Excessive Ego Attachment

EGO DETACHMENT

Inability to speak your opinions and ideas in public is often due to a simple problem.  Ego attachment.  The solution is detachment.

It’s as if your idea or what you’d like to say is you.  Your worthwhileness as a person is connected to a mere thought or point of view.  So if it is ignored, disapproved of, or voted down, you go down with it.  When your well-being as a human being is dependent on others “applauding” or liking what you say, it’s obvious you will be very careful.  You will be reluctant to speak.  You will be frightened to express yourself.

Paralyzed in this way by fear you will keep many good thoughts to yourself.  Resentment, jealousy, hostility, depression may follow.  A kind of sickness of spirit from excessive ego attachment.  Too much mistaken notion that your value as a person is dependent on being “right on”.

Recognizing this you can begin to detach your ego from your statements.  Realizing that your value is independent of people liking or even listening to what you have to say, you can begin to contribute.

Usually this means beginning by overriding a lot of feelings with a determination to do what you are now convinced is true.  In spite of fear, uneasiness, apprehension – breaking out into a new involvement, a gratifying fresh creativeness.

Jesus said “Woe to you when all people think well of you . . .”  Luke 6:26

God Heals. You Show Up.

God Heals

(But God sincerely requests your gracious assistance)

It should be engraved on the mind of every warmhearted and softhearted follower of Jesus that God heals the broken hearted and you do not have to try to do it.  If there is healing needed God, will take care of it.  All we have to do is “show up.”

We all know those who have come back to life after being “hit by a freight train”.  Some we know have come through the most dreadful tragedies imaginable and now years later once again smile, laugh, dance, and sing.  It is never right away.  And it is never singing without a deep pain in one corner of their heart.  But they do come back to life.

Our place is to be there, confidently and patiently allowing God to work healing while we walk along side- listening, mingling our tears with theirs, praying, hugging.  This means resisting our impulses to try to fix them.  It means resisting our logical explanations and theological perspectives that proclaim why this happened, or how it can be softened.   

What a Prayer Looks Like

What Prayer Looks Like

I visualize prayer like an enormous triangle.  The top peak is God, and the extreme bottom left point is the one speaking the prayer. The third, and remaining point, is the man or woman for whom a prayer is being said.  Then I visualize the bottom two lines going out from  myself, the one offering prayer.  One goes up to God. The other extends, on the vertical level, to the one in need.  I look up to God, and over to the one for whom the prayer is being spoken. 

In my mind I see two lines flowing down from God.  One goes to the one for whom the prayer is being offered. The other comes from God back down to me, the pray-er.  The line, from God, that goes to the one in need is God’s energy and love streaming to that person.  The line that goes from God through me is God’s love and energy flowing back to the one needing prayer. Directly and through me God’s love and energy goes out.  Both target the loved one for whom supplication and intercession is being offered.

The astounding part of this picture is God’s healing love flowing through me, the one doing the praying.  The help of God doesn’t exclusively come directly from God to the hurting person. It also comes straight through me, the one calling on God, for the needed help.

The Christian Bear Hunter

The Christian Bear Hunter

Have you heard the story about the Christian Bear Hunter? 

Well, there was this very devout man who annually went bear hunting.   When the season rolled around, he put on his boots and jacket, picked up his gun, prayed for success, and drove off to the woods.

Walking quietly, deep in the forest, before he knew what hit him, he was clobbered by a mighty Grizzly.  His gun flew, and he found himself lying on the ground looking up at the Grizzly.  Weaponless, he cowered as the bear appeared ready to strike again.  Helpless, the nimrod closed his eyes and prayed:  "Oh Lord, change the bear's heart.  Convert his ways.  Make him into a Christian bear."

Suddenly, he heard a voice.  He opened his terrified eyes. There was the bear, paws together, eyes closed, head bowed, praying, "Lord, bless this food I'm about to eat."

An Angel at Cobmoosa Shores?

“An Angel Experience? Or a Coincidence?”

We were sleeping at a cottage at Cobmoosa Shores, near Stony Lake, and facing Lake Michigan.  Only Linda and I were there to sleep that night, but the previous day a couple of little grandchildren had been around. Their toys were lying here and there.

Early that Saturday morning we awakened to the music of one of the little wind-up toys. It played “Are you sleeping, are you sleeping, Brother John, Brother John, morning bells are ringing, morning bells are ringing, Ding Ding Dong, Ding Ding Dong.”  It played it through completely, then stopped.  Since it had awakened us, to smiles, I checked the time, saw it was 6:00 A.M., and decided to get up and make coffee.

At 9:00 that morning the telephone rang.  It was Nancy, Linda’s Step-mother.  Linda  answered the phone, and she seemed rather serious in her manner as she listened and responded.  When she hung up she told me “My Dad died this morning at 6:00 o’clock.”

Immediately I thought of the way we had awakened at 6:00 A.M.  It was with a happy little song at the moment of Leo’s death.

Were the Angels playing with the toys?

