Most seasons, when my son was playing little league baseball, I would coach his team. One season I couldn’t coach and so he got thrown into the draft with all the other kids. 

It was a disaster. 

The coach he got was terrible. He argued with the parents, he argued with the umpires, and he got in fights with the coaches from the other teams. We only won a few games and watching this team play was painful. 

In addition, the coach didn’t know my son and so he hardly got to play. 

Toward the end of the season, my son and I were driving home from another loss and I was apologizing for not coaching and bemoaning the fact that this coach and this season was so awful. Toward the end of my soliloquy I said, “This was a wasted season!” My son looked at me and said without hesitation, “There’s always next year Dad.” 

If you are a parent, you’ve probably had a moment where you realized your kid is being more of an adult than you are. This was one of those moments for me. 

Wow, my son was in a more emotionally healthy place than I was about something that directly impacted him way more than it impacted me. I had completely lost my peace and he was fully at peace. 

One of the reasons we lose our peace is because we don’t think about what we are thinking about. You ask someone to coffee, and they say, “No” and you automatically believe it’s personal, that somehow, they don’t like you or just don’t have time for you. 

You try to close a deal, but it doesn’t work out and you start to think you are a terrible salesperson. The salesperson is unkind, and you get defensive because inside you are feeling like something must be wrong with you. 

If you don’t think about what you are thinking about, it goes from personal to pervasive.

It’s not just this project but it’s every project I do:

My whole life is bad.

Nobody really likes me.

The whole town I live in sucks!

Then, if you don’t catch yourself, it can go permanent:

I’ll always be unhappy.

My life is never going to change.

No one will ever like me.

I’ll never get a date.

The good news is that you don’t have to stay there. To change how we think we need some tools. 

First, we all need a band of brothers or a circle of sisters who believe in us and are empowered to call us to more. We need community. None of us are meant to do life alone and I would contend that the more isolated we are, the more unhealthy we are emotionally. 

Secondly, we need truth deposits. You’re not going to get that by watching 24-hour news or scanning through your social media feed. The best place I know to get truth is in the words of Jesus. His truth has stood the test of time and will set you free. 

Until 1954 no one believed that a human being could run a mile in under four minutes. Doctors even said that if a human did run a mile in less than four minutes, that person would collapse and die. 

Then, on May 6, 1954 Roger Bannister ran a mile in under four minutes. Over the next few months and years dozens of people broke the four-minute mile. 

What changed? Someone had done the impossible and now everyone believed it could be done. You really can change the way you think!

“Nothing will be impossible with God.” – Jesus, Luke 1:37

For some, changing the way you think may be harder or even require some professional and possibly medical help. If that is you, please don’t hesitate to reach out for that help. What I have shared here is not meant as a substitute for that help, but to supplement it.