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Now I'm sure any parents or teachers here among us can recognize that as a very typical child's response. But I have to tell you...I recognize some of that kind of attitude in myself! Don't you?
I know that, sometimes, I have an attitude problem. (I'm sure you find that hard to believe, but it's true!) I can be sarcastic.. .negative...even a bit rebellious at times! Now we all have bad days, but the reality is that a bad attitude can become habit forming! And the attitude we carry within us...will eventually affect everything...and everyone around us.
So I'd like to present a little 2-part "mini-series" - today and next Sunday - on "attitude." Next week we'll explore the kind of attitude we show to others. But, today, I'd like to examine our internal attitude...the one that most affects us...and how it can be changed for the better.
Those of you who have never been to the deep south may not be familiar with a plant known, as least to Southerners, as "kudzu." Now "kudzu" is a sort of vine-like plant that is very hearty and grows really fast, over most any kind of terrain. Supposedly, it was originally transplanted into the South with the intention that cattle could graze on it - which was a great idea except, as it turned out, cows won't touch it. But once the kudzu was planted, it was, literally, off and running. There are places out in the country in the deep south where kudzu covers whole fields, trees, telephone poles and lines, sides of houses. If a horror movie was made about kudzu, it'd be called "The Thing That Ate Alabama!"
Well, a bad internal attitude can be just like that. It's really not good for anything and, while it may seem harmless in small amounts, the truth is, in time, it can overrun everything inside us! That's why we need to catch that bad internal attitude every time it starts popping up. We have to remember: our attitude - and what it does to us and within us - is a choice we make.
So how can we conquer and kill that bad attitude within us? Well, the first step is always to trust and obey God. Now that sounds so simplistic...and yet, by constantly keeping our interior ground clear of mistrust and by allowing God to be in charge of what is planted within us, then the negative...pessimistic...defeatist, bad attitude won't be able to take root and grow.
Trust and obey. We'll sing those words together in a little while as we prepare for Communion...and, as the song says, there's really no other way to be happy...free of the burdens of a bad attitude...than to truly trust and obey.
The challenge to trust and obey comes to us clearly in the reading we heard this morning from the Gospel of John. Mary, the mother of Jesus, said to the servants at the wedding in Cana, "Do whatever Jesus tells you." God speaks to us, through the life and teachings of Jesus, about how to transform our internal attitude. Whatever Jesus says to you, do it...even though:
(1) You aren't in the "right place". Verse 2 of our reading tells us that the group of disciples were at a wedding and not in a church when Jesus performed the miracle of turning water into wine. Some of God's greatest blessings will be at "other places" besides church if we will, with trust and obedience, watch for what God can do.
If God can only transfonn our lives when we're here in this place, during a service of worship, that's 1 out of 168 available hours each week! Surely God can function to touch us and teach us and change us during the other 167, too! In the workplace, with our neighbors, as we shop or play or chat with friends. God is always present and wlling to show us amazing things...if we are willing to see them.
Whatever Jesus says to you, do it...even though:
(2) You have a lot of problems. At this wedding in Cana, they had run out of wine. Too often our problems drive us away from Jesus instead of to Him. Christian renewal begins when we focus on God's and not our problems.
In honor of our upcoming Golf Tournament fundraiser, I want to tell you something interesting about golf balls. The first golf balls that were manufactured had smooth covers, not the dimpled surface we associate with them today. Well, a young avid golfer, who was experiencing great financial challenges, started to play with an old, beat up golf ball. It had a lot of nicks and dents on it...but it worked fine for him. In fact, his playing partners noticed that their smooth covered balls wouldn't fly as far or as accurately as his beat up golf ball did!
Today, golfballs are manufactured with as many as 432 "dimples." These "rough spots" enhance the ball's accuracy and distance. So it is with life. God can take the rough spots we have and use them to actually sharpen our performance. Jesus used the problem of no wine to perform a great miracle.
