During my tenure at the Catholic school where I worked, the pastor of the church associated with the school would lead the staff in a retreat before each school year started. He would invite a fellow priest from his order and we would all gather in the social hall and listen to what he had to say. We’d participate in discussions and private reflection time. I enjoyed it because every year there was always a tidbit that I could pull from what was discussed and use it as inspiration throughout the year. One year I was inspired by the following statement and made a banner of it to hang in my classroom: “If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat.” Meaning that if you want to do what Peter did, that is, walk on water like Jesus, you have to actually get out of the boat and try it. This, of course, could look like a variety of things. But in my mind, it just meant that if you wanted to do great things, you have to actually try to do them. To carry it further, you have to have confidence and faith that it will work out as well because once Peter saw what he was doing, he became afraid and started to sink. It took Jesus to rescue him.
Another year there was a priest who talked to us about the 99 and 1. This one has stuck with me too and it’s something that I remind myself of when I get frustrated with people. He presented it to us like this. Imagine you are driving down the highway and some jerk cuts you off in a very rude way. You get super irritated with the person and think all kinds of ugly things about him/her. He’s a jerk! He’s so distracted by his stupid phone that he didn’t even see me! He doesn’t care about anybody else on this road but himself! The list goes on. You can easily think of 99 hateful things to think about that person who cut you off. But think about another possibility. Think of another different kind of reason that he could have done that. What if he just got a call that his wife or his kid was in an accident and he’s rushing home or to the hospital to be with them? That very well could be the reason he cut you off. He didn’t mean to. He just had something happen in his personal life that caused him stress and anxiety and an inability to drive calmly and rationally.
When you think about a situation with other people in that way, you feel differently. You stop feeling that strong negativity and you feel almost a sense of empathy. You no longer think they are horrible people that just want to make your day miserable. It changes your perspective in a good way. Of course, the real reason could be one of the 99. But you probably won’t ever know and it is a much better thing to think of the 1.
It was something that I randomly remembered the other day. It really works. Seriously, try it.
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