Giving Everything its Place

This past week I have had a number of conversations with people who are struggling with injustice at the hands of others. All of them have spoken to the people involved and have brought others into the situation at the appropriate time. Yet despite this, those who are guilty of the injustice carry on with their sin and continue to try to cause harm to anyone who opposes them.

The Place in My Heart

Obviously, there are a number of issues involved in these situations. One of the issues is the place that you give it in your own life. What place does it have in your heart? How much and in what way do you think about it?

Placing Yourself for Paralysis

It is possible that you dwell on all that has happened. These kinds of thoughts do not just involve worry. It is more than thinking “what will so and so do if I do such and such?” Or, “what will happen if so and so does x?” The thoughts that are involved include recollecting the whole situation and experiencing sorrow at what has happened. If there is a loss of a relationship, there may be genuine sorrow for this loss as you remember previous better days.

Sadly, the more place that these kinds of thoughts have in a person’s life, the more that the person will struggle with things such as self-pity, fear, and anger. The result will be that the person will become paralyzed from doing anything and not live intentionally for the glory of God.

Placing Your Focus

That is why it is important to be intentional about the amount of place that such things have in our lives. If we examine ourselves and see how much time we spend thinking and talking about them, it may be a shock to us. Often I advise people to give themselves time to think through issues that need to be dealt with, such as a ½ hour, and then to be very tough each time it comes back into their thoughts. They are to say to themselves, “I have thought enough about that today,” and then force themselves to put their attention onto something else.

It may help them to verbalize this by saying something like “focus” out loud. From here, they are to then focus on what is in front of them that day. That may be things like their work, study, or spending time with their children. It is always good to think truths of scripture while bringing oneself to focus on one’s daily responsibilities.

Everything in its Appropriate Place

When facing injustice or any difficulty in life, one of the ways that it is important to deal with it, is by making sure that it has the right place. Instead of allowing ourselves to constantly mull over what has happened and how people have treated us in the past and present, it is important to limit the amount of time we think about them. It is important to be intentional with our thoughts and to focus on the Lord and what he has placed in front of us each day. This will help us to become the person that the Lord wants us to be instead of being immobilized by the things around us that grieve us.