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
Connect
Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com
Extras
Thinking is shown as a barrier to shalom, yet contemplation is the broker of Presence. Steve Wickham
Thinking here means engaging the mode of consciousness that divides everything into categories, classifying, comparing, and cataloguing everything and everyone in order to determine their place in orbit around the ego. In the last episode of Awestruck, we called this objective consciousness and discovered that it was the primary shroud preventing us from seeing the divine.
This mindscape, we’ll call it, has one primary orientation: preference. Things and people become good or bad, accepted or expelled, embraced or eschewed. In such a state, peace is impossible to attain, because something unwanted inevitably invades, producing anxiety, frustration, impatience, and in general a constant state of annoyance. This internal cauldron boils over into fruitless strategies to achieve ego-centric stability.
Contrast this approach to acquiring peace with that of contemplation, a mode of consciousness that shifts the focus from rational analysis to the transcendence of wonder. In this state, the gravity pull of the ego gives way to the levitation that exists only in the spirit.
Here we find shalom, where gratitude eclipses greed. Anxiety dissolves in divine trust. Annoyance gives way to joy.
And shalom is not just something we seek for ourselves. Anyone experiencing peace inherently longs to see it spread to others – and works towards that end.
Achieving shalom is an act of creation, and the creative forces that give birth to it are inherited from the divine creator. Today we look at how to create peace – in ourselves, in others, and in our world.
Source Scripture
Connect
Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com
Extras