S05E021, Wood, Trees and Blindness, Andy B 2 Minute Video
Feelings can’t be relied upon. They lie to us, they overwhelm us and they can deceive us. What we feel, no matter how strong it may be, can change at the drop of a hat - or in the blink of an eye. You get the idea!
Over the last weekend, as a family, we accomplished an awful lot. Including our usual set of videos to film for the BerryBunch and chopping the best part of a month’s worth of firewood ready for the winter.
All in all, with exercise, cooking, sleeping and resting, it was a very full, and satisfyingly busy, weekend.
And yet, by Monday morning my feelings were getting me down as I could only focus on those things we hadn’t done; a very small list: I’m sure I’m not the only one who can struggle this. In reality, my feelings – as powerful as they were – were wrong.
So, I did the only thing I could do – I phoned a friend! Ok, it was Facebook Messenger, but the point is the same – I chatted about how I was feeling with a trusted friend – Alan, who write over on his blog, Devotional Treasures. And I wanted to share with you the two pieces of golden advice that he gave me:
-
Put some worship music on (my personal choice would almost always be Skillet, played rather loud)
-
Read the book of Philippians (slowly and deliberately).
Reading those precious words of scripture brought my focus back to God and, in doing so, brought my eyes to the large pile of wood we now have – ready to go in our log burner in the coming weeks and months.
We all need an Alan in our life. And, if you haven’t got someone you can talk to, who can challenge and encourage you, pray for someone who can fill that need.
Just a thought...
Andy B
Download
Transcript
0:06
So another Andy B 2 Minute Video.
0:09
Have you ever heard the expression 'You can't see the wood for the trees? If you haven't, it simply means this. You could be stood in a forest and you're looking at such detail, where's the wood. Looking down at your feet, perhaps, that you can't see beyond the tree in front of you. That that tree is actually part of entire forest. Can't see the wood for the trees.
0:28
Over the weekend, I was feeling quite low about life, I was thinking, 'Do you know, what we, we haven't done what I thought we should do.' And I had this list of things we needed to do. We did our usual filming lot on Saturday. On Sunday, we did a lot of work in the garage, and we cut up loads and loads of wood, maybe two to four weeks worth of wood for the household over the winter. And we get through quite a bit! But I felt, this morning in particular, quite low at what we hadn't done.
0:52
I chatted with my friend Alan, who's a really really good guy from Scotland. Really lovely chap. And we talk most days. And we kind of bolster each other up and we encourage each other. And if we've got some't we're struggling with, we we tell the other person and they help us to work it through. And I shared with him, 'I'm quite low and down'. And he gave me two bits of great advice.
1:09
One, go and listen to some worship music, and Two, go and read the book of Philippians, which I did. And I would encourage you, if you are down, go and read the book of Philippians. It's amazing! That whole thing of focusing on whatever is true, whatever is good, whatever is noble. It's a wonderful little verse. But if you read it in the context of 4 chapters of Philippians, it's so much more powerful.
1:30
The thing is I've lost sight of what we'd done, because I was looking so much for what we hadn't done. I couldn't see what we have actually accomplished and we'd accomplished a lot. We recorded a radio show for Konnect Radio we we did our usual filming, The boys did their Endurance. Jo and I did Marriage Matters. We've got a little weekly roundup catch up video that we did. We did some planning. We got some write up stuff done for the website. We did so much work. It was about five hours of work on the Sunday to get all the wood sorted. We did an awful lot. We had dinners, we had showers, we had exercise and, but, we hadn't done X, Y and Z that, in my head, that we should have done. Do you have that too? I'm sure you do! You're so busy working hard that instead of seeing what you actually accomplished, you see all the stuff that you haven't.
2:15
Can I encourage you just to find yourself an Alan in your life. Go and pray for someone like him who can help you when you're feeling a little bit low, to refocus your eyes. And can I encourage you? Don't forget to look back at what you have done, when you're thinking I haven't done all that I should look at what you have done.
2:33
Just a thought.