“You’ve got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative and don’t mess with mister in between.” (Johnny Mercer)
Studies show that people with positive, affirming, attitudes tend to be healthier, live longer and be more financially secure than those who are consumed by negative thinking. Easier said than done, especially these days with the 24 hour news cycle.
One comforting thought is to realize that what is considered news is not normal, it is the unusual random events that make the news. Every day billions of parents around the world care for their children. They make sure they are fed, clothed, housed and educated: loved. Then they go to work so that they can provide for their families. We don’t hear about it because that is what is normal and usual.
Negativity, sensationalism, sells advertising and advertising pays for newspapers and television and radio and the internet.
The more sensational the coverage, the more it grabs the attention of the consumer and the more it sells advertising. The more controversial, the more destructive, the more conflict generating the reporting is the more we are forced into taking sides on an issue, the more we are separated by ideology and the less we are receptive to knowing the Truth and the facts.
I choose to be on the side of Truth and to ferret out the facts from the opinions. This takes discipline, dedication and practice. It means referring to multiple sources for information with differing biases, left and right, foreign and domestic, main stream and alternative, plus extensive prayer, meditation and contemplation on the nature of ultimate reality: God!
This year, on Sundays, my focus is the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6 & 7) using the BeAttitudes (Matthew 5:3-10) as an index or table of contents for the rest of the sermon.
The Sermon is the most concise and complete statement of the Religion of Jesus that is to be found and the BeAttitudes, or Attitudes of Being, are the key to its understanding.
This month we are looking at the fourth Attitude of Being, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” Matthew 5:6.
First, what is “righteousness?” It is an attitude of right thinking. It means the right use of our consciousness. The word derives from the old English word that combines right and wise. Wisdom is knowing and understanding.
The part of the rest of the Sermon that relates to this Attitude is Matthew 6:1-18 which deals with piety, alms giving and prayer. A key to its understanding being, “Beware of practising your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.”
The religion of Jesus is a private affair, “do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others.”
And what about this idea of hungering and thirsting? The story is told of a master teacher whose student once asked him when he would see and know the Truth as the master did. To which the master replied, “Let me show you.” Whereby he proceeded to dunk the students head underwater and hold it there. At first the student thought, “Oh, this is interesting. Maybe he wants me to realize that Truth is everywhere, or that my vision of Truth is distorted as the light is when it travels through water.”
Before long the student began to struggle for breath, his lungs nearly bursting, he feared he was about to die. At that moment the master lifted the student’s head out of the water and asked him, “What did you want more than anything at that moment?” The student replied, “Air, I wanted air.” “When you want to see and know the Truth as much as you just wanted for air, then you will see and know the Truth.”
I affirm with you that “God is our source; with God as our source all that we need and desire is readily fulfilled.” Thank you God! For so it is and so it shall be, Amen!
The Rev. Matthew E. Long is pastor of Peace Unity Community