Inside Jobs
Sometimes changing my outward circumstances is not as important as I tend to believe.
Very few of our circumstances are directly under our control and can be instantly changed. And even if and when they are, it doesn’t mean life will actually improve. That’s because the best and most permanent changes in life are always inside jobs.
To decide which direction I will concentrate my attention - inside or outside myself - is a choice, and my decision will be reflected in which attitude I will choose to wear.
I wish my attitude was like a tattoo - something I could permanently have placed into my skin where it wouldn’t rub off. But I think it’s more like a garment.
So, here’s my problem.
Because my attitude is changeable, it doesn’t feel like it’s really me.
This means when I think about “improving” my attitude, I feel like a phony.
Fortunately for me and others, I don’t feel like a phony when I wear clothes in public. I don’t feel like a phony when I dress for occasions, even if I don’t feel like going to them. I dress in clothes in order to appropriately interact with society, and so I should feel the same about the attitude I decide to display.
A good attitude honors others. It doesn’t make everything about me.
A good attitude is a loving act.
It’s funny that to change my life I have to first change my attitude. I have to change my focus away from myself in order to really get what I most need and want - and that is to operate in relationships with others that are mutually uplifting and supportive.
It isn’t ultimately about me against the world.
It’s me and my friends against the things in this world that pull us apart and put us down.
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
Psalms 121 (ESV)
