Sunday: Positive in the Right Direction
WEEK 27
SUNDAY
POSITIVE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
2 Corinthians 1:19-22
We have been studying the mastery of the negative attitude toward life.
There are strength and power and drive in the positive in contrast to the weakness and indirection of the negative. A tourist came back from England, and all he could talk about was the fact that his hotel window wouldn’t open; it was stuck. He couldn’t see the greatness of Britain—its democracy, its freedom, its contributions in literature and economic and political morality—all he could see was a stuck window. He and his report were stuck in that stuck window—negative!
An Indian came back from England, and his chief emphasis was on the fact that in an elevator was a sign that said: “Beware of Pickpockets.” That one sign held his attention, and he couldn’t see the vast honesty of a great people. Pickpockets picked him of the positive and left the negative. So his influence upon his hearers was negative.
But in the Acts the atmosphere was positive. However, it was not positive in general; it was positive in certain particulars. Today there is an emphasis on the positive as the positive. There is no doubt that there is great gain in turning from the negative attitudes toward life in favor of the positive. This emphasis is contained in a song that tells us to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative.
This is good, but it needs qualification. It is not enough to be positive; you must be in the right direction and for the right things. Otherwise your positive may be positively disruptive. The two most positive characters of Europe in the last generation were Hitler and Mussolini. And they pulled down Europe in ruins around them.
In religion it is possible to be positive about everything and end up in being positively mushy. There must be discrimination about your positivity; for if you back what the universe does not back, you end in collapse, for all your positivity.
O Spirit of Truth, help me to back what you back and approve of what you approve. I would affirm your affirmations, and only your affirmations. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I shall be positive, but I shall discriminate and affirm only what God affirms.