Indeed! God’s faithfulness is boundless, revealing itself in unexpected ways each day. I’ve certainly seen God’s faithfulness through prayer, but I recently gleaned a valuable spiritual insight from a pothole.
It’s not just the budding trees and blooming flowers that herald spring in NYC, it’s also the pothole-studded streets. I recently watched a car’s tire vanish into a particularly large one and cringed, imagining the potential damage. On the plus side, it brought to mind a “CBS Sunday Morning” story about artist Jim Bachor, who transforms these asphalt craters into mosaics. (Link below – enjoy!) It struck me that a pothole, a hazard to cars, cyclists, and pedestrians alike, can be transformed into a work of art that inspires and uplifts.
Couldn’t the same be true of our words? How often have I stumbled into verbal potholes, my words causing everything from minor irritation to significant pain? As a self-proclaimed talker aiming to engage my mute button more in 2025 and listen more intently, I recently learned a helpful acronym in my small group Bible study with Dr. Elise Brown and Baleta McKenzie: WAIT – Why Am I Talking? (I’m even considering a tattoo, but I digress.) This same study, based on Norman Vincent Peale’s “Thought Conditioners: Powerful Spiritual Phrases that Can Change the Quality of Your Life,” which offers 40 Bible verses (“thought conditioners”) paired with Peale’s meditations, also taught me another valuable lesson: what you focus on expands, so direct your attention towards God rather than your fears and worries. This is a daily challenge, but I’ve become much better at recognizing my mental worry-snowballs before they turn into avalanches.
Now, I can switch gears (sometimes!), focusing on a scripture or “thought conditioner” instead. Just as my thoughts take a more uplifting path when I contemplate God, His Word, and His promises, so too do my words. It’s as if my brain is a road, and life’s wear and tear creates potholes of anxiety and fear, leading to negative internal chatter and less-than-uplifting speech. I have the power to choose whether to let those mental potholes deepen or fill them with the beauty of God’s promises.
Here’s one of the thought conditioners and Dr. Peale’s words about it.
If God be for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:31
Imagine yourself as actually looking at all
your difficulties like an army lined up against you.
Then realize you have a backing that can
overcome them all. As you face these enemies of
yours— discouragement, frustration,
disappointment, hostility, weakness—ask yourself,
“What shall I say to these things?” And the answer
is, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
Now, spend a minute realizing that God is for
you and say this affirmation: “God is with me. God
is for me. God is greater than all these things.”
Then visualize these enemies of your peace
and happiness as retreating, giving way before God’s
power.
Personalize the text by saying: “If God be for
me, who can be against me?”
The repetitive use of this text will give you
an enormous sense of God’s presence and a
powerful feeling of victory.
I have included the link to the Bible Study, which meets for the final time on April 10th. Registration is still open. I also included the link to the CBS Sunday Morning story about the artist.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/filling-potholes-with-mosaic-art
Shared by Patricia Wu
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