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!

 

 

 

CALL OF THE SPIRIT

 

My child,

 

Having tasted all that ever deceived you – you have slowly but surely come undone.

Inch by inch, day by day, year by year – your thirsting spirit has become bone-dry.

Piece by piece – your soul has unravelled.

You have cast yourself into a state of being that can only be described as subsistence.

When you turned from Me, in favour of tasting fruit from the tree of deception, you stepped away from My Light into a shadow of your own making – a dimness that has gradually congealed into ever deepening incomprehensibility.

A darkness that is both disoriented and diseased.

An obscurity that is malignant to the core.

Not only have you lost your way.

You have lost your heart.

You have lost your mind.

You have lost your self-respect.

You have lost control.

You have lost all sense of meaning.

You have lost all understanding of who you truly are.

But know this!

Despite your ill-considered thoughts, words, and actions.

Regardless of your rejection – your cold shoulder towards Me.

I have never left your side!

For I AM the One Who made you.

And I AM the One Who will restore you.

I do not fill your nostrils with breath so as to sit back and watch you drown in a sea of self-induced delusion.

Whenever you are ready to reawaken and reclaim your life – turn around.

 

My hand remains outstretched! 

 

 

 

 

THE TURNAROUND

 

To ‘turn around’ is not just about changing the direction of our toes.

It’s more about changing the position of our stance.

About reconsidering life from a renewed standpoint.

About looking through a new lens.

A lens that sheds new light.

Light that makes sense.

Light that reshapes our thought lives.

Reformats our words and behaviours.

Allows us to drink from a different cup.

For without doubt – it is the cup from which we drink that determines the way we think.

Not ‘what’ we think – ‘how’ we think.

‘What’ we think seems to be consistently thrust upon us.

Like a ball on a snooker table – being hit off course by others is part of the game.

In the midst of all the rebounds and reflections, is it any wonder we find ourselves caught up in such a foray of reactive ricochets?

Ricochets magnified by revolving rumination – repetitive chewing of the same old cud.

‘How’ we think is a different story altogether.

The difference maker being where we are looking from.

In other words – our frame of mind.

And no frame is ever any stronger than the foundation it is built upon.

Only a trustworthy foundation ensures a trustworthy mindset.

How tragic that the hands of time have eroded any notion whatsoever of precious pillars that once upheld life’s most valuable principles.

Faith?

Hope?

Love?

Now nothing but rubble to the common man, as he does whatever he needs to do in order to build his own frame of mind.

A frame of mind without foundation.

A thought life trained and stained.

Jam-packed with learnt behaviours.

Chok-a-block with kneejerk emotions.

Teeming with rote responses.

All the while – drowning in an endless inability to explain itself.

A frame of mind built upon sand.

A house washed away at the first sign of trouble.

Fed and led by a mind with no fixed point of reference – is it any surprise we sometimes find ourselves feeling mentally dishevelled.

Any surprise at all that faith, hope, and love have been discarded in the well-trodden ruts of our own making?

For that is where a mind that lacks breadth of vision takes us.

Round and round the same old pathway.

Never in step with the Spirit of God.

Never in step with feeling fully alive.

Steered by wolves in sheep’s clothing – we lose all trust in everyone.

Yoked to obscurity – we lose all hope in everything.

Everywhere we look – we see suspicion.

Hostility between manmade religions.

Friction between world leaders.

Conflict in the community.

Discord within families.

Turn around?

Turn around to what?

Turn around to where?

May I put it to you that when the Spirit of God beckons us to ‘turn around’, we are not being exhorted to look outward.

We are being emboldened to ‘turn around’ and look inward.

For only ‘within’ do we rediscover the fixed point of reference veiled by external daily distraction.

Only within do we rediscover the Kingdom of God.

In the absence of ‘within’ – we are left ‘without’.

Without reason.

Without purpose.

Without rest.

Without acknowledging the Spirit of God to be our anchorage point – we leave ourselves open to the wiles of a world that continues to mislead us.

We hurry and we worry.

Our insides churn – our minds yearn.

We strive for this and we strive for that.

Do our best to impress – but never find rest.

Because nothing seems right and nothing seems straightforward.

But do you want to know something?

None of it (and I mean none of it) means a damn thing if our hearts aren’t beating!

So confident as we thump the boardroom table yet so lost as paramedics thump our chest.

To ‘turn around’ is to reawaken to the Kingdom within.

To return to reality.

To slow down to the speed of life.

To take some time out every day just to “Be Still”

Remembering always that;

Breath leads to being.

