In spite of all my personal introspection and experience in dealing with others, I still don’t know if I understand why we humans find it so very difficult to change the way we think. We hang on to old ways of thinking, even if that thinking results in personal, emotional pain. I know that in my own life I have, for years, hung on to old ways of thinking until I finally decided that I would be happier if I adopted new ways of thinking. So my comments come from personal experience. I know of what I speak when I say that the journey to personal transformation can be difficult.

The question I have often asked myself is: What will be different in my life if I give up my old ways of thinking? The answer I seem to always come up with is that I will be happier and more content with life!

This leads me to a brief consideration of the various ways of thinking that I might have to change if I want to truly enter into personal transformation. I suspect there are many more than those I have personally identified during the writing of these comments.

• When difficult things happen in my life, they are not a punishment from God for something that I have done wrong. (In speaking with someone recently about the recent flooding in our area, the person shared with me her thought that God was probably very angry with us and therefore sent the flood. Old Testament thinking, to be sure, but not reality).

When difficult things happen in my life they are not either bad or good. They are opportunities for me to change. Even illness is not a punishment but, rather, an opportunity to change my thinking and behaviors

• No one can make me feel the way that I do. My feelings are always my own personal reaction to what people may say or do to me. It is always true that I may not understand why I react like I do. It has to do with the way that I think.
• Life is neither fair or unfair. Life is just life. It is all a matter of my own personal thinking. While I may not like what life presents me as a challenge, if I understand that the challenges of life are uniquely designed to help me grow in the ways that I need to grow, then I will not see the events of life as either fair or unfair.

These are just a few of my thoughts. The call to holiness, as I have shared before, is a call to personal transformation and personal change. The type of change that is involved is, most importantly, a change in the way we think about God, life, ourselves and others. The Jesus way of thinking and living is summed up in four simple rules which, I know, all of my readers know by heart. God didn’t make life any more complicated by sending Jesus, He simplified it!