applying the new mind
Jim September 30th, 2008
i appreciate every person who contacts me as a result of reading one of my books. often as a result, new friendships begin and conversations evolve. i’ve been on the road the last few days and i received an email from someone who is struggling through watching someone they deeply care for suffer through cancer. as part of the email she mentioned, “why God allow bad things to happen to good people.”
i asked her if she would consider a different way of processing the situation. what if instead the truth is, God never shuts off the supply of good for anyone, ever, no matter their condition or circumstance. another way you could say it is, the source of all goodness is unconditionally present within our being in every moment. the Christ life within, or that intuitive knowing knitted to the fabric of our deepest being, or those deep feelings flowing within us, which connect us with love, peace, freedom, and contentment are never under any threat by the condition of our human body or the reality of our human circumstances. the changing condition of our human body and human circumstances are part of what it means to be a human expression of divine reality. and yet none of this shuts off the supply of everything that is truly good.
right?
(photo by zoo gal)
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- Comments(6)
Jim,
I just wanted to say thanks for your insight. I actually just blogged about a word I came across in one of your books and my lack of being able to articulate something I understood. I too am going through a lot of really messed up circumstances, dealing with loss and let downs galore, yet there is a presence of God that is a constant during this time. I guess I can relate to the questioned asked only because I have asked many similar questions lately only to realize, I am asking God. So God must be real in every way I thought He was now, as He was prior to this messed up time. I am blessed with friends who don’t give me trite, simple fix, christianese answers during a this time and allow me the space to say what is truly on my mind. They leave the fixing up to God. Your words here are not trite by any stretch of the imagination and I find the truth in them satisfying. Thanks.
Jim,
I’m not going to lie… That was kinda beautiful, and I really want to give you a hug right now! haha… I think of tall the answers I have heard regarding suffering, that is in my top 3!
We seem to forget that it is in tough situations that our eyes can truly be opened to beauty, peace, freedom, and being of our existence. If we are thinking in terms of being, then tough situations are like a blindfold removed from our eyes, allowing us to see something in a new and different way.
The point is, we are already free, but our eyes have to be opened to that freedom, and everything is an opportunity to experience that goodness.
Perspective seems to be the key though…
jim… i like this… a lot
and tim… i like this…. a lot
“the point is, we are already free, but our eyes have to be opened to that freedom, and everything is an opportunity to experience that goodness….”
when i read your post byline, “applying the new mind” i knew my need to understand my old mind and how it covers up the inner “beingness” before i could apply a new mind in me. reading eckhart tolles’ “a new earth” has opened my mind to how the ego in all of us can misinterpret and misguide us in how we perceive and react to things. by becoming aware of the egoic thoughts they begin to diminish and our inner presence – God – begins to take over and shine through us. in relation to the person struggling through the cancer that is causing suffering in someone they love, i offer this; several years ago, rick pearson, a worship leader in the north point ministries (atlanta), was stricken with cancer and his powerful testimony through it was that “if i beat it i win and if i don’t i win” i am not trying to minimize loss of life or suffering, but we strive to live like Christ, so shouldn’t we celebrate that one day, however it happens, that we will be with Christ where there is no more suffering and pain? shouldn’t we “live like we are dying”?
hey chuck, you summed it up pretty well – “the ego in all of us can misinterpret and misguide.” it compelled me to start a new post about specifically dealing with the ego.
Exactly right!!
I really enjoy your blog… I started coming here after I read “Divine Nobodies,” which, by the way, was completely awesome. I reviewed it on my blog, too… and my brother has bought like 12 copies of it. =) And I am currently reading “Wide Open Spaces.
Everything you have to say is really good – and although it’s radical at times, I think we all need it. =)
KEEP IT UP!!