Keep The Faith !

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I don’t know what it is about this mental juke box phenomena I have been experiencing but it seems to be intensifying as things start falling back in place for me.  This evening I received an email from a good friend who is having some difficulty with a business related legal matter.  I know how stressed he has been after experiencing events similar to what I have gone through the past three years.  When I read his email, I started thinking about what I could do to help him get through this difficult situation, I wanted to tell him that there was something good hidden in this trouble but I just didn’t know how to tell him without minimizing the size of the issue.  I know that this is a temporary but still uncomfortable situation and that thinking about it will only make it worse.   As I sat in my office contemplating what to say, I could hear a quarter drop into my mental juke box and Bon Jovi’s “Keep the Faith” started playing,  “you gotta keep the faith” kept playing over and over, which made me wonder what the lyrics were to the song.

There is definitely a message in the lyrics of this song for everyone facing a troubling issue especially when other parties are involved and especially when people are pitted against people.   Check this out from Bon Jovi’s  ” Keep the Faith”…I have suffered for my anger,  there are wars that can’t be won,  I am laying down my guns, I am broken like an arrow, forgive me, forgive me your wayward son.  This may sound depressing but it truly is a strong message that tells me not to get angry, not to fight but to work toward a solution and when you submit, I think most times even when you are right, the truth prevails.  I know that’s a little deep but it all comes down to how you play this out in your mind,  you can let the anger kill you, you can get angrier when the other side does something you think is unjust but when you know in your heart you are right and you know you will prevail, you can settle back and let God handle the details.  Here’s some more lyrics from the same song that apply to the same situation…”Everybodys bitching, cause they can’t get enough, and its hard to hold on, when there’s no one to lean on”.  I have been here, when there is no one to help and it’s all on you, it seems like the end of the world but all that has changed for me because my thoughts have changed as well as my approach to everything.

“Faith, you know you’re gonna live through the rain, Lord you got to keep the faith, Faith don’t let your love turn to hate, right now we got to keep the faith”  So  my internal, head banging, juke box keeps playing and picking songs randomly to fit my thoughts.  How do you explain that ?  These are more than coincidences, I know that by eliminating all the negative input from today’s media, the right songs play at the right time in my head and it props me up and makes me stronger each day.  

I grew up with my Mother working at a movie theater and ultimately worked as an usher at the same theater, many, many hours were spent watching movies over and over.  I am sure I saw “The Sting“, “All the Presidents Men” and Disney‘s “Robin Hood” among others hundreds and possibly thousands of times.  So my entire life I have been addicted to movies and just recently I realized a lot of the movies I was going to see may also have been putting the wrong thoughts in my head.  This was never more apparent than when I went to see “Secretariat” last week.  This was such a positive and moving movie that I think I had tears flowing down my face most of the movie.   It wasn’t a sad movie, it was just that emotionally I connected with the movie on a level that brought on that effect.   It all goes back to the intensity of everything in my life these days, I can’t seem to look at leaves changing on a tree without being thrilled with the beauty of the Universe and the Perfection that lies before us each day.

Intensity and Keeping the Faith, they go hand in hand and when you get to the point that you know every single thing that happens in your life happens for a reason, you marvel at the perfection instead of getting angered over a legal issue or business audit or whatever you are facing.  The greatest lessons in my life have come at times that people thought I should be depressed or angry with the situation I had found myself in, but no matter how bad the situation or for that matter how good a situation appears to other parties, the truth is it is all as it should be and there is a powerful lesson for us in every event no matter the size or scope.

God sends us teachers all the time, whether it is an opposing attorney, a chance meeting with a young man who had a very rough life as a teenager in Chicago and moved to Minneapolis to get a new start, that guy in the big red truck that cut you off on the highway, a friend who has a different political view than yours or a parent who calls you at all hours of the day or night to check on you.  All of these people have been sent to teach you something and it is your reaction to each event that will determine what you learn, and how you will feel.   Negative events do not by themselves make us unhappy but rather it is our reaction to the event that determines how we are going to feel.   Each time I am tested by challenging events,  I have a new tool that seems to be serving me well, the internal juke box loaded with a play list to fit every thought or situation that presents itself.   “Keep the faith, though, you know it’s never too late.  Keep the faith, keep the faith, keep the faith”

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