Psalm 107:6,13,19,286. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress.13. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.19. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.28. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress.
Preface
Success and failure result in direct measure to the degree of responsibility we accept for the conditions and consequences of our lives.
Those who've enslaved themselves to fear will not recognize themselves as being so. If asked, "Do you live afraid," they may say and truly believe they don't. But most people associate fear with the feeling. The fear I'm talking about isn't something one consciously feels. It's a state of being, a disposition of thought collectively recognized as what passes for being "normal," a dubious moniker about how the world thinks we're supposed to think, feel, speak and act in any given situation.
People may feel the emotional discomfort caused by acting independently or running afoul of the world's social expectations, but people rarely awaken to their independent conscious Self amid such discomfort. They tend to blindly allow the emotional "nudge" to redirect them back in line. And then when that line leads to its well-known and expected misery and misfortune, the next "peer pressured" nudge says to blame something or someone else for these results. Or to just assume it's an unavoidable aspect of life.
Likewise, those who've been given a greater measure of faith, or who've cultivated more faith within themselves, may not consciously be aware of, nor be able to articulate why they think, feel and act the way they do. They may not verbally attribute any spiritual or religious aspects to it, just being vessels for God's light through example. They're more in tune with the Spirit than with the ego, the ego being the thing they feel most uncomfortable engaging with, giving voice to and exemplifying. Such people intuitively recognize the way of fear as being something they don't want anything to do with.
The faithful usually recoil in dismay from what the way of fear thinks of as "normal," while their heart reaches out to those so bound and for the victims of fear's actions in the world.
Faith can clearly see that there's a difference between the one who acts and the action, knowing that we don't do anything independent of the thoughts we think and that many people in fear have no idea that they are not the basket of thoughts with which the world's covered their light.
People who live according to the dictates of fear's "way of being" are easily recognized by their refusal to take responsibility for:
1) the consequences of their behavior, and
2) their born-into life circumstances.
Those puppeted by fear shirk responsibility, not seeing themselves as "refusing" to take responsibility, but insisting that it's impossible to do so, instead giving their life over and allegiance to "it's not my fault."
But faith recognizes consequences and circumstances as two different types of opportunities: The first, for personal growth; the second, for community investment.
Regarding the first, faith sees clearly that action "A" results in consequence "B." If I don't like or want consequence "B," then I never again commit action "A." And if I want to be forgiven and freed from consequence "B," then I commit a different action; for example, action "A's" opposite, over and over again until the old consequence "B" is crowded out and replaced with a new, desired consequence "C."
But it's more than just committing a different action. It's committing to what the different action represents. It's remaking the material of our ideas, attitudes and beliefs--our thoughts and emotions--into the source material of faith. We remove the basket, allowing our light to shine.
When we learn how to do better, we can choose to become better, as defined by thinking new thoughts that generate within us greater levels of peace, joy and gratitude. This allows us to garner desired life results from speaking and acting differently in response to events and circumstances, keeping us from engaging in the type of reactions to events and circumstances that the state of fear would call "normal." Consequently, our life is protected from becoming more miserable.
Different actions create different results. This is an absolute law that no force in the world can stand up against. But the thing is, it's the degree of commitment to those different actions that determines when the different results will manifest and how long they'll last. If I try something different for a couple of days, weeks or months and give up in impatience (a fear-based response), then whatever gains I've made, whether I've seen them manifest in my life or not, will fade away, being crowded out by the actions born from my return to the familiar.
Fear returns to the familiar because it's driven by habit. Fear's lazy, wanting to think and act--live life--on autopilot. Though it hates the environmental circumstances and the repeating life events that come from living that particular set of habits, it would rather be miserable in what's "easy" than free in what's deemed as "hard." Fear cannot see the "challenge" of doing things consciously--what's demanded of internalizing new habits, making new ways of doing things into a new "easy"--as easier than the difficulty that comes with living an extremely difficult life in miserable conditions.
Fear prefers ease within over ease without.
If I stole (action "A) and was imprisoned (consequence "B"), then, while inside prison, I commit to a life of giving of possessions (providing for those in need), and of time (teaching others in prison and society the value of earning's actual benefits over stealing's perceived one's). These new action "A's" come to represent a broadcasting of seeds that eventually result in the harvest of: 1) others inspired to have the courage to live in this way; 2) being considered for and receiving early release from prison; and 2) the opportunity freedom provides to expand giving to and inspiring others in need (consequence "C").
