“What accounted for that packed house? The imaging formula is the answer. A goal, a purpose, lots of prayer, planning, thinking, enthusiasm, organization, and always intense, continuous imaging. This overcame every adverse condition, including one of the worst rainstorms I have ever experienced.
“ ‘The hall is full.’ Life is full, also, and always will be if you so image it and forever keep God in it.” Positive Imaging, by Norman Vincent Peale
This quotation from the preacher and writer Norman Vincent Peale is a snippet from an anecdote about a special service for which a special, larger, hall had been rented. The night of Norman’s presentation was a night of pouring rain. But his church member and advocate had just known that many people would attend.
Norman elsewhere counsels what makes for a happy life, and “struggle” is one of his choices toward happiness. Certainly he and his church member faced an uphill battle to provide a service in a large hall on a rainy night. But their enthusiasm caused them to image a full hall, and that is exactly what transpired. When struggle rears its head, enthusiasm often carried the day.
Norman is a preacher, and he believes in prayer and keeping God in our lives. Not that God answers every prayer with an affirmative, but that we increase the odds of an affirmative experience by never losing heart. We attract what we focus on.
And focusing on a full hall on a dreary night worked wonders for Norman and his church friend.
It can do the same for us.
THOU SHALT RECEIVE 