"The Price of an Unpaid Speeding Ticket"

FEAR AND ILL-HEALTH

“The price of an unpaid speeding ticket.”

In 1958 I left Kalamazoo, Michigan where I was working as a vocational rehabilitation counselor to go to seminary in Philadelphia.  Irked by an “improper passing” ticket a state trooper issued shortly before, I departed with the fine unpaid.  They won’t come to Pennsylvania to get me, I reasoned.  But I also knew my name to be on the great Michigan police computer and that I would be returning or passing through.  Nevertheless, I ignored my summons and forgot about it.

Then, a year later, came the first occasion to return to Michigan.  As I approached Toledo, Ohio I suddenly recalled that I was a “wanted” person in Michigan.  FEAR!!  My whole body changed.  Muscles tightened, stomach churned, heart raced, mouth dried, and my mind worked feverishly while my eyes were hyper-vigilant.

What havoc and damage fear can do to the human person.  Fear is now recognized as one of the greatest accelerators of disease.  To rightly work at prevention and cure of some illnesses, then, we do well to look at the presence of fear in our hearts.

Some fear, such as mine back then, can be eliminated by repenting and making proper amends to remove the real threat.  What a foolish high price we often pay for a few dollars or some momentary pleasure.  We actually jeopardize our health in exchange.

Beyond our foolish fears from sins and errors, real or imagined, there are the deep existential fears.  We might even call them terrors.  The question of death is the root of some.  But also the fear of meaninglessness.  Is my life worthwhile?  Do I matter?  Am I a good person?

There are spiritual answers for these potentially health-eroding agonies.  One immediate spiritual resource is the love and reassurance of people.  The care and kindness of others can heal and help enormously.  The ultimate healer is a thorough immersion in perfect love.  God is love.  Perfect love drives out fear.  (I John 4:18)  Reduce fear, feel better!

PS:  Yes, I was caught.  The great computer got me a couple of years later when I renewed my driver’s license in Michigan.  Oh yes, I did pay a price more than dollars for carrying that ticket so long?

Faith and a Good Night's Sleep

IT’S EASIER TO LIVE BY FAITH IF YOU’VE HAD A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP

Sometimes cutting short your sleep to commune with God may, in fact, undermine your ability to live close to God.  A tired person is more vulnerable to temptations than the wide-awake.  The weakened body is more apt to be plagued with devil-pleasing self-doubt than one fed and rested.

Quiet times for prayer, meditation and reflection aid the Christian walk, but the notion that “more of the same” will continue to produce positive results is faulty.

The spiritual growth we aspire to cannot take place separate from sound care for the whole person.  Holistic ideas about the interconnection of spirit and body are surprisingly common sensical when we see it this way:

·        It’s easier to feel close to God when the Excedrin has taken my headache away.

·        Faith soars when the air is fresh and I’m biking briskly on a bright spring morning.

·        After a cup of coffee my spiritual condition is always improved.

Spiritual inspiration and enthusiasm can be mediated by physical interventions and activities.  This being true, faith builders will not only implore their adherents to worship in the traditional forms, including Bible study, prayer, meditation and song.  They will also encourage (Excedrin?  Caffeine?) the health-care of the body, spirit, and emotions. Exercise, vacations and travel, hospitality, friendship, good-deed projects, enjoyment of the arts help us spiritually. Folk-dance, the appreciation of beauty in nature,  fine craftsmanship, ecological conscientiousness (harmony with nature-creation), reading, hobbies, gardening, are good for our closeness with God.

Since we know that “everything affects everything else” we will design a well-rounded life-style.  A life free of guilt that some pastimes while well-enjoyed may be look unspiritual.  Spirit-raising pastimes bring us closer to God-pleasing service.

"I'd Rather See a Sermon than Hear One"

“I’d Rather See a Sermon Than Hear One Any Day.”

I’d rather see a sermon than hear one, any day;

I’d rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way.

The eye is a better pupil, more willing than the ear;

Fine counsel is confusing, but example is always clear. 

And the best of all the preachers are those who live their creeds.

For to see a good put in action is what everybody needs.

I soon can learn how to do it if you will let me see it done;

I can watch your hand in action, but your tongue too fast may run.

And the lectures you deliver may be very wise and true,

But I’d rather get my lesson by observing what you do.

For I may misunderstand you and the high advice you give,

But there is no misunderstanding how you act and live.

When I see an act of kindness, I am eager to be kind.

When a weaker person stumbles, and a strong one stands behind

Just to see if she can help him, than the wish grows strong in me

To become as big and thoughtful as I know that friend to be.

And all the travelers can witness that the best of guides today

Is not the one who tells them, but the one who shows the way.

One can teach many. Folks believe what they behold.  

One deed of kindness noted is worth forty that are told.

Who stands with those of honor learn to hold that honor dear,

For right living speaks a language which to everyone is clear.

Though an able speaker charms me with his eloquence, I say,

I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day.

---Author Unknown