But fear wants its cake and to eat it too. It desires immediate gratification without having to pay the inevitable back-end cost. And it hates that reality doesn't work this way, raging against the back-end cost in the same way that demons hate God not allowing evil and darkness to rule supreme.
Regarding the born-into life circumstances, faith reveals that we find ourselves in the environment in which God purposes us to make the most meaningful impact. If I'm born into wealth and privilege, then I ask: How can I utilize this abundance of opportunity 1) to multiply it and 2) to best address the specific societal woes that speak loudest to my spirit?
If I'm born into poverty and hardship, then I ask: 1) How can I utilize this lack of abundance to create opportunities? 2) What specific issues exist that I'm most inspired to solve? and 3) Which purpose-driven person, born into wealth and privilege, aligned in inspiration, am I to reach out to and partner with?
But fear is a weapon of mass destruction wielded by ego. And ego takes responsibility for nothing, except insincerely, as a manipulation tactic. Ego attacks unwanted consequences and life circumstances with:
1) hate,
2) blame, and
3) reactions,
all toward making life worse for ego's vessels of fear and their inevitable victims.
Fear will use abundance as an excuse to amass and hoard. Fear's life philosophy is "Get all you can, can all you get, poison the rest." And fear will use its inherent state of poverty as an excuse to steal, kill and destroy, ego's tools for spreading poverty into the spaces of wealth, driving abundance and opportunity out. Then fear blames those in wealth for its state of being in poverty.
Spiritually, abundance is defined by opportunity--those we make for ourselves and those we find available in a particular geographical area. Peace, order, work ethic are symptoms of Spirit within these areas. Light resists and often keeps the darkness at bay. But where there's a lack of opportunity, or where darkness is working to destroy opportunity zones, that's where fear spreads, and those people spreading it are allowing their fear to destroy themselves and everything and everyone around them.
Fear debilitates a person's drive, like flipping a switch, turning off the energy of work ethic. It makes the work seem impossible that people must do to obtain the knowledge and to create the opportunities to pull themselves up and out of the societal environments built and maintained by fear.
Faith sees the people who daily break free from the mindset that perpetuates impoverished environments. Faith recognizes that poor neighborhoods are creations born from and engines that run on the fuel of fear.
Change the fuel to faith, and the engine's inhabitants will rebuild themselves and, by extension, their environment into an opportunity-rich zone. When the shift is made from F2F, then busy work shifts to productive work; working to just survive shifts to working to thrive.
Fear blames faith for the conditions and events that fear creates and faith has nothing to do with.
Faith doesn't believe, but knows fear is poverty's only culprit and oppressor of the poor.
Faith also knows that fear is the only enemy to those rich with opportunity.
Fear steals and ends up with nothing. Faith gives and ends up everything. But it's in how it gives that makes the difference.
Fear kills and aborts. Faith heals through work, and taking precautions, preparing against unwanted consequences, choosing life and love over death and judgment. It just depends on where we are on the fear-to-faith spectrum that determines how far forward we're able to look before committing to a course of action and how willing we are to take responsibility for what happens.
Fear diligently chips away at meritocracy with the pickax of envy. Fear's mentally, emotionally lazy, resisting change to routine with impatience, frustration and pretend distress, while hating God's inviolable universal law that we reap what we sow. Fear defines equity as: 'I should have what you have without having to do the work you do to have it.' But fear's adherents don't realize that the only place such equity is found is in concentration camps.
The whole world would have to become an equal hellscape of unimaginable terrors for fear's divisive, lazy, hateful ways to achieve their dream of equality for all without working for a living.
We build and maintain our surrounding environments from the inside out. A person of faith can be dropped anywhere in the world and within five-to-ten years build an Eden. A person of fear, allowing fear to imprison them with insecurity and a lack of direction, would: 1) lay down and die, or 2) steal, kill, destroy their way to a prison cell or to being murdered.
Fear is synonymous with "flesh." The Greek word for flesh is 'sarx,' which refers to 'the sinful state of human beings,' as represented by a power in opposition to the Spirit. This "power" is directly experienced by what we call fear and doubt. (Other verses using 'sarx' in this way include: Galatians 5:13,16,17,19 and 24; and 6:8.)
"Flesh" can also be thought of as animal. And "Spirit" can be thought of as who we actually are, that part of God breathed into and possessing the animal vessel. Where the animal is made from the material of the world, the Spirit is an extension of God, made of the kingdom of heaven, which is not a place but a state of being that transcends and encompasses the world.