Being leads to consciousness.

Consciousness leads to awareness.

Awareness leads to thought.

Thought leads to knowing.

Knowing leads to not knowing.

Not knowing leads to acceptance.

Acceptance leads to surrender.

Surrender leads to God.

And God leads to rest.

 

To be is to become.

 

The turnaround – integral to every step of the way!

 

 

 

LIGHTEN UP! (Part One)

 

A cheerful heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones (PROVERBS 17:22)

It’s an old saying but still as relevant as ever.

Perhaps even more so in the times we now live.

Times where not too much seems to make a whole lot of sense.

Modern day living that sees most of us as just tired of being tired.

A crushed spirit is a worn-out spirit.

And a worn-out spirit leaves much more behind than just dried-up bones.

It leaves behind an inner self drained to the point of having nothing left to give.

Hollow, overwhelmed – overthrown.  

Limping through lassitude.

Shackled by shadows.

Groping in greyness.

All the while trying to find some quick fix panacea.

Some magic bullet to smooth out the inner furrows.

The tragic truth of the matter being that the ditches themselves are for the most part corrugations carved by our own convoluted conclusions.

Distorted suppositions spinning simple truths into longwinded conjecture – guesswork that pays no heed to the plainspoken.

The unnecessary upshot being that all the twists and turns we add, ultimately end up injecting turmoil into what should otherwise be straightforwardly understood.

There comes a time in everyone’s life when such head-led misconstruction needs to give way to simple, Spirit-led guidance.

A time to stop regurgitating all the baseless chinwag we’ve been indoctrinated by.

A time to actually start tuning in to what matters most.

And what matters most is understanding that all of life is given rise to by the Love of God.

To ‘tune in’ is to stop being distracted.

Pin back our ears – and listen.

In the Old Testament, the meeting place (where Moses listened to God) was a portable, tentlike structure referred to as the Tabernacle.

In King Solomon’s day, the meeting place was a resplendent Temple made from stone and wood.

Following the resurrection of Jesus – a decisive transition was produced.

A pivotal shift from external guidance to internal transformation.

The meeting place between God and mankind, now became the sanctuary of the human body itself.

Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you (1CORINTHIANS 6:19)

Some things in life are far too important to dismiss point-blank.

So, let’s cut to the chase.

If our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and the Kingdom of God is within us – how can there be any darkness in our being?

The Apostle John puts it best.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him. Without Him, nothing was made that has been made. In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (JOHN 1:1-5)

Picture if you will, an old barn with boarded up windows and doors.

Inside – dank and dark.

Outside – the daylight unable to penetrate either the aged cladding or the encrusted shingles.

Daylight and darkness never meet.

Is this the picture John speaks of when he writes –

The Light shines in the darkness…

In no way!

John doesn’t describe an old barn.

He describes an old nature – the fallen nature of man.

He speaks of –

Light that shines ‘in’ the darkness – not just ‘around’ it.

Light that pierces and penetrates.

Light that disperses.

Light that lifts the darkness from the bottom up.

It is a darkness inside us all.

To unmask the real problem, is to expose this dullness for what it truly is.

The Greeks have a word for it.

Sarx.

When used in the context of spiritual murkiness, sarx characterises a self-centred, worldly mindset that functions in and of itself.

It labels a mental framework that leaves no space for submission to divine actuality.

Also translated in the Bible as ‘flesh’ – rather than refer to the soft tissue of the body – sarx represents that within us which does not know (or seek to know) the love of God.

It is, for all intents and purposes, a stubborn malignancy within our being.

A disease of the spirit.

A disorder of the soul.

So, here’s the question.

If the Life within Jesus is the Light within men, and the Light within men is inescapable – where else can the darkness within us possibly exist other than our own unwillingness to see?

Jesus Himself tells us,

The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light. (MATTHEW 6:22)

The Greek translated here as ‘eye’ is ophthalmos – a word used by extension to describe the eye of the mind. That is to say, the faculty of mental perception and understanding.

And this makes perfect sense. 

After all, if we were to restrict our interpretation to the biological eye only – where does that leave all the visually impaired people throughout the world?

Are we saying to the 1.1 billion souls who currently live with some sort of sight loss (of which I am one) – sorry, you’ll have to put up with the darkness because your eye isn’t sound?

I think not!

The Greek translated here as ‘sound’ is haplous – a word meaning; simple and single in that there is nothing complicated or confused.

From the very beginning, we have agreed that 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 the ‘eye of your mind’ perceives that which is visualised always determines what you see – and how you react.

