Patterns and Cycles and Tree Houses

I was discussing self fulfilling prophecies earlier today and my brain is still crunching away on them. How much does a defeatist attitude lead to the failure of the task before us? If someone began a project to build a tree house by saying, "Well this is never going to work. It's going to be ugly and no one will want to play in it," to what extent will this promise an atrocious piece of crap in a tree?

I think we do this about a lot of things. No, this guy will never like me and it won't work out. Then, when it doesn't work out, who is surprised? Perhaps it is a self defense mechanism. We throw out these statements at the beginning so that in the end we can look back and say, "Well, it was never going to work anyway. I said so from the very beginning."

What are we so afraid of? Are we more terrified that we might actually build a stunningly beautiful tree house? Create a life long relationship? Be successful?

... I am. C'mon! That's terrifying! Failure is so much easier to swallow because it plays into all the myths the world tells us about ourselves - that we aren't good enough, lovable, or able to build tree houses. I'm not sure why I listen to those voices so much but they only seem more valid when I do fail at something in life. It almost seems to prove all those negative voices right. So we say, "The tree house is ugly as sin; they're right, I'm a horrible builder."

How do we break the cycle? Bust out of the pattern? Tell the negative voices to shut up and just be confident about whatever and wherever life has brought us? I am still shocked to see how many of us, me included, are trapped by fear. The text this last week was about faith the size of a mustard seed. The topic of the sermon I heard was, "You have faith enough to do the work." And I thought, really? I'd be right there with the disciples saying, "Increase my faith!" Because, sweet Jesus, I don't feel like I have enough of anything to do all that God is calling me to do. I want to save the world... but I'm exhausted from the small tasks of internship!

I digress. Perhaps it all goes back to that "enjoy the journey, not the destination" saying. If you want to build a tree house, forget about how it will turn out and who will enjoy it. Put your heart into it. Have fun. Paint it blue. Laugh at yourself when you hammer a board on sideways. In the end, it will be the tree house that you had a wonderful time making. And who wouldn't want to go and be there?