The flesh and Spirit dichotomy represents choice. This is actually the only place where free will exists. This choice is one between:
1) animal or God;
2) limited or unlimited;
3) bound or free;
4) darkness or light;
5) death or life; and
6) fear or faith.
They're interchangeable. And all choices we make, no matter how seemingly insignificant, are seeds that invest in either flesh or Spirit.
If life was thought of as a scale, the number of seeds we place on one side verses the other determines what our surrounding environment looks like, from the inside out, from the quality of our thoughts and feelings, of our relationships, of the work we do, of the neighborhood we live in.
"You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself' [Leviticus 19:18]. If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other" (Galatians 5:13-15).
Fear argues, the acid of "being right" poured on the glue of love that holds humanity together.
Faith chooses the glue, seeing arguing about anything at the expense of love as ridiculous. Trading love in for "being right" is no different than trading gold in for coal. Faith clearly sees how anything that invests in the erosion of humanity's connection only serves to bring all humans--the right and the wrong--closer to their annihilation.
If I allow fear to disconnect me from my neighbor I shoot myself in the foot.
Imagine: We discover a technology that measures the exact amount of oxygen available on the planet. This technology is also able to determine the amount of oxygen needed to support all terra firma oxygen-breathing life.
Now see a jumbo-tron, like those at sports arenas, set in a major city, displaying these two numbers side by side--earth's current oxygen level and the level needed. Every time a plant or tree is cut down, the jumbo-tron accurately reads the slight loss in oxygen production. If we can, for example, externally see the direct result of us cutting down the rainforest, the oxygen levels lowering closer and closer to the level needed for life, would we stop cutting down the trees?
If we're in SCUBA gear underwater, and an oxygen gage reveals we're almost out of air, will we dive deeper or swim to the surface?
But on our jumbo-tron gage, what if we see the oxygen level lower to the necessary-for-life level and not care? Do we keep going until all of life on the planet starts suffocating?
Love is equated to oxygen. Love's the unseen spiritual substance that connects all of humanity together. Trees are to oxygen what the Spirit is to love. The flesh, as the physical manifestation of fear, is what cuts the Spirit down, lowering love's levels.
As the flesh-based rate at which our collective, world-wide everyday choices rises, the love-based rate falls. The ease or difficulty with which we breathe is then measured by how much effective leadership their is in the world, by how much war and threat of war is present, by how much harm people commit against people, and by how much the Ten Commandments are violated, or the seven deadly sins are committed.
As flesh increases Spirit decreases...in our lives, in the world. Put another way, as fear increases, faith decreases, leading to humanity's suffocation and death.
"For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want" (Galatians 5:17).
Paul then shows what the flesh and Spirit look like.
"The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:19-21).
And what is the "kingdom of God?"
"The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or "There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20-21).
The kingdom of God isn't a place with geographical boundaries. Instead, it's the work of the Spirit in our lives and our relationships to each other. God's kingdom only exists in what is being done in our hearts, as revealed by the fruits of the Spirit.
"By their fruit you will recognize them" (Matthew 7:16,20; Luke 6:44).
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ... Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other" (Galatians 5:22-23, 25-26).
Paul wrote again, this time to Titus, "Remind the people...to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.
"At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another" (Titus 3:1,3).
The way of the flesh is the way of politics. There is no Spirit, no love, no God in arguing, division, one side claiming "right" while calling another side "wrong." Any place where such fruits exist, there is only ego and fear, the idols of self put before the connection and health of the whole.
When we turn on the TV does its daily messaging reflect the way of flesh or Spirit? Of fear or faith? What it messages, it teaches, generation after generation. But due to the nature of tolerance levels, how they become more and more numb to externally-based negative stimulation, the visual depictions that reflect the way of flesh and fear have to become more and more graphic. The darkness has to be made darker to appeal to darkness's insatiable hunger contained within the black-hole of the flesh.
When we look inside at the "TV" of our mind, what type of thoughts does it predominantly think?
When we look at the "TV" of our heart, what type of emotions does it mostly feel?
When we look at the circumstances of our lives, what portion remains from what we were born into and is maintained by the circumstance's culturally adopted ideas, attitudes and beliefs (our thoughts and feelings)?
How much of my surrounding environment results directly from the actions or inactions born from my internal states of being? And how much do the changes that take place within this environment reflect the changes that take place within me?
