Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength. Corrie Ten Boom
We worry when we direct our focus to something we want beyond our current grasp of control. We cannot abide the uncertainty of achieving our goal, and this state of consciousness produces anxiety.
We then believe that to overcome anxiety and find peace, we must create methods and procure resources that provide us with the right amount of power and control.
The curious state we now find ourselves in is one of double anxiety. To get what we want, we must first get something else, and we worry about the prospect of obtaining both.
If we do not question this default approach to living, we will succumb to its relentless grip on our soul and live in either the anxiety of either acquiring control or preserving it. The present moment will remain elusive as future concerns usurp it.
Worry is the enemy of peace. Of shalom. Of bliss. Worry aspires to be hope, but falls far short because it has no one to hope in beyond the self-centered ego.
When we are free of worry, we experience the bliss of of what really matters: the present moment. The naked now. We find ourselves trusting in God’s providence, resting in his promises, and able to experience the joy of His presence and the presence of others.
The present moment is a most auspicious occasion, and with it today we will pursue the ruthless elimination of worry.
Source Scripture
Matthew 6:25-34; Luke 12:22-32
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We are living in an outer world that pretends to be the inner world. The elements of human life that are primarily rooted in interiority, service to the higher—that is, the realm of relationships, of love, knowledge, creativity, elements that are reflected in family, community, the refinement and perfection of nature (science and art)—all these elements are now embedded in money. Money seems the most real factor of life because our glimpses of the inner world are immediately swallowed by modes of acting and thinking and feeling that are geared to dealing with money….If we do not love God, we will inevitably love that which conveys intense energies in our daily lives, including, especially, money. Jacob Needleman
Within us is a yearning to experience being – life in its fullest capacity. This divine desire propels us on a quest to find – to seize those experiences that bring us closer to true being.
And yet, too often in our haste to experience the fullness of life, we conflate the spiritual well that activates and actualizes being with tactile, temporal offerings. The call of rich, meaningful, inner experiences of being available to us drowns in the cacophony of materialistic voices without. And the more we lose touch with ourselves, the deeper we wade into the waters of materialism until eventually the riptides of greed and lust pull us ever further away from the shore of our own soul.
Our materialistic pursuits, though they vary in tone and texture, all converge at this apex: money. Money becomes the well from which we draw in order to satisfy our materialistic goals. And without even realizing it, we have now strayed so far from the shore that we cannot even see it, choking on saltwater in a futile effort to slake our thirst. We have conflated our desire for being with the lust for material things, and we have further decided that to have what we want, we must have money to get it.
In most cases, we don’t question this mode of living at all. At best, we comfort ourselves by donating a small percentage of our money to what we deem our worthy causes. At worst – we are at our worst – slaves to the master of money as we plod forward in our erroneous belief that money buys things and attracts people that will fulfill our innermost longings.
But you can’t smell the roses when you’re lost at sea.
The only way we escape the clutches of money is to return to the shores of our soul and begin the trek inland, exploring the true, rich, fulfilling, divine experiences of being that await until they enrapture us and we forget all else – including and especially money.
Source Scripture
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Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com
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