Would you believe me if I said the reason you have stress in your life is because of you? You’ve allowed it into your life. You’ve opened your mind and your heart to external elements that affect your emotions. They affect your state of happiness.
It’s taken me a long time to learn that circumstances, trials, work, people, and anything else external to me, do not control me. They do not have the inherent ability to steal my joy. It’s only when I open my heart to them that I allow stress into my life. It comes like a robber in the night that takes what is rightfully mine. I feel stressed when I allow a deadline, a negative comment, a fellow commuter, or a challenging relationship to take precedence over my peace of mind.
It begs the question … what’s your baseline? What’s the frame in which you operate day in, day out? What’s the line from which you gauge your emotions, motives, and treatment of others?
My baseline is God’s baseline. I choose to measure and value the fruit of the Spirit … love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control … over worldly emotions, over the stress and cares of the world. As with fertile soil, your spirit will yield whatever you plant in your mind and heart. If you plant corn, you’ll get corn. If you plant black nightshade, you’ll get poison.
You get to control what you plant. Nobody else does.
And why is that important? Because what’s in your heart reveals what you really are. In other words, the state of your heart determines your state of happiness. Therefore, it’s imperative to control what you plant. As a mirror reflects your face, your life reflects your heart.
We all have unique DNA which gives us unique fingerprints, eyes, hair, skin, voice, etc. It also gives us a unique heartbeat. Each of our hearts beats in slightly different patterns. Similarly, God has given us a unique emotional heartbeat that races when we think about the subjects, activities, or circumstances that interest us. There are certain things you feel passionate about and others you couldn’t care less about. In fact, another word for heart is passion. Stress is the noise that distracts us from our passion.
When you truly understand this, you will stop letting self-induced stress interfere with your life’s mission, the one God gave you when he created you.
- Get control of your baseline
- Get control of your mind
- Get control of your heart
Filter out stress, focus on your passion, and pursue your mission. It’s what you’re called to do.
Your calling is far more significant than any job. Don’t confuse it with your career. Maybe you’re called to be a teacher, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be in a classroom. Maybe you’re called to be a writer, but that doesn’t mean you’ll write books or work in journalism. Maybe you’re called to be a preacher, but that doesn’t mean you’ll speak to hundreds of people every Sunday from a pulpit.
Here’s something you need to believe. You have been called to become something significant. More accurately, you’ve been called to become like someone significant.
God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
Romans 8:29
It all starts with your baseline.
This post was originally published on September 1, 2019, and is republished today with minor enhancements.
MindWolves 