(Another straight-to-the-heart from Dayspring...)
“You’re acting like Pigpen!!” My mom’s words cut through my cell phone, stopping me in my tracks.
But…she was right (sigh). I was acting like him. And thus began a life-changing journey all because of that little fellow.
You can picture him, right? The friend of Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the gang. Always surrounded by a cloud of dirt and dust.
Our minds get so consumed with our “stuff” that it just swirls around us all day long and affects everything we do. We might not even realize how our unhealthy preoccupation makes us feel (tired, anxious, overwhelmed, depressed) or how we may appear to others (rude, selfish, uncaring, uninterested). We don’t mean to but when the dust and dirt of life is like a tornado circling around you, it makes it hard to see anything else.
I came up with a cycle that helps me recognize, and then stop, my Pigpenning before it starts. It goes like this: mental noise leads to doubt which in turn leads to Pigpenning.
The noise is anything negative in our minds (playing the “what-if game” is one example of this). If the noise isn’t stopped, it turns to doubt; we begin doubting that God is who He says He is or that he can do as He has promised. And if the doubt isn’t stopped, you’ll find yourself walking around like Pigpen in no time.
The best way to stop the noise?
“I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.” Philippians 4:8 (MSG)
Pigpen may be cute…but he ain’t cute on you. Don’t become him!
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