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While flying from one city to another in a twin-engine prop commuter plane, the pilot made a sobering announcement over the loudspeakers just as they were about to begin the approach to their destination.

“Folks,” he said, “We’re having some problems with our starboard engine. It’s nothing serious, it’s just that we can’t get it to slow down, which we need to do to land.” (Uh, for those of you who don’t know, “starboard” means “right”. So c’mon, why don’t they just say that?)

Needless to say, this caused some concern among the passengers. (A scene from the movie Airplane! comes to mind: when the pilot asks the passengers not to panic, they all jump up and start running around, screaming hysterically.)

The pilot continued. “We don’t want you to be alarmed, though. What we’re going to do is shut down our starboard engine and land with the good one. Don’t worry about a thing – our remaining engine has plenty of power for landing.”

Within a few minutes, sure enough, the right side engine started winding down, and all the passengers sortof leaned over, staring at it as it came to a complete stop. Everyone continued to watch the dead engine, but after a few minutes, one of the passengers noticed one fellow staring out the left side windows instead.

“Hey, what are you lookin’ at?” he asked him. “The dead engine’s over here.”

“I don’t care about that one,” the man replied, “I’m keepin’ an eye on the one still working. That’s the one I care about!”

Got the picture?

OK, if you’re like me (er, sorry ‘bout that!), ups and downs in life are so common, you sometimes feel like a test pilot for Otis Elevators! Hey, no worries, my friends – it’s just part of life, right? The every day ebb and flow of circumstances – I mean, you gotta expect that sort of thing. Really.

Now, let’s suppose for a moment (we’ll use your imagination, because you certainly couldn’t be experiencing one now, right?) you’re smack dab in the middle of one of those low-down times. You know, when you feel like the lowest layer of whale doo-doo in the darkest part of the deepest ocean.

It’s when things just seem to have a way of going wrong, no matter what you do, and Murphy (you remember him – of Murphy’s Law fame?) is camped out in your front yard (not to mention the entire Channel 11 news team). When… well, you get the picture.

The question you need to ask yourself is this: Where’s your focus?

If you’re spending all your time focusing on the reasons why you’re feeling down, then you can’t help but… feel down, right? (Can I get an amen here?) In fact, I’ll go out on a limb here… I’ll bet the odds are pretty good that you’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time focusing on yourself and how bad you feel.

Hey, believe me, I’ve had plenty of practice with stuff like this. From personal experience, I know how easy it is for me to get caught up in the World of Me. But when I do, it’s like going into a tunnel; pretty soon, there’s nothing visible but, well, me! It’s kinda like losing my peripheral vision, or like having blinders on – all I can even see or think about is me, ME, ME! (For extra points - and as proof - count how many times I used the word me in this paragraph!)

So, what’s a person to do? Wow, am I glad you asked!

OK, first of all, stop it! (Sound of car coming to a screeching halt.) And I don’t say this lightly, either. Let’s not forget: everything you do is a result of a decision made by (c’mon, everybody say it with me now) YOU. Yep, that’s right; there’s no one else in the whole wide world that is ultimately responsible for what you do in life. So naturally it’s in your best interest to, as Sir Alec Guinness might say, “Choose wisely.”

Second, why not try this: Instead of focusing on the things that don’t seem to be working in your life, why not focus on things that ARE? If you’re down in the dumps, the surest way to get an emotional and spiritual lift is to get someplace where there’s some excitement going on.

It’s a proven fact that if you surround yourself with deadly dull people, you’ll end up just like ‘em! So surround yourself with activity and life! Take your eyes off yourself, and see what else is going on around you. Hey, there’s a world of wonder out there – take part in it!

Like in the story above, don’t focus on that old dead engine. After all, what good can it do you? Nope, the one that’s going to get you there is the engine that works!

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