Most media teaches flesh and fear, the way of the world. And the more people who generationally look to this messaging as their manual for how to think, feel, "live my life," the faster we work toward our collective annihilations. Until then, individually we come to swim in the chaotic seas of emotional turmoil, suffering and teaching our pain as "The way things are" unnecessarily, out of ignorance.
Psalm 107's Theme is: "Thankfulness to God should constantly be on the lips of those whom he has saved."
Where the Theme for Psalm 103 is "What God does for us tells us what he is really like," Psalm 107 demonstrates gratitude for the things from which God saves us. Specifically, Psalm 107 speaks of people in four different types of challenging circumstances and how God rescues them:
1) Wanderers (107:4-9),
2) Prisoners (107:10-16),
3) The Distressed and Sick (107:17-20), and
4) The Storm-Tossed (107:23-30).
In today's time these examples would be called:
1) Homeless, who're poor, thirsty and hungry;
2) Incarcerated;
3) Sick, as a consequence of personal behavior, such as promiscuous and unprotected sex, drug use, harmful dietary practices, etc.; and
4) Work-related challenges.
HOMELESS
Solomon wrote, "the Lord does not let the righteous go hungry," (Proverbs 10:3), and "Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth" (10:4).
Matthew wrote, when differentiating between working for money and working for God, "You cannot serve both God and money" (Matthew 6:24). He's speaking to the deleterious affect of working from the psychological frame of mind of worrying about income over working while confidently assured that all of our needs will be met.
The same sentiment is captured in Steve Jobs' observation, "Do what you love, and the money will follow." When we listen to our Spirit's prompt for the type of work for which God made us in the womb, following that path that'll meet regularly our sense of life purpose, while making a meaningful contribution to society, all our needs will be met. The material gains will just be icing on the cake.
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?" (Matthew 6:25) Here we're being told that life is made better when life is given the primary focus. If we take our eye off of life, narrowing our focus down to just the small individual parts found within life, we do so at the expense of the bigger picture. The body goes to where the mind flows. What we don't focus on we lose sight of.
This would be no different than being given a million dollars and then pulling out of it a couple of pennies and believing that's what's needed to achieve a million dollars. But we already have the million! Yet the world's perspective of fear will keep people blind to the infinite bounty they've been given.
Mark Twain wrote that there are only two important days in our lives: the day we're born and the day we learn why.
If we don't yet know our purpose, then our purpose is to find our purpose. The arrows that point to our purpose reside within us. These arrows are our: values, interest, personality and skills.
The overlaps of these four aspects of our makeup reveal our "Why." Once revealed, then we're called to invest in gaining knowledge in this specific field of study. Once gained, we then invest in the field itself by working in it and adding to its body of knowledge.
Jesus said, "The 'knowledge' of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them" (Matthew 13:11-12).
The "knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven" is the knowledge of "how things work" awakened inside of our hearts and minds as a consequence of spending time in meditative, prayful study. It's learning the mind hacks of faith that allow us to achieve our full potentials as God-created beings. And these "secrets" reveal themselves through the Word and to the world through the work we've been called to do.
This is the same as recognizing that the knowledge people have gained about money management, investing and building a successful company is what's made them financially independent. And such people shouldn't hold it against others who've not yet acquired such knowledge. But too it's a recognition that if others do learn this information, they too will be able to use it to pull themselves out of poverty, giving themselves the ability to likewise help others. But for those who don't learn how to manage their money correctly, whatever they have they will end up losing. And their lack of knowledge about such things will be why they lose everything. Once we learn this, then it's our responsibility to learn what we have to learn and to turn that knowledge into new habits that reflect disciplined responsibility in the life area of money management.
The more knowledge we gain the more knowledge (know how) that'll be given to us. But we can learn what we don't know how to do by doing it, or we can learn by studying the field first, then applying that knowledge, transforming the theoretical (from books) into the practical (from the direct experience of doing the actual work ourselves). Either way, we come to a point where we have to start investing our "Why"--our purpose--into the world.
Our talent tends to serve as our reason for being here. As Jesus said about the man who, before going on a journey, entrusted his wealth to his servants: "To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability: (Matthew 25:15).
One "talent" was worth about 20 years of a day laborer's wage. This means the first man received 100 years worth of wages in one day. The second man, 40-years worth. And the third man, 20-years worth. On this day each one of them learned there "Why" for being born. Now they had to live it. And by doing what they were 'born' to do, they would find that they did what they 'loved' to do. This love translates into earning more than they could have ever earned while doing work that they hated. ("Earning" in this sense means more than just monetary income.)
