“For as he thinketh in his heart, so
is he...”
Proverbs 23:7
Senator Cory
Booker, on an appearance of “The Daily Show,” recently shared a powerful lesson
with the audience:
“My father told me there are two ways
to go through life: as a thermometer or as a thermostat. A thermometer:
whatever someone says about you, you go up or down. A thermostat: you set the
temperature.”
Both the
thermometer and the thermostat reflect life and its issues, including our
stance on addiction and recovery.
And our choice
has significant ramifications concerning health, well-being and prosperity. Each
option offers its inevitable results.
So, it might
be worth our while to ponder what those very results may mean for us.
First, the thermometer:
its appeal is that self-gratifying moment. It doesn’t require much work. You
just let your feelings rip.
“A fool vents all his feelings. But a
wise man holds them back.”
Proverbs 29:11
There’s no
requirement for patience or self-control. The thermometer is when we yell at a
cashier or give the finger to the driver who cut off in traffic. And, of
course, this option is present when those of us addicts run headlong into our
destructive obsessions. The thermometer is the refusal to face and deal with
our ugly truth. It is not interested in healthy change, boundaries or saying
“no” to our wants.
The
thermometer reacts, here and now, with no sense of later consequences.
And we all
engage in it; we all blow it. It’s human nature to do so.
Still, that
humanity doesn’t cancel another simultaneous reality dwelling within us:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such
there is no law.”
Galatians 5:22-23
Yes, there
is some hope here.
Still, this
in-dwelling necessitates our active
tapping into it. We must prioritize, decide and put it into practice. And, we
have that ability to do that.
But do we
have the willingness?
“If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the
land.”
Isaiah 1:19
Eh... that’s
a bit “if-y-er.”
The
willingness involved here is the surrender to our “Higher Power.” It is the
admission we are screwed up and vulnerable. It is the “I want to, want to change” step.
Willingness
need not be perfect, just honest, at least, as honest as our tricky hearts
afford us...
“The heart is deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
Jeremiah 17:9
And, let us
never forget; there is always Divine good news, to spite our seemingly hopeless
human state of being...
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men
count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
2 Peter 3:9
We are not
alone in our flawed, addicted, troubled existences. We are not sentenced to the
unforgiving fate of the thermometer’s negative consequences.
We can make
another choice: the thermostat.
Indeed, the
thermostat challenges the instant gratification, opting for the long term “big
picture” instead. That involves dealing with ourselves.
“Keep thy heart with all diligence;
for out of it are the issues of life.”
Proverbs 4:23
“Search me, O God, and know my heart:
try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and
lead me in the way everlasting.”
Psalms 139:23-24
It is the
decision to work, to take the harder, higher road.
And no, that
is not fun.
Nevertheless,
it is critical to the stewardship which produces the more fulfilling, longer
term rewards we desire.
“That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel
in sanctification and honor.”
1 Thessalonians 4:4
We are all
on a continuum of this stewardship principle.
And again,
it’s not about perfection; rather, it’s about prioritization. It is the
personal work of pursuing what matters to us.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart:
try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and
lead me in the way everlasting.”
Psalms
139:23-24 surfaces yet again. The
challenge targets our thought processes.
What is our attitude about our beloved vices, real
change and actual health?
We are thinking something about each issue.
Is it closer to disease and self-destruction
or health and prosperity?
We can choose.
And for many of us, an additional vital issue to
challenge is “the big payoff.”
What do we honestly believe about the
rewards attached to forsaking our dysfunctions?
Is the prize nonexistent?
Does it pale in comparison to the instant
gratification of our familiar addictions, disorders and vices?
Are we willing to embark on imperfect change
and choose something other than that reliable object of our affections?
Are we willing to relinquish control of our
lives to the Creator of us all?
The thermostat asks these loaded questions
with some famous “Twelve Step” principles in tow...
Step number one...
We admitted we were powerless over our
addiction/compulsion - that our lives had become unmanageable.
Step number two...
We came to believe that a Power
greater than ourselves could restore us
to sanity.
Step number three...
We made a decision to turn our will and
our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
Step number eleven...
We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we
understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power
to carry that out.
Step number twelve...
Having had a spiritual awakening as the
result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to
practice these principles in all our affairs.
In all of our struggles, questions and
decisions, we need to understand there is, indeed, a big “payoff,” a Divine
creation for each of us...
“Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper
and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”
3 John 1:2
“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above
all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”
Ephesians 3:20
And it exists within the framework of the
thermostat. It exists when we recognize our feelings can run amok and wreak
havoc unless we submit to Divine help and order. It is the decision to choose
delayed gratification over impulse.
It is the realization life is not a “one-time
only” event. It is ongoing, needing our stamina, discipline and, when we fail,
the implementation of merciful, forgiving grace.
No matter where we are in life, in the
addiction/recovery spectrum, each of us is faced with the
thermometer-thermostat decision.
It is a daily reality, requiring our choice.
What do we choose right now?
Copyright © 2022 by Sheryle Cruse
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