St Edmund's Church, Allestree

Diocese of Derby

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A Message from the Vicar

Dear Friends

I came across a song that I'd forgotten, sung by Bing Crosby.

"You've got to accentuate the positive,

Eliminate the negative,

Latch on to the affirmative,

Don't mess with Mister In-Between.

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum,

Bring gloom down to the minimum,

Have faith or pandemonium,

Is liable to walk upon the scene."

What did Jonah in the whale and Noah in the ark do just when everything looked so dark? They said, "We better accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative, don't mess with Mister In-Between."

It's a brilliant sentiment because we all know how we find ourselves drawn to positive people. Glum people tend to bring us down and positive people raise us up. Jesus was a very positive person, probably because of his reliance on God the Father. He was realist, not pretending things were going to be easy all the time. He trusted that things would work out in the end because we are held in God's love.

So positivity is a good thing for us to practice. It transforms us and the world around us, not when we put on a falsely happy face but when we trust in God enough to look for his blessings even in the tough times. It's the "every cloud has a silver lining" idea that knows that even in the darkest times there's still light there which will triumph in the end.

Try it; people respond better and we feel better ourselves. Someone once said "It's easier to find God looking up at the stars than with your head buried in the mud."

Every blessing.

Chris

Last Updated ( Friday, 06 August 2010 )

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