CAMP FIRES AND SERENITY

Some destructive thoughts attack us head on, the deadliest however are the thoughts that creep in, with no apparent foreshadowing. We never know what triggers these seemingly random negative thoughts, perhaps it is a smell, a taste, a song on the radio, a blue Volkswagen driving by, no one really knows and most importantly it matters little. What matters is the action we take when we become aware of discordant or negative thinking, of morbid reflection rising. Consider the analogy of the campfire: If we are sitting by a campfire and a burning ember floats up and lands on our sleeve, if we brush it off immediately no real harm is done. However if we wait a moment to contemplate it, the shirt is ruined, a welt on our arm to mark the decision. We must stay ever vigilant for those “burning ember” thoughts and as soon as becoming aware, we turn immediately to God and ask Him to direct our thinking. The wording of our prayer is of course optional, but the timing isn’t. So many make the mistake of trying to figure out why the thought surfaced, not only failing to brush off “the ember” with Divine help, but nurturing and feeding it fuel by continuing to try to understand why it surfaced, as if knowing why will do anything to remove the discomfort and pain their ruminations are causing. Why is the booby prize. Why only prolongs the pain, intensifies it, while prayer addresses it, relieves and removes it.

boo·by prize : n  
loser’s prize: a prize given as a joke to the person or team coming last in a competition 

If a small fire started in your home would you stand by, watching the fire wondering why it started or would you act to put it out? Yet we do this very thing in the only dwelling that really matters, our consciousness, when we entertain these destructive thoughts, our serenity and peace of mind burning in the fire of morbid reflection. So we must stay ever vigilant, and at the first sign of an ember, we enlist God to be our fireman