Over the past few years, one thing has become prevalent in my mind. This is my life. I am in control. Now to debunk all of those people jumping on the “Oh no you’re not” or the “You just think you are” bandwagon, we will quickly separate two ideas. One’s life is basically one’s perception. It’s not only what’s in your mind or what you see or what you feel. It’s most emphatically the way that you interpret the things you cannot control. You might define life as your existence in this world as you perceive it. It is important that you don’t lump another dynamic in with this examination. This dynamic is what we call reality. There are things that happen, outside of your control, such as heavenly influence, chance, or simply decisions made by people other than you. These things, while their occurrence may affect certain parts of what you perceive, are not under your control. What is under your control, barring some forms of health restrictions or chemical imbalance (even then, one doesn’t lose their own perspective, its just less under their own control), is the way you interpret your reality (the existences and influences outside of your control). It’s your stream of consciousness, it’s your desires, it’s the questions you ask, and it’s the choices you make.
When we look at life like this, it’s easy to see that, truly, we have been gifted absolute control over our lives. There is no master puppet deciding our fate. I would argue that there is a God pointing the way, but he’s certainly not interpreting reality for us. I think one concept that would be interesting to encroach upon now, would be His influence. I believe God can aid us in our interpretation. For example, he can create a reality that might either harden or perhaps soften our hearts. Thankfully, he being God, we can safely assume he would do this in order to promote His glory.
Now, the main reason I’ve felt led to write about perception and the importance of being able to recognize your life (the way you interpret your perceptions) is that I see people losing hope. Most of the time I don’t even think they know they’re losing it. They just start going in another direction without even realizing when or where the straying may have occurred. For some, the change is so subtle it’s like it was never really there. For others the fallout may be heavier than they can possibly handle alone. It is because I choose to reach out to those in danger of losing hope, or reaching those who have the potential to fall away from it (consciously or no, yes this also means everyone). I don’t want to reach others so that they may make better decisions, or because they will less negatively affect my own reality. I choose to do this because this is good and God is good. Similarly to what has been stated in previous chapters, defining good without God is equivalent to sucking air out of a vacuum. Its value is extremely deflated and existence while kind and generous is almost blasphemy.
The most important idea that anyone can possibly take with them from this prose, is the idea of choice. Choice – how you interpret reality. Physics states that for every action there is a reaction. I would venture… for every influence in (or of) reality there is a choice to be made. Now there are two forms of choice. Before I delve into that depth I must strenuously note that I’m not a psychologist and my study of the human mind is limited to my own life (my interpretation of influences outside of my control).
There is without a doubt a conscious choice, but we must also acknowledge the un(or sub)conscious choice (as well as hint at the possibility and probability that we can culture or temper our unconscious to react and interpret in a deduction process similar to our conscious understanding). For example, if you were concentrating hard on a project and your sister decided to pound away on the piano, your initial (unconscious) reaction might be very insensitive and justifiably so. However, when you think about it for a moment, your conscious might decide that your sister expressing herself (or however you might perceive it) isn’t such a big deal. It is possible, to temper your unconscious to follow that path of deduction or even more impressively, just shortcut to that reaction. But… that style, or train of thought, has to be what you truly want. When I say what you truly want, I mean it has to come from your heart. It’s really what you want to feel. Really, really. I’m talking scraping the bottom of your existence really. It has to be a part of who you are, or more intuitively, who you want to become. If you don’t truly want it, then it may never happen. You must choose it. Think of it just like the display on your computer. In your mind, click personalize, and select the option that says tolerate (based on this example of course). File, save. If that outcome is what you truly want, it is what you will get. You still may feel irritated the next time it comes up, but I guarantee the idea of accepting it will be right there with the irritating feelings. Because you’ve set a precedent in accepting it through your kindness, it’s more likely to shortcut to that reaction the next time or perhaps the time after that. Now, there is nothing wrong with asking your sister to stop, because in some situations, I probably would too. This idea is explained in order to help us recognize that the process is feasible and applicable to numerous if not most every situation we run across in reality (all of those daily factors that stand outside of our control). Because a lot of how we interpret is conscious and its weight is generally heavier in relation to our existence and the quality of our perception and interpretation than unconscious interpretation and reaction, let’s look there.
Choice – how we interpret our reality. Because this is such an important concept I have to set something straight before we go on. If you don’t know who you are, your choices (the way we interpret reality) are going to be a lot harder. Think about that. Can you define yourself? Can you define yourself as who you want to be? Rather than who you or others think you should be, or perhaps more applicably, who you or others think you should be? Think in the first instance refers to uncertainty and should in the second refers to purpose. Feel free to interpret that for a few moments, but if you would like a shortcut, here’s my personal suggestion. I want to be good for God is good. I want to find favor in the eyes of God, therefore I choose to interpret all things in a way that would be wise, and good in hopes that others might follow in a way that would bring them hope and a closeness with Him. I choose to be good. Say that with me. I choose to be good. You can choose to be whoever you want to be, but I promise you, it will add value to that choice if it’s defined in the root of something strong and with purpose. This choice also lets me acknowledge the fact that there are influences outside of my control but it does not undermine the validity and strength of my belief. You might be concerned that you can’t (meaning unable or fundamentally, pridefully) believe or define yourself the same way as I do, or the same as anyone else. But, you would be overlooking the fact that each of us lives our own! life! We have our own reality that we choose to interpret in our own ways. My reality isn’t the same as yours so its effect on me and your effect on others will be intrinsically different. Now, we might choose to interpret in the same way as someone else, but we are making the choice to do so ourselves. Are you starting to follow me now? If you don’t know who you want to be or why (who really does?), make the decision easy; choose the way of the one who came before you. This choice will not limit your individuality, but quite contrarily convey the exact opposite. It will absolve the limit to your potential.
Now I want to focus on why knowing all of this is important. Well the answer is honest and it is simple. The reason for knowing this is to add value to your life (the way you interpret your reality)! When you know and understand these things, you’re able to address wisdom formally; you’re prepared for interpreting reality. You can own your life and your life can be your own. With this truth you can unlock limits. If you look tediously, you will see that this world is full of thresholds. When you start believing in a thought process like this one, you gain power over those thresholds. You are in control. When you stop breathing and this existence is behind you, the entire universe will not stop with you. This is your life, live it! There is a commercial out right now, where a man behind a podium states, “I’m not going to be the person I’m expected to be anymore.” You may have thought: that’s because you’re weak, or wild, or foolish, etc. The real reason he’s saying that is because he wants to live is own life! He’s making the choices now. I can’t tell you whether he’s going to be good or kind or honest with those decisions (I would think not, because this is a commercial for alcohol and revolves around a trendy, mysteriously sexy woman) but the concept is built on bedrock. Live your life. Interpret the way you want. I’m not telling you to be selfish or prideful or unjust, but I can’t control you or your interpretation. I won’t lie to you, if you apply this teaching in a worldly manner if would take you far. However, because I define my existence in a righteous manner I would beg you to choose to want to love others and be good for God is good.
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