Mind games

Sarah and I love watching reality tv. More truthfully, I loved it before we got married and now she likes it (i don't know if she really likes it or just watches it with me). Anyway...last night there was a challenge that required the contestants to have their hands and feet bound while holding a weight that would take them down to the floor of the ocean (12 feet where they were) and then back up. The last person to let go of their weight would win the challenge. It became quickly apparent that this was more of a mental challenge than a physical one.

It got me thinking, most of life is a mental challenge. I've had a really challenging week mentally. There are battles that wage that no one around knows is going on. Things that we are all thinking but never speak out loud. How much do we think and never ever say? Think about that...what do you think the ratio to thoughts thought vs thoughts spoken really is? We've become a somewhat transparent society in which people are who they are and can dress, act, date and live any which way they want to. Our actions aren't hard to read. But what about our thoughts?
The great baseball player and now Aflac spokesperson Yogi Berra once was quoted as saying, "90% of this game is half mental". Our minds wage wars that really never come out in our every day-walking around-going from here to there lives. Still, it affects us and it goes to the core. We deal with these things that even our closest friends and family members never now about or ever will. These things change us and change our attitudes and reactions and color our perspective on life. Yet they go unsaid. They go unspoken and seem to linger until those quiet moments in life. All that to say this:

Even though some of the largest battles that we will face never have words or letters behind them, God knows. He simply just knows and He cares.

Ezekiel 11:5
Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon me, and he told me to say, “This is what the Lord says to the people of Israel: I know what you are saying, for I know every thought that comes into your minds.

You are not alone in your battles. The ones that people can see. The addictions that people can see. The disagreements that people can see. Almost more comforting is knowing that we are not alone in the deeper battles that no one sees. Those fears and scars that only you and God know about. You're not alone. Listen to the song I posted above and just remember that you are NOT alone in your battles spoken or not!