Put another way,

The lamp that sheds light within the body is the eye of the mind (not what we see – but how we understand what we see)

If therefore your insight is without fold (without ambiguity) your whole body will be full of light.

And naturally – the opposite rings true.

If therefore your acuity is unsound (the eye of your mind obscured from fulfilling its office) you will remain blinded by misperception.

And it is here that we expose the real culprit of our confusion – the real source of, what John calls, ‘the darkness’.

Of all our misconceptions, none exert more detriment to us living a contented life than our ongoing avoidance of our own spirituality – indeed our own consistent, blasé attitude towards the spiritual influence that shapes our way of thinking.

Create in me a clean heart, O God.

Renew a right spirit within me. (PSALM 51:10)

If only more of us would grasp the centrality of David’s prayer!

Jesus taught –

It is the Spirit Who gives Life (JOHN 6:63)

He who follows me will not walk in the darkness but will have the Light of Life. (JOHN 8:12) 

When we ask God for a clean heart, we are not referring to the biological heart that relies on electrical conduction to circulate blood throughout our body.

We are asking for an overhaul of the spiritual heart that relies on divine conveyance to radiate Light throughout our being.

Why would we ask for such a refurbishment?

Most of us should find no problem answering that.

After all – who among us has never shunned the Spirit’s guidance?

Not just sometimes.

Most of the time!

Why then should it come as any surprise that the Light within us has lost its glow?

Here’s the thing.

It hasn’t!

The Light within us continues to shine as vibrant as ever.

The darkness within us never overcomes it!

It is our own choice not to engage with the Light that leaves our batteries flat.

Let’s bring this all together.

In the beginning was the Son, and the Son was in the Father, and the Father was in the Son.

God – the Father, the Son, the Spirit of Truth.

The Bless-id Trinity.

Not just fused by Love.

But Love itself!

Without Love, nothing was made that has been made.

From Love proceeded Life.

From Life proceeded the Light of men.

The Light shines.

And the blindness of men has not overcome it.

When Jesus said, God’s Kingdom is within you – He was!

And is!

The Kingdom of God.

The Will of God in motion.

Literally and figuratively –

A place of Love.

A place of Life.

A place of Light.

An immersion reigniting our senses.

One of the most cherished verses in the hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ says –

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found;

Was blind, but now I see.

The Grace of God is the unmerited favour, love, and mercy extended by God to the human family.

I will give you a new heart, and put My Spirit within you (EZEKIEL 36:26-27)

The Grace of God – free, unearned, and undeserved.

And so it was that of the Son of God, Titus wrote – 

For the Grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men (TITUS 2:11)

Yes, a worn-out spirit results in an enervated soul.

From an enervated soul flows a jaded mind.

From a jaded mind flows a faded will.

From a faded will flows numbness.

And with the numbness comes the heaviness.

How then does a person lighten up?

From the word go, Jesus made it plain.

Change your mindset.

Reorientate your thinking.

Transform your outlook.

How interesting it is to look at the word ‘Light’.

As a verb – to illuminate or ignite.

As a noun – source, brightness and understanding.

Is this not the very prescription for our dried-up bones?

To lighten up is to loosen up.

To open up.

To shake off the shackles, and shed the misperception that darkens our personality.

To remove the blinkers.

And take a second look.

 

 

*to be continued

 

 

LIGHTEN UP!

(Part Two – The Masquerade)

 

Without light – colour does not exist.

To take a closer look at that which obscures the light within us, is to take a deeper dive into the enigmatic nature of the world we live in.

To reconsider both that which we can plainly see, and that which remains veiled from our vision.

To re-evaluate one, and not the other, is to miss half of the overall picture.

For whether we care to admit it or not – there is most definitely much more going on in daily life than first meets the eye.

A closer look is an unrushed look.

An open-minded look.

A candid look that first requires the removal of our masks.

For wear a mask we all do.

A facade called pride.

A guise we don when we pretend to be someone other than who we were made to be.

Protective, deflective, or deceptive?

Call it what you will.

The long and short of it being that behind the mask, there hides the real self.

A vulnerable self who for some strange reason always craves to be seen as someone who they are not.

Now most people will tell you there are two types of pride.

One constructively healthy – the other corrosively destructive.

That may well be the case.

But I’m not so sure where the distinction sits.

Could it be that one in fact leads to the other?

Life experience has taught me there is a fine line separating self-respect from self-exaltation.

A subtle boundary indeed between the self-confidence that quietly works hard to achieve something meaningful and the overconfidence that boasts about the success.

When it comes to blowing our own trumpet – Scripture pulls no punches.