Hate will never generate the degree of output that love will.
To live one's purpose is to invest it.
But to invest our talents often calls for us to eventually step in faith away from our day laborer's wage. Our day job may provide for one's basic survival needs. But this represents the bottom rung of the abundance ladder. And it's the number one cause of a paycheck-to-paycheck existence. Adherence to a disliked, or even loathed day job is an expression of fear that impersonates "being practical," masquerading as "playing it safe." And rarely does it meet our day-to-day emotional needs, leaving us miserable, growing more so by the year.
Survival jobs that serve no purpose beyond just paying the bills kill many of us from the inside out. They make us view life through the lens of "Life is hard," defining this statement as 'Something I don't want to do, but just put up with for responsibility's sake.' But "playing it safe" is the most irresponsible thing a person can do.
We were all built to extrapolate the unknown from the known, through our respective callings. No one's ever been built to engage themselves in the known.
Failing to invest our talents builds fragility into our lives. The stress makes us more susceptible to anger and disease, threatening relationships and our ability to keep living. The first sign of an emergency wipes us out, leaving us with nothing.
Homelessness is always just one medical emergency or layoff away.
"The man who had received five talents went at once and put his talents to work and gained five more. So also, the one with two talents gained two more. But the man who had received one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid" what he'd been given (Matthew 25:16-18).
As the parable communicates, we'll always make far more from investing our talents--doing what we love--than we'll ever make from playing it safe. By burying our talent within us under the weight of self-imposed chains of limitation, we only earn ourselves excuses and loss of even that which we do have.
For example, when income relies only on our work output, the moment we stop working for any reason--accident, layoff, medical emergency, death--the income stops. From that point, everything that relied on that income for continued existence--house, car, food, etc--goes away.
People who position themselves in this type of existence are represented by the person who buried their talent. (Often our talents are buried beneath a mountain of debt.)
Fear chooses busy surviving. Faith chooses productive thriving. Fear spends. Faith saves.
Those of us who choose faith believe and invest in our talents. We recognize these as God given and use them to make our lives, the lives of others and the world better.
"For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully (Romans 12:4-8).
Our functions take countless forms. But each and every form is a vital piece of the whole of humanity.
"Tell all the skilled workers to whom I have given wisdom in such matters that they are to make garments..." (Exodus 28:3). The tailors who made Aaron's garments were given wisdom by God in order to do their task. They knew their purpose and they lived it.
"And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills--to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts" (Exodus 31:3-5). What if Bezalel chose fear over faith and, not wanting to risk upsetting God and Moses by messing up, shrank back from investing the talents for which he was chosen? (Moses made every excuse he could think of to avoid living his calling, essentially arguing with God. (Exodus 3:10-4:17))
"And he has given both [Bezalel] and Oholiab...the ability to teach others. He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work..." (Exodus 35:24-35). "So Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the Lord has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary..." (Exodus 36:1).
"Huram was filled with wisdom, with understanding and with knowledge to do all kinds of bronze work. He came to King Solomon and did all the work assigned to him" (1 Kings 7:14).
Wisdom is best defined as "knowledge in action." The wisest of us build a life from doing what we love. Such building will never result in homelessness, thirst and hunger.
Passion creates results that provide for us long after we're no longer physically capable of working.
Living a life that's not in alignment with our purpose for being born, is a life that fails to resonate with the immense joy of the Spirit within us. Such a life is no different than being homeless, as a wanderer lost in the wilderness, confused and struggling unnecessarily against the elements of surrounding conditions, avoiding the very purpose that the struggling serves to find. But the moment we commit in our heart to the designation of our purpose, crying out within us for help, God reveals himself through our deliverance.
Our purpose is our home in the body of humanity during our time on earth.
So this reveals the formula, so to speak, for deliverance. It doesn't come if we're only asking for deliverance from the trouble we've created for ourselves, if we have no intention of committing to the path that'll actually pull us out of the trouble and into a joyful, abundant life. (Jonah wasn't spit out of the fish until he agreed to do what he was called to do. (Jonah 2)) Why would God help us out of problems that we'd still be intent on recreating for ourselves with renewed commitment to the very way of living that created those problems in the first place?
As Einstein wrote, "We can't get out of problems using the same thinking that got us into them."
