THINK AGAIN…

The only reason any two people can look at the self-same thing and understand it differently is not so much the eyes they look through, but more so the mind they look with!

How your mind perceives God impacts all facets of your life – especially when it comes to inner peace and contentment.

One commonly held view sees God as the Creator of a human family that will, for the most part, end up in some ghoulish place referred to as hell.

The idea being that God apparently discards those who don’t make the grade into some torturous ‘too hard’ basket.

May I offer you another perspective?

Same Bible.

Different mindset.

For the Scripture I read teaches that God is Love – and Love Never Fails!

Rather than speak of life as being bookended by birth and death, I’m told my substance was known to Him before I was even formed.

I’m reassured that the finality of death is a lie.

That God our Saviour “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Not some.

All.

I never read about ‘lost sheep’ finding their Shepherd.

It’s always the Shepherd searching for and finding the ‘lost sheep’.

Every single one.

Yes – we’ve all turned away from God’s counsel, and soon lost our way.

But I don’t see Him becoming bitter and twisted.

Instead, I read of our Father Who sends sunshine and rain on all humanity.

I’m taught about the human family being Spirit-led for our own healing – for our own reintegration – for our own recovery.

About Jesus (God incarnate) being the Great Physician.

About His call for a change of mind, a reorientation, a fundamental transformation of outlook, of our vision of the world and of ourselves.

About a new way of loving others and God.

The Bible I read shows me clearly that Jesus came with our best interests at heart.

That the One Who made us, entered the world to heal us – to put things back on track.

To free us from the dysfunction of our minds.

A wounded thought life flowing from a mindset that is not in keeping with our original, God-given nature.

An impaired state of mind through which our understanding of reality is marred.

A fear-based misperception that places us on the road to restlessness and ruination.

Life becomes a living anguish when it is lived in fear – when we buy into the falsehood that God doesn’t care and self-preservation (at any cost) is our number one priority.

Living in fear is being held back by misperceived insecurity – a pervasive dread feeding on the misplaced notion of imminent loss.

But fear can only ever bite you if you believe you have something of value to lose.

And once you take hold of God’s assurance, the only thing you lose is the insecurity that once held a gun to your head.

You see for the first time, that by losing everything you were never intended to have or be, you have in truth lost nothing of any real value!

In the absence of fear, True Love re-establishes His rightful reign in the hearts of those who turn to Him.

Jesus makes it perfectly clear – the human family is missing something vitally important.

What we are missing is the true aim of life.

To be aimless is to be lost.

The Bible teaches straightforwardly that Jesus came “to save that which was lost.”

To save the human family by opening our eyes to the Light of Life.

By showing us in Person the best way to live.

By showing us in Person that God does not make rejects!

By showing us in Person that ‘death’ does not have the last word!

All our troubles are self-sown produce stemming from the misuse of our very own free will.

For our misdirected will has proven to be anything but free as it enslaves us to the very things that eat away at our being – all the while robbing us of the inner rest we so desperately crave.

We needed to be turned around with a loving hand.

We needed to be re-educated.

We needed to be re-created.

To start afresh!

This is why Jesus came.

I don’t believe for one minute that God gives up on anybody.

I do believe He hands us over to our own choices until we finally reach the end of ourselves and wake up to the fact that He’s been right all along.

That which we wrestle is but the shadow we ourselves cast – a shadow we step into when we turn away from the Light of Life.

The Bible I read speaks of rescue.

Of loving patience, forgiveness, recreation, and renewal.

It tells the story of God’s never-ending Love.

Not a sweet fluffy love – a firm, fairhanded, Fatherly Love for the human family He brought into being.

For this is who God says you are;

Known – (PSALM 139:16)

Wonderfully made – (PSALM 139:14)

His child – (JOHN 1:12)

Saved – (JOHN 3:16)

Enough – (2 CORINTHIANS 3:5)

Complete – (COLOSSIANS 2:10)

A new creation – (2 CORINTHIANS 5:17)

A warrior – (EPHESIANS 6:11)

Forgiven – (EPHESIANS 1:7-10)

Free – (JOHN 8:36)

Loved – (1 JOHN 4:10)

His friend – (JOHN15:13)

You are an integral part of a much bigger picture – a picture that extends far beyond the confines of the thinking patterns you were saddled with from birth.

Read your Bible from the perspective of a vengeful Creator Who loses control of His Creation and discards His failures,

or think again,

and read your Bible from the vantage point of a God Whose Grace abounds – Whose Love Never Fails!

