Centripetal Force

Any crisis, obstacle, disaster, or failure has centripetal force. It is a vortex that draws you inward, a force that draws you in, circling the center of you. Why did this happen to me, why did I do that, why can't I catch a break, why am I so stupid. Me...I...I...I....I! It is the disaster after the disaster, It is the famine after the drought. You can circle in on yourself so much and for so long that you and your problems are all that you can see. It shrinks the world around you till you feel that this is all there is. The way that I see it, in the way of Jesus there are but two demands: Love God above all else and love others as yourself. I kind of see the second part of that as like loving your own hand. I don't think about loving my hand. It is not a conscience thought but I do love it. I know this because I know it. I see it. I interact with it and when it has needs I address them. If I cut it or bruise it, I take care of it. I nurse it back to health I use it gingerly and pamper it. That's how we should love other people. We should love them, all of them, so much that it is second nature. They and their well being are as important as my right hand.

However, you can't do that when you are down in a whole digging in the dirt. Taking a bath in self pity.

God, help me, when facing failure and obstacles to look outward to others and their needs as you work on me and bring me through.