3.9.08 “Never Approach A Problem From Below”
WESTMINSTER PULPIT
The Rev. Dr. David Thompson
March 9, 2008 “Never Approach A Problem From Below”
Text: “All things whatsoever you ask in prayer believing, you shall receive.” Jesus
I want to talk to you today about something quite simple to grasp that is also profound. Locked within this principle is a secret to help deal with a lot of mental problems, unhappiness loneliness and even despair.
Scott Peck in his The Road Less Travelled says that life is full of problems and that to a greater or lesser degree we all seek to avoid problems. We procrastinate hoping that they will go away; we try to ignore them, forget them or pretend that they do not exist. We take drugs to beat them or mask them. We often tend to skirt them because we do not want to suffer through the problems. Then he makes this telling statement: “This tendency to avoid problems and the emotional suffering inherent in them is the primary cause of all human mental illness.”
In other words, we tend to prefer to ‘crack up’ rather than actually deal with our problems. Layer after layer of neurosis can be laid on top of each other in a person’s mind and we do this rather than face our problems. Of course what happens when we put our problems off or mask them with drugs or refuse to stay on helpful medication? We become worse and we become sick.
The solution is often painfully obvious we need to face our problems and deal with them. Do you often wonder why it is that we don’t deal with our problems if that is the best thing to do?
I am convinced that one of the reasons we don’t actually deal with our problems is that psychologically we feel that they are too big for us to handle. We all have our everyday expressions about this. We say “She was weighed down by a load of cares” or “we will never get out from under this debt burden” or “we get a sinking feeling.” We feel “oppressed” or “shut down” or “we are carrying a lot on our shoulders.” All these expressions convey the idea that our problems are greater than us and that we are under their weight.
When Norman Vincent Peale started out with his publication called Guideposts he ran into financial difficulties. His board invited a woman to a meeting in the hope that she would contribute money. She refused saying that money was not the problem but that everyone was thinking lack all the time; lack of funds, lack of subscribers, lack of equipment. She said that by thinking lack they were all creating a state of lack.
“How many subscribers do you need?” she asked. They said “one hundred thousand.” She said: “Can you see the 100,000 in your mind’s eye?” Peale said he couldn’t but one man said yes he could! Then this lady of simple faith in God bowed her head and thanked God for giving them 100,000 subscribers. That was a turning point. From that moment forward Guideposts began to grow until it was well over 500,000 subscribers. Peale said that at that time he learned a great lesson which he formulated into a law: Put your problem in God’s hands. In your thoughts rise above the problem, so that you look down upon it not up at it.
When we start to approach our problems from below we create thinking mazes for ourselves that we cannot get out of and we go round and round the maze believing that there is no way out. When someone shows us an exit, we deny that it is an exit preferring to go round and round. If we got above the problem it would be like seeing a maze from above. The person in the maze cannot see the way out but once above the maze we see clearly how to get out. Here is an example from Scott Peck’s book about a woman in a maze of problems.
He writes: A young wife in Okinawa cut her wrist lightly with a razor blade and was brought to the emergency room. When asked why she had done this she replied:
“To kill myself of course!
“Why do you want to kill yourself?”
“Because I can’t stand it on this dumb island any longer. You have to send me back to the States.”
“What is it about Okinawa that is so painful to you?”
“I don’t have any friends her and I am alone all the time.”
“That’s too bad! How come you haven’t been able to make any friends?”
“Because I live in a stupid Okinawa housing area and none of my neighbors speak English.”
Why don’t you drive over to the American Housing area or to the wives club so that you can make some friends?”
“Because my husband has to drive the car to work.”
“Can’t you drive him to work, since you are alone and bored all day?”
“No. It’s a stick shift car, and I only know how to drive an automatic.”
“Why don’t you learn how to drive a stick shift car?”
She glared at Peck. “On these roads? You must be crazy!”
What Peck is doing here is giving her all kinds of ways to solve her problem and she systematically refuses them all. Her refusal sets the stage for the next set of problems that could well be layered over; alcohol or drug abuse or long sessions on the psychiatrist’s couch.
