beyond what he ever imagined as both he and his fellow prisoners endured nakedness in freezing weather, and months of living on the very brink of starvation. He illustrates the torment when he describes a fellow prisoner writhing during the night in a deep sleep and having a nightmare. Frankl writes, “I wanted to wake the poor man. Suddenly I drew back [my hand]. No dream, no matter how horrible, could be as bad as the reality of the camp which surrounded us.”
Have you ever been there? Has life ever seemed so bleak that the worst of nightmares delivered more comfort than your waking hours. Most of us will never be able to relate with Viktor Frankl in spite of the fact that life can throw us some curve balls now and again.
Time does not allow us to elaborate on this particular text, but in Acts 16, we find Paul and Silas chained to a Roman guard in a Philipian jail. The text tells us, “at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God." Singing and praying hymns?
After sitting and pondering about their circumstances, I decided that alongside them being filled with the Holy Spirit, they also simply decided to have good attitudes.
No matter what circumstances that I find myself facing, my attitude about them will determine whether the road ahead will seem more bumpier than it actually is, or whether the actual bumpy road ahead might seem smoother than what it is.
Romans 8:28 tells us, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Did you catch the phrase, “all things?”
Viktor Frankl writes, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” According to the experience of Frankl, we have a choice in the matter.
I am not in the midst of an undetermined trial or a set of unpredictable circumstances. Not yet anyway. It is my hope and prayer, however, that I, like Mr. Frankl and Paul and Silas, will choose to have a good attitude when they arrive at my doorstep.
Pastor Adam
Posted in Pastor Adam Gomez