Article February 24, 1992 Issue

Moving past the problem to healing

Instead of building up a problem, making it formidable in our minds, we need to see things from a God-based perspective.

Mark Swinney

Have you ever had a problem or task before you, and then, as strange as it may seem, instead of immediately moving forward to solve it, you find yourself building it up, admiring its magnitude, mentally "walking around" the problem? And in the process of trying to solve it, thinking about the tremendous effort it's going to take to clear it up?

At this point, especially if you've discussed the vastness of the difficulty with a friend—maybe even morbidly laughed together about the impossibility of its resolution—the problem seems so entrenched, so permanent, that you don't feel even a hint of optimism about its being successfully unraveled or healed.

Something along those lines may sound familiar, although hopefully not too familiar! Working from the standpoint of the virtually inescapable permanency of difficulties doesn't do anything in the right direction. It only blinds us to solutions.

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