The choice is yours,

because you are His,

and the only way you come to truly know you are His,

is through the free will He has given you.

It has been said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

Real rest is there for the taking.

It is not hidden from us.

We don’t have to find it.

We just need to accept it.

The One Who offers it is Jesus.

All He asks is that you stop trying.

And start trusting.

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

JESUS CONTINUED SPEAKING to all who listened.   

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” The Message (MSG)

The world we all live in perceives ‘rest’ as being something experienced only in the absence of activity.

Jesus sees it differently.

He does not say, “Be still and do nothing.”

He says, “Be still and know that I Am.”

To know is to grow.

To grow is to shed all the falsehood.

To become everything He made you to be!

THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE

On any given day, I have no way of knowing what awaits me.

I cannot (nor would I want to) control what other people will think, say, or do.

I do not walk in their shoes.

I do not see through their eyes.

I do not know their innermost thoughts.

I do not know these things, and I cannot change these things, for I have not the capability to do so.

I do not (nor would I want to) know the mind of God, because I cannot know the mind of God.

It is beyond my comprehension.

It is beyond my design.

It is beyond His expectation.

I did not make myself.

It was God Who knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

Since I am made by God, and am maintained by God, and am provided for by God, and am equipped by God with everything I actually need, it becomes clear to me that the things I see as limitations, are in fact things that He deems to be unnecessary.

For if anything truly purposeful was within my power, and within my responsibility to change, it makes no sense that God would withhold that outcome from me.

That which I am not equipped to change, I cannot change – that which I cannot change, I obviously was never meant to.

This is the way it is, and since I cannot change the way it is, there is absolutely no point whatsoever in me continuing to worry about it.

If I cannot change it – what good does it do for me to lay awake at night thinking in never-ending circles?

What do I hope to achieve other than giving myself a stomach ulcer, and making myself miserable?

I am not the Head of the human family – that position belongs solely to Christ, and this is where we've all put the cart before the horse.

Changing others is not the priority. The first cab off the rank is to be changed ourselves, and the only way that's going to happen is through the workmanship of the Holy Spirit. 

Life is not a journey – it is an awakening.

It is not a trip from here to there.

It is a recognition, an understanding, an awareness that grows and matures – it is the emergence of a bigger picture.

To surrender to this emergence is to accept both who we are, and who we are not.

It is to lay down our boxing gloves – to stop trying to change everything so as to keep it in line with the way we would prefer it all to be.

To surrender is not to throw in the towel.

Neither is it to take on every fight that comes our way.

To surrender is to forego all delusion of any self-importance – to counter every kneejerk reaction with a reality check.

For only with the reality of God stored in our hearts are we both fully armed to change the things we can and should, and fully content to leave the things we cannot change to Him.

To surrender is to know that life is neither a mountain to climb, nor a puzzle to be solved.

It is simply the artless act of being fully alive.

Life is not a checklist to be ticked.

It is not a forum to impress or manipulate others.

Nor is it meant to be fearful, worrisome, and anxious.

The things that lay beyond our capacity, are beyond our capability for a reason.

And that reason is His.

To surrender is to let go.

To let go is to let God.

Not to let Him take control, for He’s been in control all along, but to let God know by way of words that spill forth from our hearts, that no longer do we doubt Him – no longer will we ignore Him.

Not understanding His ways is no basis for us not to rely on Him, neither is it any excuse for us not to believe in His grace.

He made us the way He made us – be happy to accept that.

I am not here to change the things I cannot change – neither are you.

We are all here so that God can make each and every one of us better people, bring us peace, and grant us rest in the knowledge that all things will come together for our ultimate good.

We are all here to become everything we are destined to be.

We are here to grow, to mature – to be transformed.

We are here to learn (through firsthand experience) all about the rest to be found in acceptance, and surrender to God.

Not to see the things we cannot change as unfair limitations, but to see them more as boundaries – fence lines past which we are not expected to venture.

It is on this side of the fence that our attention belongs.

For only on this side can you and I truly take stock of our own thoughts, words, and deeds, understanding by way of newly opened eyes that our first priority is undoubtedly to ask God for a change of heart.

Life is not to be lived with a spirit of defeat, on the basis of what you already know you can’t do.

It is to be lived with The Spirit of Truth – on the basis of everything God has already done, and continues to do for you.

It is to be lived – not given up on!

All of us are created equal.

And as it turns out, all of us seem to share the same deep-seated hunger for something we struggle to define.

But is it true to think we lack the capacity to understand?

Or could it simply be we lack the preparedness to see?

