When My Attitude Just Stinks

I am human enough to know that you surely will relate. Times come and times go when we’re just plain ‘snots’ (for want of a better term) and we just can’t stand the sight of other people, and most of all, ironically, our poor, little old selves! It strikes when you’re at work possibly; the dark shades of the spirit are drawn over and there’s suddenly an increasing pale—it’s time to quickly escape before anyone notices the chameleon change its colours unrecognisably.

These times are times that you sense are spiritually foreboding and perhaps there’s a precursor before it, however inexplicable; nothing quite makes sense. Death in the momentary situation has occurred and there has to be a sharp getaway.

Times like these, and other people must get them surely, I find myself rapidly slinking away from the public eye for some blanket show entertainment, and that, only for one! No one can reconcile me, not even I. It’s a temporary impasse fortunately, and only hours later the sunshine makes its grand reappearance upon a soul that stared hopelessness right in the eye.

The human being, at these times—in these moods, is a shady case. He or she is fragile—much more brittle than he or she wishes to be, I suspect. Or perhaps it’s just me and people like me? Somehow I know that’s not true. It happens to us all in our own peculiar ways.

One thing I’ve learned about myself—when my attitude stinks—is that I must allow the Holy Spirit to protect me, however insipid that might appear to others. My response is to cooperatively remove myself from the fray where the impact is going to be negligible.

Some might not understand but that’s the way it is for me. Call it sickness if you will—a sort of soul sickness that renders me hardly capable of the simplest tasks and interactions.

I know at these times that I must be with God and allow his Spirit to revive my soul, surrendering to the ministry of his being. And there’s nothing more wonderful waking up knowing the world is a lovely place again with the birds chirping and the sun shining.

God’s ministry of soul revival is a lovely thing. But it can’t be entered into with even a skerrick of “us” pervading the energy force field. Total, unconditional, situational surrender... it’s the only way.