Just by talking about what we really want to do in the world, we quickly experience ideas and meet people and are presented with unexpected opportunities, all specific to the realization of our passion's dreams come true. (These type of experiences are a part of God's nature called 'Hashgacha Peratit,' Hebrew for Divine Providence, which reveal themselves more as our spiritual consciousness expands.)
Our talents point to our calling. And our calling is the place in which our heart settles.
Finding and living our "Why" fills us with an overwhelming sense of belonging. It's our place in the world where we fit and make a meaningful impact. From this we know only gratitude for the gift of living, for the Lord's "unfailing love" (Psalm 107:8).
If we're not feeling joy for being alive, then our talents are being wasted.
In prison I found freedom in the joy of helping people realize their "Why." And for each of those who did, not one has returned to crime or prison for any reason.
INCARCERATED
"But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden" (Genesis 39:20-21).
The commentary points out, as a prisoner and slave, Joseph could have seen his situation as hopeless. Instead, he did his best with each small task given him. His diligence and positive attitude were soon noticed by the warden, who promoted him to prison administrator.
Fear asks "Why me?" interpreting unwanted events as personal attacks. From this perspective, fear seeks excuses to complain and to fill self up with the painful feelings of anger, rage, sadness, hopelessness, impatience, frustration, or apathy and numbness. What type of actions do we think will come from such thinking and feeling? Productive, helpful ones? Or ones that can only make things worse?
When negative mental states are chosen in response to events and circumstances, such internal suffering gets piled on top of the challenging events and circumstances. Complaint, for example, is a great way to dig self deeper into the perceived mire. It's like getting hit twice, once by the event, then again by our response to the event. But this is part of a natural process. Negative attitudes confound things further by turning others against us. It's one thing to be in a harsh situation. It's another to make oneself miserable because of that environment. Then it's a completely different state of affairs to isolate oneself in that environment by chasing people away or burning bridges with rage.
This is how people "awfulize" events, turning one thing (the event) into three things (the event, the negative feelings and the isolation).
But Joseph had faith. He epitomized the maxim, "When life gives you lemons, make lemon aid." Instead of seeing events as happening 'to' him he saw them as happening 'for' him. And so he sought out the opportunities hidden inside the challenge. He looked for and found problems within the prison he could help solve. He minded the details of his work and added value.
Joseph's way of faith stood out like a beacon amid the other prisoner's way of fear.
Light will always stand out in the dark. Even someone committed to the way of darkness and pain looks up at the night sky and sees the stars, whether appreciated or not. (When has anyone looked up and admired the dark spaces in between the stars?)
Whether it's literal incarceration, or places that at times feel imprisoning, such as one's job, home, town or school, the way out of prison has the best chance of presenting itself in response to us:
1) looking for a problem that bothers us (the emotional state of being bothered being it's own sort of sign),
2) committing to finding a way to solving the problem, and
3) taking each task that presents itself, minding the details of doing them to the best of our ability.
My brother and I saw many abuses occurring in the legal system, people being wrongfully convicted or illegally over sentenced. We taught ourselves the law, helping people file their appeals. Over 20 years of doing this resulted in us getting back a total of nearly 2,000 years from the DOJ. We helped people get the sentences for which their crimes actually called and in many cases we secured immediate-release orders. (My brother's primary focus was justice. My primary focus was the people involved, and how my decision to help could effect those in society. So I fought for justice for those who fought for freedom within themselves, those who showed that they were committed to adding value to society and not be released to just cause harm and catch a new criminal case.) Our success rates have everyone coming to us for help.
But legal work is my brother's calling, not mine. Mine's reflected in my Life Mission Statement: "Teacher: Help people break free from personal chains of limitation." This reveals that we can be good at more than one thing, but there's going to be only one thing that consistently, daily meets our emotional needs.
I look at the language of failure and criminality, as once expressed by me, and is still being expressed by those who've not yet been taught a different way to think, feel, speak and act. And I work to solve this problem by providing others the tools that broke me free within myself from the chains that limited me. I rarely meet anyone who doesn't respond positively to the information. They realize that it's what they've always been looking for. And I've been blessed to see hundreds of people over the years self actualize, be released back to society and make incredible positive impacts in their respective communities.
I invested what was invested into me, garnering a return. And the return--people's lives saved--helps me invest more, toward more lives saved.
We invest the minutes of our lives as if they're gold coins, instead of trading time in for hours each day watching others live their dreams on TV or hand-held devices. By making such a trade even overwhelming odds will be reversed in our favor.
