One of those situations happened this week. In two weeks I am teaching a three hour lecture series on C. S. Lewis at BYU Education Week. I have been preparing for months by re-reading Lewis’ works and making notes. I knew I’d only have two weeks after we got home from our trip so I took three of the books with me to read during travel time. That worked. I read the books, made extensive notes in them, and planned to then organize and put the finishing touches on the lectures after I got home. It would still be tight time wise, but I could do it.
On the trip home, Mr. J asked if he could read one of the books so I gave him my favorite—The Great Divorce which he started to read. I didn’t think much more about it, but the day after we got home he informed me that he had left the book (with all my notes!) on the plane. As he told me what had happened, I could feel the negative emotions swell like great tidal waves within me. Anger, accusations, fear, and many other negative feelings started to push me out of Truth and over the brink and into the Pit of Illusion.
At that moment I sensed the darkness of the Pit and knew from experience it was not a place I wanted to be and began to Rewrite the story I was telling myself. The accusation, “How could he do this to me?” changed to “He feels so bad about the mistake he’s made. He didn’t do anything to me. It was a simple mistake.” And “I don’t have time to re-read and find the quotes I need again!” was rewritten into, “The Lord will help me. Re-reading the book could even prove to be helpful.”
With those thoughts I found myself back in the Light of Truth and the vexing, negative feelings (the unnecessary pain) leave. I’m still not exactly sure how I’m going to do it, but I am at peace in Truth, and in that state of Truth things always work out. I’ll let you know how when I know!
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1 comment:
I have total faith that something will work out to let you do the job with your class that you desire. I have been amazed in the past that while facing the impossible, strength I did not know I had would emerge and I could step up the pace and make the deadline. I've also believe that you teaching this class is very important and the Lord will provide you with whatever you need to make your presentation the way you like. If the book was left on the plane at SLC, you might want to call, as airports do have lost and founds, because the crews clean each plane to prepare for the next flight. I had a friend who left her bag under the seat with her laptop and Bible and $300.00 in cash and actually got it all back. Airports are different so you may have to go through the airport or the airline, but it's probably best to start with the airline. They know if you had it on the plane it is important to you, so they usually have a place by the luggage area where they put lost items and keep them for awhile so passengers can get them back. If you left it at JFK, call your airline and they can still help you find it and have it returned. I worked for JetBlue for a couple of years and we got calls all the time and reunited many people with their property, so give it a try. Good luck!!
Cathie
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