What Troubles You?

What Troubles You? by Randolph Jason for The Recovered Word

The first requirement is that we be convinced that any life run on self-will can hardly be a success. On that basis we are almost always in collision with something or somebody, even though our motives are good. Most people try to live by self-propulsion. Each person is like an actor who wants to run the whole show; is forever trying to arrange the lights, the ballet, the scenery and the rest of the players in his own way. Source

That word “requirement” means thus – something essential to the existence or occurrence of something else – Merriam-Webster If it is essential that we are convinced (accept/receive) of the idea our lives are unsuccessful by our own hand, that means there must be something else – not us – that created, made manifest or places that success in our lives.

Self-will, free-will are the same thing. We are masters at convincing ourselves we have the answers and know the directions we should move in any given situation. After all we did grow up and reach the age we find ourselves, right? We didn’t get to be as old as we are by not knowing how things work or what to do, right? These are the lies we hear and we accept them without hesitation.

What makes us accept lies that we, at least sometimes, know are in fact lies? Self-will, free-will believing ourselves to have power/strength that we do not actually possess? When we make decisions that are based on self and do not take others into consideration then we are making ourselves to be the most important thing/person in our lives. We see ourselves as the center of it all. We tell ourselves things like “believe in yourself”, “you’re awesome”, “greatest ___” and my personal favorite “follow your heart”. All these little things that continually make us look at ourselves while completely overlooking others. We reach a point where we think we can do it all of our will, our own strength and our own accord. We can’t.

Selfishness—self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate. Sometimes they hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt. Source

What we come to realize is not only deep down, but right on the surface as well, we are terrified of everything. Fear drives our decisions, all of our decisions. Sometimes the fear is super subtle and other times it is so strong we actually vibrate. Anxiety, depression and addiction have fertile ground to work with. We are so focused on the “success” we created we are completely blinded to what is happening in our family, our work and our community. Never mind we have no relationship with a Creator God as He has been replaced with ourselves – we see ourselves as the be all / end all. Nothing could be further from the Truth.

Speaking of the Truth. What is the Truth? Jesus Christ said that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). Some people completely reject the Truth. The Truth is not concerned whether someone accepts it or not, it doesn’t change nor is it discouraged, as it remains the Truth regardless if anyone receives it or not. When a person makes this proclamation they are in fact rejecting the Lord our God and doing their best to replace Him with themselves. Once a person comes to the realization of Jesus Christ, the Truth, the Word, Love, Living Water and thousand other names, they are immediately transformed – without delay, without question, without fanfare. It’s simple, everything just changes. Now, please do not misunderstand, it doesn’t mean the heavens are going to open, the ocean is going to part or there is going to a lightning bolt flash. It could happen, but odds are against it. You, however, will be changed from the heart, to the mind to the tips of your toes.

The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it. Unless one’s family expresses a desire to live upon spiritual principles we think we ought not to urge them. We should not talk incessantly to them about spiritual matters. They will change in time. Our behavior will convince them more than our words. We must remember that ten or twenty years of drunkenness would make a skeptic out of anyone.  Source

As our eyes are opened and we begin seeing the Truth in a hundred different ways our vision is completely transformed. We begin seeing others and we begin seeing our weaknesses, our lack of power, which is our dilemma, as we come to realize how fear has been a huge part of our focus. This, however, does not infer we are to drag our family, especially, our spouse into our new found clarity. We act as-if and they follow our lead.

Our troubles have always been of our own making. Simply because we are now living in a different way, with a new outlook and a new life doesn’t mean that our troubles have stopped. What it really means is we have the ability to see things new. We have the ability to respond instead of react, we have the ability to see others needs instead of how we can benefit and how we can be a benefit / blessing to others in pain.

We will continue this line of thought in the days ahead. If anyone is struggling and needs to talk please send us an email Info@GospelNewsNetwork.org and we can swap phone numbers and begin a true dialogue. God bless.