The anonymous author of Psalm 107 wrote that those in prison "cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress" (107:13). These prisoners were actual criminals. They rebelled against God's commands and despised the plans of the Most High (107:11), which are euphemisms for people who, instead of investing their talents, stole, killed and destroyed, or, like Jonah, ran from the plan for which they were born.
The only way they cried out and were saved is if they:
1) took responsibility for their past actions,
2) looked for opportunities to put remorse into action, being of service to others in prison, and
3) committed to doing good work in freedom, to follow the path of their passion, solving the problems that speak loudest to their Spirit.
They built a reputation as being reliable. They earned back the trust they had hurt, doing whatever it took for as long as it took to prove the integrity they built from the source material of remorse.
Many people say they have faith, but live according to the world's dictates of fear. Paul wrote, "Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering" (Hebrews 13:3). If people in society truly knew what happens in the prison system; what their nearly $100 billion dollars worth of taxes pay for, they'd know that "those in prison" are not remembered, and no one (who's making a difference) is putting themselves in with them. Society would demand a complete overhaul of the entire system, or a refund of the taxes they paid.
Crime is a symptom of internal suffering. Yes, it expresses itself as arrogance and selfishness. But these are the masks worn by insecurity and a lack of purpose. All four states--insecurity, lacking purpose, arrogance and selfishness--represent the suffering of the lost and misguided. Suffering that can be healed with compassionate mentorship, if only such was built into the culture.
Then of course there are the innocent who've been wrongly accused, or politically kidnapped, like Joseph (mentioned above) or Mandela (in Africa), or those who've been serving decades solely because of the color of their skin.
Jesus said that when we visit those in prison, we're visiting Jesus himself. (Matthew 25:36)
To "remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison" is empathy. To visit them in person is compassion, which is empathy empowered to action.
I am one of the "Some" who "sat in darkness," a prisoner who's suffered "in iron chains" (107:10), because of my rebellion. Soon following my arrest, I fell to my knees in torment for the harm I caused others. I sought not freedom but forgiveness, wanting to return home to God's love. The way of the world proved to be only the way of pain--the way of manufacturing it in self and then pouring it out onto others. In crying out, two exemplars of faith, strangers, reached out to me, asking if they could visit. God answered my heart's cry with their arrival. And their compassionate mentorship revolutionized my life.
I've been trying to pay their example forward ever since.
I've never wanted to be given freedom, but only to earn it. I broke the social contract, badly hurting society's trust. By giving my life to God I gave it in service to the people. And I've been working in that service, according to the calling placed on my heart, for 23 years. In this time the people's representatives have said that I've earned some of their trust back. Faith in action changed my circumstances for the better, bringing me favor with prison officials and the court.
Sowing seeds of faith grows change into our lives, giving us opportunity to sow even more seeds of faith.
And, as the psalmist writes, I too give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for mankind. The active, contributing way of faith breaks down "gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron" (107:16).
If someone imprisoned desires freedom, then their desire must be action oriented--actions being the seeds of faith--toward helping set those likewise imprisoned free. But only when people are free on the inside are they then able to remain free on the outside. I've watched God do both, many times. And in witnessing the light come on in people, seeing their realization of the Way; seeing their transition from F2F, I then help them achieve early release.
If we don't give it, then that means we don't want it, whatever "it" may be. "It" could be friendship, money, love, healing, freedom, knowledge...the list goes on and on. "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you..." (Matthew 7:12). Giving what you want says that you already have it. And that faith moves you into new positions and it moves mountains to bring more of what your giving to you, so that you have more to give.
SICK
The Lord said, "If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you" (Exodus 15:26).
Understanding God as "The way things work," we realize that the Lord isn't a person with "eyes" like those we have. As the underlying force from which nature exists and in which works, our eyes are God's eyes.
Biblically God has three names:
1) Elokim, which translates as the Divine Force in nature. This name is plural, representing the One within the many. Genesis's account of Creation uses this name as the Divine Attribute of the creative process;
2) Hashem, which means the infinite, transcendent unity beyond nature; and
3) Ani, or Anochi, which means I Am, essence, beyond beyond, within within, beyond within, within beyond.
Exodus 6:2-3 says, "God also said to Moses, "I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself fully known to them."
In verse two, in the original Hebrew, God communicates to Moses that He is Ani, Elokim and Hashem.
Elokim is telling Moses that there is only One (Hashem), and that One is the Ultimate 'I AM' of Ani.