Pride goes before destruction,

and an arrogant spirit before a fall. (PROVERBS 16:18)

Arrogant pride.

Stubborn, stiff-necked, pig-headed.

Perverse, inflexible and unyielding.

Intensely self-conscious, highly defensive, and always looking to impress others – arrogant pride can be prodded by a host of provocateurs.

Not the least of which is being humiliated by past failures.

And this of course is where otherworldly adversaries weigh into the fray.

For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (EPHESIANS 6:12)

Intimidating yet guileful, the objective of the spiritual antagonist is to drag us back through the muddied waters of our past indiscretions.

For it is there, deep in the sludge, that we try to hide our murkiest disappointments.

There that we send our skeletons (wearing their cement overcoats) to sleep in the silt.

Inveigling adversaries making doubly certain that out of sight is not out of mind.

That the stain of our vulnerabilities remains ever-present in our thought lives.

That lingering accusations buried in the mire are spliced together with looming trepidation to make even the smallest stumbling blocks feel like a scathing personal attack.

All of them encounters that leave us feeling bleakly inadequate – totally unworthy to raise our eyes to God.

It is an inner gloominess that accumulates.

A darkness that collects, swells – amasses.

Gathers, accrues – stockpiles.

Feeding upon the mind’s habitual penchant for the archives of its own inbuilt reference library, the bourgeoning stain embeds itself within our souls.

Intellectually, we have no problem acknowledging that the things we most fear may in fact never eventuate.

No problem at all in recognising that what is already done, cannot be changed.

We know full well that what has happened has happened.

That what was – has been.

That what’s been – has gone.

Nonetheless, it feels as though, none of it has gone anywhere.

Deep below – the ebb and flow continue.

Murky waters mottled with menace.

Undercurrents poised to provoke indefinitely.

Most volatile of all the arrows fired by our adversaries are those that wound our pride – not in the sense that something of great value is damaged, but more in the sense that something already reaping great damage is stirred up, and provoked to be even more destructive.

To say that a thing is wounded is to suggest the infliction of harm, the onset of maltreatment, the presence of trauma.

But when we look at our pride being wounded, we see a very different dynamic at play.

For to speak of wounded pride is not to speak of pride being cut down and weakened – it is to speak of pride being goaded, intensified and unleashed.

Spiritual predators do not fire darts to intimidate our pride.

They shoot darts to enflame it!

For just like a guard dog – pride is an armoured mask.

A mask worn by the bruised ego it tries to defend.

An outward show that does its best (in the worst ways possible) to conceal a deep-rooted sense of inadequacy.

An inadequacy that, for all intents and purposes, would not even exist if we spent less time comparing ourselves to others.

Yes – there is a dark side to life.

You and I both know that’s true.

But whilst it is one thing to recognise the reality of spiritual agitators – it is another thing altogether to apportion all blame solely to their incitement.

Surely, we ourselves must (at some level) be held accountable for the way we respond to the baiting.

Not just from the taunts emanating from a realm that is better left alone, but more importantly from the self-undermining we’ve all cultivated along our passage from infanthood to adulthood.

Accountability is not just about copping flak – it’s about finding solutions.

And the best way to find a renewed perspective is to head for higher ground.

Neither to sink nor swim.

Rather – to walk above the troubled waters.

For only once we remove ourselves from the turbulence, does the truth become easier to recognise.

Distance brings clarity.

And clarity soon draws the infamous, internal progenitor out into the open.

Perhaps best described as the underbelly of our free will, pride is by all accounts the oldest nemesis known to humanity.

From my experience, the only real way to break free from it – is to be true to who you were made to be.

To neither assess nor impress anyone – and that includes yourself.

Being the person you were made to be is not about being validated by the judgemental opinions of others.

It’s about feeling comfortably at peace within your own skin.

It’s about tapping into the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

It’s not about perfection.

Perfection is for statues – and cast in bronze we are not!

We are a human family made in the image and likeness of God.

Body, mind, and spirit – in no way independent standalones.

To be more precise – fully interconnected and interdependent facets of all people everywhere.

All things observed and all things hidden, continually interrelating within the human family at large.

Sometimes in indescribably positive ways.

At other times in ways that feel as though everything is falling apart.

But at all times – the choice is there.

Either the showmanship goes on.

Or the mask comes off.

For only once the mask comes off, does the masquerade end.

And only once the mask is put down, do we come to finally understand two things.

The weight of the load we’ve been carrying.

 

And the Light –

that’s been within us all along.

 

 

 

 

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