Internal or External?

By

B.J. Knefley

Approximately 30 years ago I developed asthma. The exact reasons and source of the problem was never identified. I went through all sorts of tests to identify allegiants, but none could be found that would have given me that type of response. Every winter I’d suffer from acute asthma despite being on a regiment of medications throughout the year. Once it happened, steroids we prescribed and eventually I’d recover, and spring would be here, and I’d be okay until the following winter. This year has been no different except that this time we did some blood work and found that the type of asthma that I’m dealing with isn’t caused by outside allegiants but rather something in my own white blood cells. I’m being attacked from within. What would normally be the bodies response to fight off infection is causing inflammation in my lungs. The result of course is acute asthma. Now to find the right course of treatment that will address the real culprit, my own body. What is causing my physical body is an internal problem has made me think of how our emotional health is also more apt to be an internal problem as well.

Our emotional and spiritual response to life is more often caused by our responses to external stimulation. In Mark 7:15, Jesus said, “It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.” When we see things happening to us, we become victims. Our anger, fears, worry and anxiety all come from within us. We give our control away to others who then manipulate us with their words and behaviors, but we allow that. We give our power away to others. We allow them to control our feelings and emotions. We wonder why we’re a wreck not realizing that we’re doing it to ourselves. We think we’re being attacked from the outside while all the time it’s our internal responses that are causing the problem. Changing the inward response means changing the way we think and respond. It’s not if someone or something would change, it’s if we would change. That’s internal not external. Sadly, many see the irritants in life as the problem while all along it’s our response to the irritants. Remember, the only power you have is the one over yourself, never others or things. Think about it.