The Power of Threes

"But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." - 2 Peter 3:8

I took a course on "Emotional Intelligence" at work recently, and the facilitator introduced a way for people to reduce stress from difficult situations they are facing.  He called it the "Power of Threes."

Basically the concept is to go out in time in increments of threes, to evaluate whether the situation you are in today will still be of importance that far out in time.  For example, he told the story of going to the airport with a colleague after a long week and looking forward to finally getting back home.  Their flight was cancelled at the last minute, and they had to spend another night away from home with a re-booked flight not being available until the following morning.

As they were driving away from the airport and their frustration and anger started to well up inside, the facilitator said to his colleague, "This may be a good time to practice the Power of Threes." They then asked each other these questions:

• How are we going to feel about this three minutes from now? (We're still going to be pretty upset.)
• How are we going to feel about this three hours from now? (We will be stuck in a hotel we don't want to be in and still be frustrated.)
• How are we going to feel about this three days from now? (We'll be home, and while still raw, we will start feeling better now that we're out of the situation.)
• How are we going to feel about this three months from now? (It will be forgotten in our day-to-day routine, but it might come up if something triggers a memory of it.)
• How are we going to feel about this three years from now? (We'll probably forget it even happened and it will be a distant memory.)

The point is that if you go far enough out in time, there aren't too many things we encounter in our daily lives that should cause us concern and worry, as it will be something of the past over time.

While I love this concept in dealing with most situations, I also cynically thought to myself, "But what about losing loved ones like the twins I lost at birth - it still hurts and always will.  I guess this theory doesn't apply to everything..."

But that's when God revealed the truth, and I quickly realized I was wrong.  In the view of eternity, even deep loss will be erased from our memories.  When I'm in heaven with my entire family, with everyone I've ever lost over my lifetime, I'll get to spend eternity in communion with all of them, as well as in the healing presence my Creator.  And three hundred years from now, three thousand years from now, and three million years from now, all of the pain we experienced in this life on Earth will be forgotten.  Take comfort in this amazing truth in whatever you are going through today, and with whoever you may have lost and desire to be with again!

"Your sun will no longer set, and your moon will not wane; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and the days of your sorrow will be over." - Isaiah 60:20

-Adam Gellert

adamgellert.com