by Dave Wine, President & CEO
Life offers up a huge variety pack of experiences, options, challenges, and situations. If we want to experience any sense of peace and contentment within this myriad of “stuff”, we need to find ways to focus on and take responsibility for our thoughts. No thing, no person, no situation has the power in and of themselves/itself to take away our peace – it is our thoughts ABOUT the context that create our emotions. And we own the controls!
One helpful thing for me is imagining I am sitting in front of a TV set watching my life. It has two channels. One is called Love and the other Fear. As my life unfolds I can choose which channel I want to view my life on. Do I want to watch my life through the Fear channel or the Love channel. Regardless of the situation, those are the two channels I can choose, and, in choosing, it makes all the difference in my peace of mind and ability to focus on the moment at hand. I can choose the Fear channel and let all my fears and regrets dominate. And boy, sometimes I am really immersed in that channel. Or I can switch to the Love channel and ask things like, “how would Love see this?” “how would Love depict this scene in my life?” “what would Love do?”, etc.
You can choose to name your channels whatever is most helpful. I use different words – they all can mean the same thing. Love/Fear; God/Ego; Trust/Despair; Christ/Pain. The key is to use the names that will resonate most for you and help remind you in the moment to choose which channel you are going to watch.
David Wine
David is the President and CEO of the MAX enterprise, having served in that capacity since its formation in 2001. He has forty plus years of leadership experience in the business and faith-based worlds, being an ordained minister, having been elected to the highest position in his denomination, and receiving numerous awards and recognition for his leadership in the insurance industry. He currently serves on numerous boards in the church and insurance sectors. His hobbies include hiking, biking, skiing and snowshoeing as well as being an avid reader. David and his wife, Sharon, have three daughters, a son, and five grandchildren.