Relating to the Past

Once again, inspiration has brought us together. I think, too, that the question I'm going to propose today will fill each of your heads with a different channel to relate to. To begin, we've looked at quite a few concepts so far in this study. One of which, probably more than once, has been defining "Who" you are.  To better help us define or I guess "identify" ourselves, lets consider the following:

Who am I?

We've all heard of Jews, Gentiles, Apostles, Disciples, Pharisees, etc. This time when you ask yourself who you are, ask yourself in a way that compares yourself to the people of Jesus' time. Are you a friend of Jesus? Has he placed his power in you? Do you teach in the markets and places of worship? Are you of the chosen people (in them, are you a believing and follower or are you a skeptic?) Are you someone who shows up to hear the teachers speak, but never commit or grow into the belief? Do you question the belief to grow in it, or to try and trap those who would spread the good news?

If we have a general idea about how the Jews, Gentiles, Apostles, Disciples, Pharisees, etc were, we can easily draw parallels between their existence and our own. It's been two thousand years and each of us goes through the same type of identification. Building on this analysis, once you've identified yourself (and trust me, being honest with yourself is much more important and rational that lying to yourself about where you stand), you can ask new questions along the lines of who do I want to be? How can I become this person? How do I open myself up for God to change me in this way?

As you can see, this once again touches on the realm and power of self-realization. I wanted to re-iterate this concept today because it is so undervalued.  You have to be the one who ultimately asks yourself the big questions. You can take the questions as someone presents them, but ultimately if you want to see any kind of transformation, you have to ask yourself (meaning bringing it to God) these questions. 

Also, please, don't forget that in order to put yourself in a place to transform you have to put the thoughts at the front of your mindset. Example:  If you want to remember your homework, you'll put it at the front of your mind. If you want to remember to take out the dog before you leave, you'll put it at the front of your mind. If you want to be good because God is good, if you want to love others because it is His way, if you choose to live your life in debt to Him, The Bible says, whether in word or in deed, do everything in the name of Jesus. Honor your Lord. Put good (because of Him) at the front of your mind.

Now, on a completely different note... how do you all feel about the way worship is presented in churches today? Does anyone else find it ironic that songs rarely ever encourage the way a sermon does? In my experience, worship is led by a wonderful group of people who sing about glory and death and blood and rising again and grace and then a pastor or priest will get up and talk about how you should live your life and why. Why doesn't it ever happen the other way around? Why don't we ever hear songs about the way we should live our lives and how we should act and think and the reasons why, and then see the tangible pastor get up there and offer direct praise and worship and a message of thankfulness? If anything, wouldn't it be a nice mix? Even then, we can't take a pastor with us on our way to the grocery store or to and from work, and we certainly can't expect our kids to remember and quote a pastor's words like they/we do rhythm and harmony. What then is more relevant for us to hear continually? The same old songs (no doubt good reminders) praising God, or a more relatable and encouraging way to learn to live a good, God-like life? For in reality, won't we be praising Him even more by living in His name, rather than humdrumming about blood and wine and dying and rising?

Steven Curtis Chapman - Do Everything
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVTeIMursb8&ob=av2e
Can't relate to that thought? Check out this website: http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/transition-rhymes.htm
Don't get skeptically on me now... Just as our youth go through transitions in their lives so do we in our spiritual lives, regardless of our age! Wouldn't it make sense then that we could learn and improve on a more developed, but similar scale and plan?  What does God say about our growth/transformation and children?

Matthew 18:3
And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Again, I'm not preaching here. This is our study. I encourage you all to come up with your own conclusions and interpretations and don't be afraid to share them. If you are interpreting in the way that you believe God intended for you to, you musn't have fear. This is a community for fellowship and development. I'll be the first to admit to my lack of authority.

Another discussion under our belts! God bless you today and in the coming week.

Realizing Potential

I have good news everyone! Today I was inspired. Today, comes... a new chapter. But before I start, I'd like to apologize to everyone who has worn a track through their homes. I understand the comfort and the damage that too much pacing produces.

I am going to discuss people.  It has occurred to me that people... are much like water. Like water, people's lives flow freely, but however freely, they flow downhill. Water takes the least resistant path; always (don't even get all cliche on me). People are prone to behave the exact same way. People see adversity or dreams (we're going to call this the mountain top) and they consider that possibility... but *generally, people will choose the path in front of them.

Now, interesting thought... Say we want to start chasing that dream, or for whatever reason, we want to stare right back at adversity. Well... how can we accomplish that? Seriously, get out a writing device and voice your opinion. Consider it. Woops! We forgot something in our consideration, didn't we? You can't face adversity or pursue your dreams can you? Nope. Have you guessed why? Ah hah! That's right! Its because we're still water. If we fight the current, we just get bogged down and dragged back into the flow of things.  If we leave the river and go up the hill, gravity (our humanity) pulls us back down the hill, to the river, and the path of least resistance. Well.. what the heck?!