Never buy into the lie that where you step to next, depends upon where you step from now.

Living is a practical thing.

So is trust!

The place to begin is with Jesus.

And that place is nowhere else other than right here, right now.

Wherever you find yourself to be.

Most fortunate are those who recognise their own poverty in the richness of God’s Spirit.

THE PEACE OF GOD

What exactly is contentment?

I’ve seen it defined as a state of happiness and satisfaction.

But I can’t shake the feeling that there’s so much more to it than that.

For me, happiness and satisfaction have a more transient connotation attached to them.

No doubt, we all find our moments here and there.

But that’s not what we’re talking about with contentment.

Personal contentment is neither a short-lived period of serenity nor a fleeting phase of bliss.

It is a river that runs deep.

So deep that it defies description.

I’m reminded of a well-loved Scripture that describes the peace of God as surpassing all understanding.

What better way to appreciate contentment than relating to it as the peace of God.

A state of happiness and satisfaction it most naturally is, but even more so I believe true contentment to be a state of heartfelt acceptance.

Every state of the heart draws sustenance from its own source – each heartstring tethered to the innate texture of our deepest emotions and affections.

And I truly believe this to be an integral part of re-discovering the peace of mind we so dismissively label as contentment.

Yes, re-discovering!

For without doubt, discontent is a state of heart we acquire – not one we are born with.

Surely the task at hand would be better described as a recovery, rather than a pursuit.

An uncovering of something precious – something now hidden beneath layer upon layer of misunderstanding.

Jesus once spoke words to the effect that for anyone to experience genuine life, they must first unbecome who they never were.

He conveyed the central message that unless we turn back to the Spirit, becoming once more fully at ease like little children, we will never re-awaken to the universal pervasiveness of God.

Re-awaken to a state of being that is wholly and solely dependent upon re-integration with the Source of Life.

A state of spirit grounded in carefree reliance and unconditional trust.

How often I have heard people of affluence admit to the fact that contentment has nothing whatsoever to do with endless acquisition.

It is not establishing what we have, but re-establishing who we are that makes all the difference.

To speak of genuine life is, I believe, to speak of Spirit-led living.

Rationalising the richness of God’s Spirit – nigh on impossible.

Nevertheless, there remains within all of us a voice that refuses to play second fiddle.

A voice that insists on striving to encapsulate the intrinsically incomprehensible.

Then again, this is who we have all become.

A human family who refuses to acknowledge anything extraordinarily inexplicable.

Unprepared to accept that there are those things in life that do indeed remain unknowable – we file that which we cannot explain in the ‘too confusing’ basket that sits somewhere in the outer darkness of our minds.

Scripture makes no bones about it.

God is not the author of confusion!

Everything patterned, principled, and purposeful – confusion is not!

The turning point for anyone is to realise that the copyright for confusion belongs to us.

That being unknowable does not translate into being unfeasible, or more to the point – unbelievable!

And this of course leads us straight into the arms of faith.

What then is faith, if not trust in the Love of God.

To recognise our own lack of faith is to admit to our own disconnectedness.

Our own lack of unity with the form, function, and finesse of nature’s intricate beauty.

Our own disengagement with love for one another.

With love for ourselves.

I wonder why we find it so distasteful to talk about loving ourselves, yet so openly acceptable to be our own harshest critic?

Perhaps it has something to do with our ‘make the grade or go under’ mentality – a mindset we’ve all been harnessed with as we said goodbye to incorruptibility.

An implant that sees the buoyancy and confidence of our youth replaced by a lingering question of our own self-worth.

A way of thinking that treats life as some type of compulsory assessment.

An obligatory judgement whereby those who don’t make the cut are named and shamed as those who will come to nothing.

What a horrible thing it is to live with condemnation that is both ruthless and truthless.

To recognise our own poverty in the richness of God’s Spirit is to seek a reconnection with a way of life where love for oneself is part and parcel of being alive.

How tragic that most of us appear to be caught up in a way of existence that excludes ‘being alive’ from the equation.

So distracted – so preoccupied with presenting the persona of one who has made the grade.

God forbid we should ever be seen without our masks for the flawed beings we mistakenly believe ourselves to be.

For in the stillness of night, away from the crowd, isn’t that exactly how we see ourselves.

Flawed merchandise?

The denunciation of society soon reveals itself in the form of self-disapproval – a lack of love for oneself that distracts, defames, devalues, denigrates, and ultimately destroys a person’s spirit.

As it thumps away with accusation, it is the Spirit of God who names it for what it truly is – a fraud!

