The Negative Side of Positive Thinking

The prevailing attitude in society today is that negatives in life are taboo. But, this mandate carries over into the arena of making decisions and other areas too. Let’s look at several areas to see how negatives and positives work together:
Medically

As a chaplain, I have encountered people who have never been sick in their lives until the moment they arrive in the hospital. They often became panicked and sometimes died because their body was not accustomed to the normal cycle of getting over a sickness. They had no prior experience to fall back on so, consequently, they thought they would not get better.

Illness of any kind is a negative, whether it is a stuffy nose or a major illness. We learn as we live that if we take care of ourselves, we will eventually get better again. Without this experience of the cycle of illness and recovery, the mind and body have nothing to relate to that they will get better.

Spiritually

When Jesus was here, He dealt with many negative situations: demon possession, death, lameness, epilepsy, blindness etc. He also had to deal with people like the Pharisees who were bound up in their religious traditions, failing to see and do what God wanted for them spiritually. These were all negatives, but they did not remain that way. He started with the negative situation and made it into a positive when the person was healed, thereby giving glory to God. Nicodemus, in John 3, stands out as one of the Pharisees who wanted to change, and Jesus helped bring this about in his life.

The subject of sin is a negative. Mankind decided to turn away from God and the result was an inherent sinful nature all of us have, whether we admit it or not. But God didn’t let us in that state. He sent Jesus to rescue us from our sin. Jesus said in John 14:6: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through me.” God took a negative situation and made it into a positive according to what choice you make spiritually.

There are those who resist the idea of there being only one way to God, but that is all we need. If you find yourself lost in the forest or anywhere else, you only need one way to get back to where you belong. If you get lost on the freeway and ask for directions, you only need one good set of directions to help you find your way to your destination.

Decision-making

There are those who cannot confront negatives in the decision-making process, so their outcome can be flawed because of this lack of objectivity. If a problem is brought to them, they cannot solve it because it is not positive enough. Problems certainly are negatives in our world but they don’t have to remain that way. As we work through them, they become positives as we solve them with God’s wisdom and help.

Let’s look at the subject of algebra. When you first begin learning this area of study, you start with all positives. But you are severely handicapped in solving the majority of algebra problems by just concentrating on the positive examples. Eventually you progress to using negatives and positives, enabling you to solve the problems set before you.

Yes, it is good to have a positive attitude in your life, but don’t exclude the negatives. Part of the reasons for negative situations is so that we can hopefully learn our lessons and not repeat the same mistakes. The other reason is to see whether we will turn to God for guidance and help rather than our own wisdom.

If you notice, a balance scale has two sides, we could say positive and negative. Without both sides operating together, there would be no balance. This is also true in our lives: all positives or all negatives don’t make for a good life. But when you balance the two, turning the negatives into positives and learning from past mistakes, you can have a good life with God’s help.