Here's where the determined, open-minded person perseveres and grows positively and the insular, lazy person sprints back to that gushing, comforting liquid paradise in hopes of non-existent false warmth.

In order to successfully get out of the water, one must transform.  Find your feet. Find strength in your legs. Feel the pounding in your heart and the excitement in your soul. Totally unrelatable, I know. Yeah, lets do it, hurrah! Well we have to know how, right? Basically, to transform, you must accept some sort of change in your life. By accept I mean, recognize, adopt, and place unwavering faith into. In the same way that God has the ability to sustain us, he can transform us just as well. Okay, we're getting closer to how, right?  How do we let God transform us? Well, let me ask you this question.

Have you ever felt like there is a ball of plasma or some form of energy hidden deep inside of you that you might be able to barely control? You know... that feeling where you feel like you could tear an entire house apart with the closing of your fist? That feeling that makes you feel like you could climb to the top of the highest tree in mere seconds? You could chase cars on the highway? You could save ALL of the children in Africa? I like to call that ball of "power" potential energy (but I think its more nobly, and awesomely defined as MIGHT!). Potential because it can be realized, and energy because it can manifest in a variety of ways (depending on how you learn to control it). Sometimes it could just be seen as a nervous twitch or the incessant tapping of your foot or finger for no logical reason other than you don't know how else to explain it. Sometimes it could be continued or added effort in schoolwork or a volunteer program. It could manifest in the love you have for your family and the selflessness you give willingly. It could show up as working late or finding a second job. Basically, for each person it there will be unique avenues of manifestation. This is a healthy and valuable description of potential energy. However, it is not the only one.

When this particular potential energy cannot be controlled by the individual, it can manifest as something much more dangerous. It can be destructive. The ability to control this energy (from a "good" perspective) is like growing positively. The inability to control this energy is equivalent to growing negatively. This is where positive energy is recognized as fear and anger and all things destructive. Because the energy isn't specifically physical (despite being able to manifest itself that way) it isn't easily recognized or controlled by just anybody. Some people are able to control it and some aren't. Most people don't even know what it is, they just "deal."  Well, it is my belief that this potential energy is somewhere between the Holy Spirit, wisdom, and God's valuation of our potential and character.

For example, in the bible, Paul was chosen to bring the Word to the gentiles after openly and intentionally persecuting Christ's followers. However, God transformed him. From that time on Paul became one of the greatest examples of early disciples. To get a better idea of how God can transform us, we can see why God chose to transform Paul. Paul was basically evil; the epitome of a sinner, but... he must have been full of potential! Paul had all of this potential energy that he could not control so it manifested in everything evil (or just mean or wrong or what have you). God saw this potential and through trial... softened Paul's heart to can insight into controlling his potential energy.  Paul realized that he could control himself in a good way because God was good and God was Great. The same example can be applied everywhere that God chose anyone for his work! Why was Abraham and Noah chosen? Moses? Was it because God thought future generations would remember their names better? It was because these people were full of potential energy!

Alright, now I know you're super curious to find out more about what exactly potential energy (as we have called it) is. It is my personal belief that this potential energy is wisdom and the ability to relate to wisdom. When Jesus died, the Holy Spirit was gifted to humanity. A source of power and potential whose threshold is limitless and with the right foundation sustaining control over that influence, that potential can be realized by God.

God can transform us. If we learn to control our potential energy we can stand up in the water and tread lightly on the soil beneath us. We can climb the mountain to face adversity and seek our dreams because we've been transformed. Our clothes might be soaking wet (full of others and influences yet to be transformed) but we can overcome their weight with the power of potential energy and transformation.

To get there: recognize your potential energy, how it manifests, your control over it, etc. Gain control over your potential energy by applying it to good things and positive growth (because God is good so we strive to be).  Grow in your energy and God will work through you. Be sure never to forget that God's plan is bigger than we are. God's work through you might not always manifest itself as you might hope. Know that bad things happen to glorify his name and his work. Do not be afraid.  Control your energy by pursuing the glory of God.

Come, sheep. Let's climb this mountain together.

Keys to Life

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.

           

Now that I’ve got you excited and thinking clearly, I’m going to bring your blood pressure to a screeching halt. You need to limit your potential. But don’t worry; you don’t need to limit it in the way you’re thinking. In a recent movie at the box office (ironically called Limitless) a man is introduced to the experience of mental programming at advanced speeds (unfortunately its through taking experimental drugs).  Spoiler - > he crashes and fails because he can’t sustain the effects himself. This idea applies to each of us. We need a foundation that can sustain us. This is another reason God is good. So, while we will not limit our potential for greatness, we must limit our cravings to a foundation that can sustain us. I won’t tell you He is the right way, because in reality, I’m just another influence that you can’t control. But I will tell you that He is the only way. Now that you see, go forth and now choose. Be yourself. Live yourself. These are the keys to life. God Bless.