Amid indictment that clouds our thinking – it is the Spirit of God who sheds light to guide our minds.

If only the human family would surrender to intervention – instead of constantly turning a blind eye to the Spirit’s ever-present offer of help and comfort.

For contrary to the world’s ‘sink or swim’ approach that yields nothing but ever-present edginess – the way of God’s Spirit yields Oneness without any edges whatsoever.

Oneness with equality – no equations required!

To wake up to reality is not to wake up in the morning, but to wake up with the morning.

To wake up with the morning is to realise that the purpose of life is simply to be alive!

Unfortunately, most of us awaken to each new day with the same old mindset.

One that sees us make our peace of mind completely contingent on each day’s events fully aligning with the way we would like them all to play out.

May I ask you a personal question?

When have you ever known life to play out exactly as you wanted it to?

Given the unpredictability of the world we live in, the people we live with, and the mishmash of events that spring forth from the mix – for daily life to play out exactly as we would all like it is, in a word – unworkable.

For any person to base their contentment on situations and circumstances over which they have no control, is for that self-same person to consign any likelihood of enduring contentment to the realm of impossibility.

Seldom do we stumble across anything in life so glaringly clearcut!

Call it happiness and satisfaction if you will, but know this.

It either springs forth from within you, or it stays hidden!

For God is Spirit, and Spirit is Life.

And without Life there is nothing.

The human family is not nothing.

We are a family comprising of all people, of all languages, from all nations.

One family.

Each of us unique in our own special way.

All of us created equal by the Self-Same Source of Life.

None of us put on the earth.

All of us raised from the earth.

Each of us sustained by the earth.

Every one of us loved!

That which can always be fully experienced cannot always be fully explained.

Even so, this much I know.

We either return to God – or we continue with nothing of any enduring, quintessential value.

To return to God is to return to being led by the Spirit from whom all life flows.

To be happy just to breath.

To be satisfied just to be alive.

To be fully content with the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

And perfectly at ease with saying,

Let it be.

LOOK UP

Letting it be is not a copout.

It’s not about not giving a damn.

Not about accepting anything and everything – with no regard for ourselves or anyone else.

Letting it be is an inner mindfulness.

An intimate awareness of when to step forward, and when to step away.

To step away should never be misconstrued as weakness.

It is in fact an act of strength.

Not a flex of muscle – more a demonstration of sound judgment.

It’s not about failure.

It’s about understanding.

Letting it be is leaving it be.

Giving it room to take its own course.

Letting things unfold in their own manner – playout as they need to.

For need to they do, and playout they will.

In their own time – in their own way!

To step away, is not to admit defeat.

It is to realise that from the very beginning, the only contest ever being waged has been between our own wavering convictions.

Convictions etched into our reasoning through sheer habituation – millstones having more to do with misplaced instincts than they do with anything else.

Given that such instincts and sensitivities are (in and of themselves) essentially invisible to the naked eye, we should find no difficulty in allowing for the fact that there are indeed unseen things at work in our lives.

Unseen things more real than we sometimes care to admit.

I once saw a man’s foot flattened by a one-tonne, concrete well cover.

Unfortunate for sure, yet completely understandable.

But what are we to make of those thoughts and words that crush a man’s spirit – that unseen weight that (in essence) lacks any trace of tangibility?

Hard-set concrete can be dangerous.

Mind-set aggregate – downright destructive!

Some thoughts roll through our minds like concrete clouds.

Vaporous weight.

Encumbrance without substance.

Cargo far heavier than we can ever comfortably handle.

To look beyond that which we can see unto those things we cannot is to dare the soul to step outside of its comfort zone.

Something that should never be dismissed as being irrelevant or uncalled for.

For the only reason we look for the weight is to find some way to remove it – the first step to remove anything being to identify what it is?

The things that can be seen are in no way to be interpreted as the be-all and end-all of life.

In fact, the Bible goes so far as to declare that the things that are not seen are more permanent than the things that are.

Practical principles may well transcend time itself, but when it comes to the unseen world – any preconceived ideas we might hold may as well fly out the window.

The only thing we can be reasonably certain of, being that the source of the weight is somehow connected to some form of inner distress.

Some form of pressing down that, in effect, clips our wings. Drags us to lower ground. Sometimes buries us in despair.

Dispirited heaviness – a surefire sign that something is not sitting well within us.

Anyone who has ever taken themselves off the grid long enough to think the matter through thoroughly, soon realises that there is only so far, we can go with logic.

The invisible intertwining of our inner world is by no means a cut and dry affair.

