It's Never Coincidence

This morning I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.  Plain and simple.  I had set my alarm to get up early and do some things around the house, and just have some "me time".  I immediately knew this was not going to be the case.  I turned my alarm off and lounged around for almost another hour, thinking that maybe if I could go back to sleep,  I would re-wake up in a better mood.  Nope.

So I finally drag myself out of bed and open my bible and start to read for awhile.  Figuring this might be an important day, I fill my prayer with pleas of strength, of patience, of the need to be a light, so please, please God, won't you make this bad mood disappear?

My prayer continued on my way to work.  Let me be a light. Let me bring positive energy to the people I work with.  Let me be a bright influence.  Arriving at work, my bad mood pretends to disappear, and then attacks full-on as I walk through the door.  I'm just so annoyed by everything! What is the DEAL?!

I make it through my shift and, because I'm really lucky and my church sits directly behind my place of work, I drive over and peek my head in to see if the pastor is around.  I'm really frustrated, really annoyed, and really concerned that this mood isn't hitting the road.  The senior pastor is gone, but the associate pastor is there.  He asks what's up, and I relay my attitude and issues to him.  It's not that anything bad has happened, I have no reason to be stressed out, there's nothing bad on my plate... there is absolutely NO REASON I should be feeling this way.

Pastor Todd listened intently, nodding in all the right places, waiting for me to finish my diatribe.  And then he tells me something amazing: everyone on leadership at our church has been feeling this way lately.  EVERYONE.  People have felt useless, worthless, desolate, and basically just attacked at every angle for the last several weeks.  Pastor Todd encouraged me to see past my day and know that something BIG is happening, and this is just satan's way of trying to pull me out of the game, to make me stagnant or unmovable.  He then asked if he could pray for me.  "Absolutely! Yes, please."

And as he prayed for me, I was reminded of my place of influence within the church, of my place of importance in the Lord's plan, of my place of value in the Lord's eyes.  It struck me suddenly that not all bad moods are coincidental.  Not all bad days are just bad days.  Sometimes it's much, much more than that.  And so I decided to come up with a few ways to deal with bad moods:

1. Be Proactive.
      Your bad attitude isn't going to change just because you want it to, or because you complain about it. Know this, and make a knowledgeable decision to change it.  Even if you don't feel like it.

2. Pray.
      Let yourself be comforted.  But beyond that, let yourself be reminded of your value in the Lord.  Be reminded of your level of influence in the people around you.  See the bigger picture- not just this little snapshot of time.  You're always ministering- even when you think no one is looking.

3. Talk To Someone.
      About THEIR life.  You've already whined or complained enough (it's okay- it's what we do).  But allow yourself to be reminded that you're not the only person on the planet, and that other people are struggling, too.

4. Get Busy.
      Go on a run.  Pop in a work out dvd.  Hit the gym.  There's something to be said about sweat and those natural mood-boosters smart people call endorphins.

5. Breathe.
      Just the sound of your own breath is cathartic and healing.  It's constant, it's controllable.  Yes, it sucks to have a bad day.  Yes, it sucks to be stressed out.  Yes, it sucks when things don't go your way, especially if it looked like it was going to happen for you.  But you can still breathe.  In 10 minutes, you can still breathe.  At the end of this crappy day, or this rough trial, or this terrible time, you're still breathing, and God still loves you.  Take comfort in that with a nice long, slow, deep, life-giving breath.

My day wasn't instantly better.  Things didn't automatically start going my way.  But utilizing these tools that I hadn't yet realized were constantly at my disposal gave me ownership of both my attitude and my actions concerning my attitude.  Particularly when I was reminded of the bigger picture, and how my bad mood was just playing into the devil's hand.

I didn't have to remain negative, I didn't have to bring other people down with my annoyance or frustration.  My behavior did NOT have to depend on how I felt.  I could take steps to remind myself of TRUTH which is, at the end of the day, what we lean on.  Not how we feel.  Which includes our bad moods.