This woman’s problem is that she cannot catch the overview, the day when she masters the stick shift, the day when she confidently drives her husband to work, visits at the wives club and gets involved. Instead she runs away, back to the United States if she can convince Peck to let her go. Sadly, she will have wasted a magnificent opportunity to grow as a human being, an opportunity to learn to respect herself. When and if she gets back to the States she will take her problems with her for the one person we can never get away from in this world is our self.
Jesus said: “All things whatsoever you ask for in prayer believe that you have them already and they shall be yours.”
What Christ is talking about here is the overview. So here is how to use this verse. Take your overview to God in prayer and ask God to make it a reality. Vision it! Image it in faith believing and Jesus says that we will receive it.
There are at least two good reasons for taking the overview to God in prayer.
1) We can get God’s perception of the big picture, through meditation, being quiet and waiting. We need to test out whether what we want from God is morally acceptable and serves love in the world.
2) Then we can ask God’s help with the challenge before us so that God can be involved with the solution.
It is vital for us to approach all our problems from above for two solid reasons:
1) To overcome the feelings of defeat that so easily beset us. These feelings can sabotage us—like the woman who was defeated before she even tried to drive a stick shift
2) Looking at things from above with the end in mind gives us the motivation to get started on the solutions
When we look at the problem from below it can take the heart out of us. We can’t even get moving. If we do, it’s a hesitant step we take and the first failure will stop us dead in our tracks. But, if we have an overview we can pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and begin again.
A long distance swimmer of the Great lakes, Vicki Keith before she ever put one toe in the water swam the entire lake in her mind. Once in the water she used to say: “I just picture the moment of people greeting me on the shore and being interviewed by the press and I keep going.”
One final major point: People who learn to look down on their problems have to be prepared to go through the suffering necessary to solve the problem.
Jesus approached problems from above. When his disciples couldn’t feed the five thousand, Jesus prayed using the principle of the verse before us today and saw five loaves and two fishes feeding five thousand people. When the disciples fished all night and caught nothing Jesus saw nets so full they were breaking, teeming with fish, and said: “Launch out into the deep sea and prepare for a draught of fishes.”
But you say to me, “Oh well that’s alright for Christ. He could perform miracles. He had a distinct advantage over us.” But Christ could not spirit one problem away—his own death. The oncoming cross lay heavily on Jesus. Its shadow fell on him in the last few weeks of his life. In the garden of Gethsemane, he finally gave in to depression and looked at the problem from below. It was too much for him. He sweated great drops of blood and asked that this cup of suffering be taken away from him.
But finally, he returned to faith and courage again, and said these liberating words: “Not my will but Thine be done!”
Christ saw the cross from the overview and he knew what he was up against. He saw the cross as a head-on collision with all the evil in the world. Could love be stronger than hate? Could life be stronger than death? Would all his pains be worth it?
He could have avoided the cross. He didn’t have to take the road less travelled that ended in Jerusalem. But Scripture says: “For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross and the grave.”
A lot of people think that positive thinking is shallow—that it doesn’t confront the reality of suffering at all. But to go down that bitter road is to miss the point of life and love. If we look down on the problem instead of looking up at it we will get the courage and faith to tackle the suffering rather than running from it. And in that process we will become truly human and beautiful.
The tougher the problem is the more we have to approach it from above. The ultimate way to approach any problem is through the power of prayer.
A young man I knew lost the love of his life to cancer. Nobody was able to comfort him. As the funeral approached he became almost hysterical with grief. No minister could help him, no friend. The hospital psychiatrist was at a loss. At the graveside, when everyone expected that he would lose it completely this young man suddenly straightened up and said one of those sentence prayers that I believe God particularly loves. He said “God, I give her to you!”
Immediately he began to feel comforted. The overview had come…
If you have a problem that is crushing you down under its weight, give it over to God. Believe that the problem is on its way to a solution and begin to act in that confidence. This is an incredibly liberating thing to do. It will fill you with joy. The Bible calls this attitude to life Faith. If we can cultivate the habit of looking down on problems rather than looking up to them we will discover the power of this little verse in our lives:
“Whatsoever things you ask for in prayer believe that you have them already and they shall be yours.”
We can learn never to approach a problem from below.
Will yesterday be the last day in your life when you approached a problem from below?
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