The weight of downheartedness.

A feeling that something vital to our sense of wholeness has gone missing.

Let’s be honest.

To varying degrees – we’ve all felt it!

But surely you and I have much more in common than that.

I mean, here I am writing words, and there you are reading them.

Neither of us moving our lips.

Yet both of us engaged in an open conversation.

Pretty much in the same manner we would converse with our own thoughts – wouldn’t you say?

No audible sound required!

Words.

Mouths shape them, fingers type them, ears listen to them, and eyes read them.

But to what do our mouths, fingers, ears, and eyes attribute their capability to do so?

Words.

Would it not be more accurate to understand our spirit as shaping them, our mind as recording them, our thoughts as voicing them, and our will as deciding if, how, or when they are to be enacted?

Is it not noteworthy how each and every step of the way is shrouded in the sound of silence.

Language is a way for us to communicate – this much we know.

But sometimes, even without words being verbalised, we still understand one another.

There are times when just the look in a person’s eyes is enough to speak volumes.

May I ask you, what does the look in your own eyes tell you?

Whatever it tells you, it will tell you by way of words.

Words completely out of earshot.

Nevertheless words – clearly echoed in the unseen realm of your spirit.

When all is said and done, words and deeds are really the only two aspects of life over which any person has any form of total control.

I cannot choose yours, nor can you choose mine.

And by ‘words and deeds’ we are really talking about the whole box and dice.

About the unseen, interconnected language of spirit and soul – the invisible interaction between heart, mind and body.

About how this veiled interrelation is visibly expressed.

Word and deed are what Jesus would call – the fruit of the tree.

What better analogy to draw upon when contemplating the produce of our own spirit.

For every tree was once naught but the same kind of seed presently concealed within the very fruit it now produces itself.

As long as the tree remains unaltered – the fruit will never change.

To taste new fruit is to eat from a renewed tree.

The Spirit of God is not just any tree.

The Spirit of God is the Tree of Life.

The fruit of the Spirit expressed by words like love, joy, and peace.

Words like patience, kindness, and goodness.

Words like faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

These are not meaningless utterances – these are active words.

Words that manifest not just refreshed behaviours, but a renewed attitude to feed them.

An attitude characterised by its yield, its produce – its fruit.

So – where to next?

If only God had made us with a reset switch.

Well, I believe He did.

Not on top of our heads.

More accurately – in the palm of our hands.

The reset switch is choice!

Your choice – my choice – each individual’s choice.

Not as to what other people think, say, or do.

But as to how we respond to what other people think, say, or do.

Not about whether we choose to agree, disagree, or sit on the fence.

But how we go about it!

How we treat other people is a uniquely personal choice that each of us makes on our own – perhaps the only truly individual decision we ever get to put into practice.

The reset switch is an inner resolve to embrace one basic principle – the most well-known phrasing of the tenet being,

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Something easy to say, but for some strange reason not so easy to carry out.

Why is that?

Perhaps the answer lies within another well-established precept asserting that environment breeds behaviour – that both daily habits and long-term development are influenced by a person’s surroundings.

Taking this one step further, surely it would be no exaggeration to view any mind-set as only ever being the product of the mental environment it is furnished with.

How soon we all forget that no form of stress should ever be invested in yesterday or tomorrow.

That the mind is not to be treated as a spare room for storing junk – nor as a hideout for escaping from reality.

Any mind cannot help but be overwhelmed by the endless rumination attached to hoarded mental clutter – an environment making it not only difficult, but literally impossible to think clearly or feel at ease.

Self-centred around our own ‘up in the air’ closed curve, habitual indecisiveness, is it any wonder we never take a firm stance long enough to see through the eyes of those we mistreat.

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

These are words to live by.

Not just in our relationships with one another, but even more importantly – in our relationship with God.

To be accepted is to be made feel welcomed.

To be acknowledged.

To be shown respect and courtesy.

To be listened to.

To be let known that we matter.

What then makes us think that God would want to be treated any differently?

Letting it be is letting God know that accept Him – we do!

Part of that acceptance being to re-mind ourselves that the decision to ‘let it be’ does not stem from a mind that couldn’t care less.

It flows from a mind that couldn’t care more.

Letting it be is when ‘care’ turns into ‘prayer’.

And what is prayer if not giving voice (whether audible or inaudible) to the stirrings of our souls.

How mind-blowingly magnificent to realise that God’s ear is turned toward us.

That earth is part and parcel of heaven.

That all any person need do is stop.

Be still.

Look up.

And let it all sync-in!

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