How to Recover Your Lost Good Humor

              Comes a time when there’s no sunshine in your day? Sometimes the arrival of a hangnail seems like the final blow that tips you over and you find yourself alone and hating your sole companion and you began to wonder why anyone cares about you (or if anyone does). Usually this crash comes along when I’ve been feeling pretty good about myself. Maybe, like me, you’ve recently been cruising on auto pilot and found yourself  thinking too much about Number One instead of those around you.

            Even those giants mentioned in the Bible fresh from some spectacular history-making event often followed that spiritual high with depression, fears and loss of confidence. Shouldn’t that little detail give us a clue as to the origin of our own self-pity? It’s not our fault these rushes of self-pity strike. We do have a powerful enemy who hates it when we have a good day, an effective day when we behave like one of God’s children. As they say, “You can’t stop a bird from flying over your head, but you don’t have to let it build a nest in your hair”.  In other words, don’t adopt the little fellow; shoo him away!

            One way to locate the express track to joy and exit the bumpy road you travel alone is hard to do. Let’s face it. A solo pity-party takes concentration; you have no energy to worry about anyone else’s surgery when you’ve just suffered through a blister on your heel, but just for a minute, let’s make the effort. In fact, make a list of people you care about, then people you know and those you see along the way and look for a hint of some problem they may be wrestling that might (admit it now!) be bigger than those you’re facing. Stop right there and breathe a prayer for that person and if that isn’t too big a shock to your system (your realization that your problems aren’t unbearable), try to think of something you could do to help.

            I guarantee you won’t feel like an insignificant loser when your mind is on someone else instead of your mirror. You may surprise yourself by beginning to count your blessings. And remember to stay on the narrow, bumpy path instead the crowded highway leading nowhere good. Above all, remember you’re not travelling alone. Thank you, Jesus