A friend of ours decided to celebrate their 40th birthday in Greece this summer, and when invited to come along, we jumped on that bandwagon like a teenage girl (or middle-aged mom) purchasing Bieber tickets.
When we showed up at the airport, Paul and I got a free upgrade (not even sad!) and happily settled into our seats. While the other passengers boarded the plane, I tested out all the buttons on my remote to see just how flat my bed would go and gladly accepted all the drinks the flight attendants brought by, because it’d be rude not to!
Mid-sip of that second refreshment, a quarter of the way into my first movie, cozily tucked under my comforter with my footrest up, the lady next to us (who we’ll call Negative Narrative Nancy) starts yapping about everything she could find wrong about being in business class. I mean – were we even on the same plane??
After sitting on the tarmac for about 30 minutes, the first delay notification came in, but I couldn’t have cared less! I was lying down, watching a movie, and eating snacks under a comforter that I wasn’t sharing with my four children. We sat on the tarmac for a good hour and a half, just 3 minutes shy from being deplaned and put on another aircraft. Luckily that didn’t happen, but during the delay, Negative Narrative Nancy used business class as her stage with absolutely no need for a microphone.
She started talking loudly. “Ugh! (deep loud breath, sigh, eye roll) The pilot needs to update us- he’s not telling us what’s going on! Hey lady (flight attendant), what’s REALLY going on? Why are we delayed? What aren’t you guys telling us? I need a Xanax.”
The couple in front of Negative Narrative Nancy had their six-month-old baby, and anytime it cooed or made a peep, the woman would breathe deeply, roll her condescending brown eyes and ask if she could have a different seat in business class “AWAY from that baby”. After the poor couple were bouncing their sweet baby (seriously, it was such a quiet baby – just ask me, I have four!) to keep Negative Narrative Nancy appeased, to the point of their quads and biceps giving out from muscle fatigue, good ol’ Nancy turns and addresses all of business class saying, “I can’t think of anything worse!”
What?!? Lady with no children, come over here and let me sit you down. Nothing worse than a baby in business class? Negative Nancy – paaalease! I can think of a lot of worse things like… This plane going down. Snakes on the plane. My movies not working on the plane (come on, you know you’re with me!) and worst of all, YOU never taking that Xanax you speak of and and continuing to talk for the rest of our time together on this airplane!
We were in business class people! Business class! And her negative narrative was destroying the atmosphere. The funniest part of this story was that we found out later that a group of turtles mating on the runway caused our delay! Literally, turtles on the runway, which got me thinking…
Have you ever been running a meeting where someone is giving “feedback” but their tone is far from constructive and instead, full of negativity, just posing more problems with no solutions in sight? Maybe the problem is as minor as a turtle on the runway, but the meeting you were so smoothly running is now in a proper nosedive due to a negative narrative taking over. Maybe you started out solving a problem in your own personal life that feels like a minor hurdle, but then the negative nosedive in narrative you find in your own words or thoughts actually becomes the problem instead of the initial situation you faced? It’s possible that you naturally operate in faith and optimism, but you’re surrounded with “friends” and family who tend towards the negative, calling themselves “realists” and you’ve unconsciously joined the same club, not sure of who you are anymore. Maybe the pain you’ve walked through has consumed you, and instead of facing it and walking through it with the Healer, it’s become your identity, your constant narrative.
I have found myself being Negative Narrative Nancy in the business class of life more times than I’d like to admit, destroying the atmosphere of my home, workplace and even within myself. I have come into agreement with lies, circumstance, stress and negativity, letting it dictate what I see, feel, think and in turn, what I do.
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. – Proverbs 4:23 NIV
Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. – Proverbs 4:23 NLT
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. – Luke 6:45 NKJV
Everything I do and speak comes out of the abundance of what going on within my heart, which then determines the course of my life.
So let me ask you, on what narrative is your heart meditating? Because whatever it is, it will become your reality!
Our narrative starts in our thought life as a conscious or unconscious meditation, which, sinking down, becomes the meditation of our heart and, ultimately, our words and actions shaping our world.
I’ve had to be intentional to live aware of the negative or positive narratives playing out in my life. Sometimes I’m overreacting to turtles on the runway, and other times, I’m facing legitimate pain, trouble, trial, and problems in need of solutions. She Is Free: Learning The Truth About The Lies That Hold You Captive is an honest glimpse into my heart while on the journey of changing my negative narrative – a journey which I’m still on today and want to share with you. It’s messy, it’s real, but most of all, it’s wrapped in the Love of a Savior that has set me free in deeper ways than I ever imagined and continues to do so on a daily basis.
It’s imperative that we take authority over our negative narrative, because it changes the course of our story here on earth, and this spills out into the lives of others. There are people out there that need your story. People on the other side of your wrestle for freedom that will thank you for bringing the Good News of what Jesus has done in you and for you, because He can and will do it for them too.
Will you join me on the freedom journey?
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