Whatever Jesus says to you, do it...even though:
(3) You're not encouraged. In verse 4, Jesus said to his mother and the others around him at the wedding, "My hour [for doing miracles] has not yet come." Instead of being discouraged by His words, Mary took hold of the opportunity for the possibility ofa miracle. She had hope.
Author Thorton Wilder wrote that hope is a projection ofthe imagination...and so is despair. He said, "Despair all too readily embraces the ills it foresees; hope is an energy and arouse the mind to explore every possibility to combat those ills.... In response to hope, the imagination is aroused to picture every possible [solution], to try every door, to fit together even the most [different lookingl pieces ofthe puzzle." Even when things seem impossible, have hope in the possibilities of God.
Whatever Jesus says to you, do it...even though:
(4) You haven't known Jesus very long...or have never seen God work any miracles in your life, The servants who obeyed Jesus had just met Him, and the disciples had just started to follow Him. Further more, this was the first recorded miracle Jesus performed! The people in this situation had to trust and obey Him without knowing Him well and without the assurance of a track record! The great evangelist Corrie ten Boom pointed out, "When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away your ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer." Proverbs, chapter 1, verse 7 says, "Respect and obey God; this is the beginning of knowledge." You see, we don't believe in God because of what we have seen God prove to us; we have seen the power of God because we have chosen to believe! Trust and obey. These are the first steps toward the transfortnation of our internal attitude...the attitude that will color every aspect of our lives.
Whatever Jesus says to you, do it...even though:
(5) You don't fully understand the process, From this biblical story of the wedding at Cana, we can draw out a definition for obedience. It is listening to the words of Jesus and doing God's will. Inward obedience provides outward growth.
It was exactly one year ago today...June 6th...that Lorraine and I completed our drive up from Florida and arrived at our new home in St. Louis around noon. It was a Saturday. We drove in past that big arch thing...we followed our maps along unfamiliar highways and streets...we arrived at a strange apartment where some mildly familiar faces were in the midst of painting and cleaning. It was nice but awkward. We appreciated the help and the company; it allowed us to wait a few hours before we lay down in each others arms and wept...grieving the loss of our familiar lives and sharing the fears of this new thing God was doing with us. We had no idea how all this was going to work out. We didn't fully understand the process...but we knew we had to trust and obey. And - despite some moments of bad attitude along the way - we have trusted and obeyed what God wanted us to do. And it's been an amazing year. Those mildly familiar faces? They are much beloved to us now. That strange apartment? It's home. The unfamiliar highways and streets? We both travel them now with the ease and room for daydreaming that comfort brings. Our cars can go from home to this place and back on auto-pilot now. (Makes you feel good about being on the streets with us, huh?!)
God has proven Godself through the process of this year...and will continue to do so. Not because God has to prove anything to us. But, if we work to keep an attitude of trust and obedience, God will always prove to be right and good and faithful. That's just what God is. That never changes; it's only our attitude that makes the difference in whether we see and experience God that way or not.
Psychologist and philosopher James Allen states, "A person cannot travel within and stand still without." Soon what is happening within us will affect what is happening around us. A hardened attitude is a dreaded disease. It causes a closed mind and a dark future. When the attitude is positive and conducive to growth, the mind expands and progress begins. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, "...God did not give us a spirit of fear and negativity...but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."
Instead of being like the little boy who was "sitting on the outside but standing on the inside," let's resolve to be more like another little boy who was overheard talking to himself as he played with his baseball and bat in the backyard. He was heard to say, "I'm the greatest hitter in the world." Then he tossed the ball into the air, swung at it and missed. "Strike one!" Undaunted he picked up the ball, threw it into the air and said to himself--"I'm the greatest baseball hitter ever," and he swung at the ball agin. An again he missed. "Stike two!" He paused a moment to examine his bayt and ball carefully. Then a third time he threw the ball into the air. "I'm the greatest hitter who ever lived," he said. He swung the bat hard again, and missed a third time. And he cried out, "Wow! Strike three! What a pitcher! I'm the greatest pitcher in the world!" Amen
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