Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. Oscar Wilde
When consciousness first breaks in the morning and you become aware of being, what is the first word that forms in your mind?
Nearly always, it is I. I need my coffee. I am so tired. I wish I could stay in bed. I have to get moving. I have so much to do today. I want my breakfast.
And then as you rise and move through the day, your I-centered posture continues to dominate your thoughts. Your motives. Your actions.
It’s natural for you to do this, of course. It is the way of the world. What other way is there? Surely to be happy you must think of yourself first. After all, happiness by definition is self-centered. Or is it?
This posture of selfishness, though, keeps us bent on acquiring things. On putting things and people and experiences in orbit around us. And in so doing, of course, those around us become aware of our gravitational pull. And more often than not they resist. They pull away. They are repelled with disgust by your selfishness because it is mutually exclusive to their own.
This resistance frustrates us, and so you increase the gravitational pull. And so do they. And so the dance downward through the darkening spiral goes, until you reach with bitter finality the logical conclusion of continuing to maintain this posture. You become a black hole – something to avoid at all costs because everyone knows that nothing escapes your selfish grasp if they get too close. And then life is only darkness and misery and frustration.
It’s time to put this posture to bed and adapt a new posture altogether, one that births in you a shining star that radiates warmth and light to others. One that brings you the depths of fulfillment you seek while, ironically, comes only when you let go of your selfish pursuit of it.
It’s posture bedtime.
Source Scripture
And You Give Yourself Away: Matthew 8:14-17; Mark 1:29-34; Luke 4:38-41
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Twitter: @AwestruckPod
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Extras
You and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness.…How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing, it is irresistible. C.S. Lewis
In the movie Sixth Sense, for those fortunate enough not to see it coming, there is a point in the story that awakens the viewer to an altogether new reality – to abandon an existing framework of thinking altogether in order to adapt a new one that instantly resolves all of the unanswered questions and makes the story make sense.
But for the story to make sense, we need that sixth sense. For the pieces of the story to fit all together, we need an altogether new way of thinking. To resolve the unanswered questions, we need a renaissance of resonance.
When our lives are out of balance, centered in the ego instead of the soul, we experience frustration. Confusion. Despair. And most often we assume this to be the case because our outer world is not in proper orbit around us. This assumption drives a paradigm of frantic manipulation of people, possessions, and small green pieces of paper.
But what if this is not the way? What if our paradigm is all wrong? What if, like Galileo as he gazed through his telescope, we realize that we are not the center of the universe?
There is a new paradigm that, once embraced, suddenly brings the meaning of life into focus. This sixth sense helps everything make sense. This altogether new way of thinking makes everything in our lives fit all together. It resonates with all that we long to experience, and has the power to usher in a Renaissance that renders our lives rapturous.
This paradigm is called holiness. Our modern world has largely misunderstood holiness, relegating it either to an antiquated, irrelevant way of living or to a rigid regimen requiring self-flagellation.
But holiness is neither of these things. Holiness is the foundation of soul-centered living. It is the underlying armature that pervades Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom of heaven. And it is the way of thinking that, once adapted, will make your entire life – your story – make sense.
Source Scripture
Wholly Holy: Mark 1:21-28; Luke 4:31-37
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Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com
Extras
Now, some people think the Bible is a book of rules, telling you what you should and shouldn’t do. The Bible certainly does have some rules in it. They show you how life works best. But the Bible isn’t mainly about you and what you should be doing. It’s about God and what he has done. Other people think the Bible is a book of heroes, showing you people you should copy. The Bible does have some heroes in it, but (as you’ll soon find out) most of the people in the Bible aren’t heroes at all. They make some big mistakes (sometimes on purpose), they get afraid and run away. At times, they’re downright mean. No, the Bible isn’t a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It’s an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne–everything–to rescue the ones he loves. It’s like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life! You see, the best thing about this Story is…it’s true. There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves His children and comes to rescue them. – Sally Lloyd-Jones
In every hero’s journey, there are a series of common steps that lead to a critical juncture.
When we first see a future hero in a given story, we find him or her living an ordinary life in an ordinary world. But then, something happens. There is an allure to break out of the ordinary world to do something extraordinary. This is the Call to Adventure. The future hero becomes aware that there is another way to live – something that seems to pull from deep within toward living a larger, better, more selfless life in service of a greater good.
But then, of course reason screams back at the soul’s longing with this threat, “You can’t do that. This is your life we’re talking about. And you have responsibilities. And needs. And people who respect you. All that will be lost if you play the fool and walk away. Don’t do it!” This is the inevitable Refusal of the Call to adventure.
It is at this stage that we meet the mentor. The guide. The hero-to-be in our story receives reassurance and wise counsel concerning the call. This guidance helps overcome whatever doubts linger until the hero is born. He lifts up his eyes to behold the call to adventure and then boldly crosses the threshold into the new life.
The pattern of the hero’s journey, sometimes called the monomyth, serves as the armature for stories told in every culture at all points in history – from King Arthur to the Lion King, from Perseus against Medusa to Luke Skywalker against the Empire, and from Faust and the dragon to Katniss Everdeen and the Capitol.
These stories draw us – fascinate us – over and over again because they reveal what is already imprinted in our souls. We are designed to pursue the path of the hero’s journey. We are called to leave our ordinary lives and embrace the call to adventure. We will inevitably struggle with this call, but we can, if we choose, receive the supernatural aid offered by the mentor. And we can summon the courage to accept the call and live the life that we always longed to live.
And all we have to do is listen for and accept the call to adventure.
Source Scripture
Adventure Awaits: Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20; Luke 5:1-11
Connect
Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com
Extras