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Adventure and Attitude

I just returned from travelling overseas to Scotland and Ireland.

I just returned from travelling overseas to Scotland and Ireland. It was a good trip and we managed to travel to different places and see family and friends with little or no trouble, although my luggage decided to stay in Amsterdam the weekend before coming home.  On the trip however, we crossed paths on a couple of occasions with folk who were not travelling well.  On both occasions, it was what they brought to the situation that caused the problems:  Their attitude towards the situation and the people who were trying to help.  The problems I saw these individuals facing were small in the scheme of things.  One was a man getting angry over not being able to find a seat in a half empty restaurant. He was yelling at the hostess for no reason at all.  The other was a man who could not get his passport to scan and was fighting with the machine and the person who was attempting to help.  When we are overwhelmed by the little things then we are unable to face the more important things and the decisions we have to make.

How are we to deal with the major issues that we face each day?  How are we to face the challenges that come from within and without?  How are we to face those things that we seemingly have no control over?  How does our faith and hope prepare us for each day?

A few years ago, I facilitated a workshop called “The Trauma of Change.”  I worked with a couple of social workers who came from a faith-based perspective.  At the end of the day they said the reason many people survive and sometimes even flourish during difficult times in their lives is because of attitude.  By attitude they meant their approach to those things they had to face, their approach to other people.  They led with their positive foot and not their negative one. Jawaharlal Nehru said:   “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”

What would happen if we were to cultivate a sense of adventure each day?  What would happen if we were to look at each day and the experiences we have each day with excitement and challenge?  The journey of each day will bring out the best in us if we have the courage to face each opportunity. Each of us has gifts, talents and life experiences that we bring to every situation.  How can we use all of these attributes to navigate through each day, bringing out the best in ourselves and each person we were to meet?   It is my belief that we must cultivate a sense of adventure which is founded in our attitudes that we bring to each day.  Barak Obama said;:  “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.  We are the ones we've been waiting for.  We are the change that we seek.”

In his teachings to the crowds that followed him Jesus speaks about attitude.   He was showing them how to bring a sense of adventure into everything they did.  We know these as the Beatitudes.   In essence, however, they are guidelines to face the day and all that is thrown at us.  We can find them in the fifth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, and they are a good way to begin every day. They speak about humility, peacemaking, justice, mercy and having a good heart.  What will your attitude be today?

The Right Reverend Logan McMenamie is the Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of British Columbia

You can read more articles on our interfaith blog Spiritually Speaking HERE.

This article was published in the print edition of the Times Colonist on Saturday February 25, 2017