As Rabbi Dovber Pinson explains, when translating the Hebrew:
"Elokim is connected with nature, creation, multiplicity, and time-space consciousness. In [Genesis] it is Elokim who creates the heavens and the Earth. ... Elokim is associated with the attribute of 'din,' judgement. This quality manifests within the Laws of Nature such as gravity and the cycles of life. Natural Laws are universal, indifferent, and unapproachable by humans seeking respite from their [(nature's)] tyranny. If you touch fire, you get burned. If you are underwater too long, you drown. Elokim is plural indicating that it is through the creative process that multiplicity, as experienced in nature, is brought into reality. Elokim is the Divine Immanent, the aspect of the One that is always present within the many.
"Hashem represents the Infinite aspect of God that is beyond nature. The four letters that comprise this Name, when rearranged, can spell the Hebrew words for past, present, and future, indicating that this name transcends all concepts of time. Hashem is associated with the attribute of Mercy. It is to Hashem that one directs their prayers for healing, salvation, help, or miraculous intervention. Hashem is understood as the Infinite aspect of God, but also paradoxically represents an approachable aspect of infinity. If nature is cold and indifferent to suffering, Hashem is personal and compassionate.
"Ani, the third reality, is the 'I am' of God, so to speak. This is the unity between Elokim and Hashem, between nature and miracle, between time and eternity, between me and You--leaving only us, only One, only I, Ani. Not much can be said about Ani. It is to Ani that the psalmist directs the words 'To You silence is praise.' No description is sufficient because any attempt to describe Ani, even just saying Infinity, is, by definition, a limitation.
"Ultimately, Ani is the equanimous backdrop, or fertile ground of being, upon which the dynamic interplay between Elokim (Nature) and Hashem (Spirit) manifests as reality, dream, existence or illusion--depending upon your perspective. But the main point is that Ani is both beyond and within all Names or Attributes. Ani is transcendent as well as immanent, and also neither." (From "The Garden of Paradox.")
The way of the world, of fear, shifts us into Elokim, the aspect of God represented by the cold indifference of Nature.
In Psalm 107, the homeless, imprisoned and sick achieved these results as the natural consequences of living in fear, according to the ways of the world. This fear calls God's instructions as too burdensome, because it means not engaging in the dramatic behaviors that cause temporary sensual pleasures and feed the ego. Fear defines such pleasure as "life," and thinks of any direction to avoid such as a call to not truly live.
But God's only pointing out that if we touch fire, we'll be burned. Just because it glows beautifully doesn't mean we should touch it. If we step off of the rooftop, we'll fall. Just because the view is amazing doesn't mean we're to step into it. The principle is: Just because we can do something doesn't mean we should. As the General from the Art of War, Sun Zu, said: First, count the cost.
The cost can be a habit the behavior may set, or the precedent established.
But this principle extends further. It reveals that, for example, if we put our faith in institutions to provide our superficial wants, we open ourselves to the shifting political or monetary concerns of other people. We open ourselves up to be manipulated and used by others who want to benefit themselves at our expense. This is no different than building one's house on shifting sands.
Not to mention, the consequences of indulging in the things that people in the world call "living" are far worse than the consequences of living faith as expressed by faith's ideas, attitudes, beliefs, and by faith's words and actions.
This doesn't mean we don't have fun. (Only fear can't fathom what "fun" looks like outside of harmful behaviors.) It just means that faith's fun is very different than fear's fun. How? As determined by the long-term side effects. Fear fun results in poverty, sickness, homelessness, joblessness, loneliness, addiction, greater vulnerability to being assaulted, car wrecks, drowning.... It also results in cynicism, pessimism, untrustworthiness, hopelessness...the list goes on.
Such fear often presents itself as the fear of missing out on what those in the world culture find "fun," which, in its many known forms create more and more instances of unnecessary failure. And then what? Blame God for the failure? If so we're only blaming the nature of how things work. This would be no different than blaming gravity for falling when we step off of the roof. Flesh (fear) operates in the same realm of cause and effect.
But Spirit transcends cause and effect.
When people say that they don't believe in God, I ask them to tell me about the God that they don't believe in, because I guarantee that I don't believe in that God either. Then they usually say something about all the bad things that happen to people in the world. But those things are caused by people who live according to fear. (Many things happen to people because, from a position of fear, they fail to do their due diligence before making big choices. They don't think through the steps. In such instances people are confusing "super optimism" with "having faith." But "super optimism" is ego's misrepresentation of faith. Real faith minds the details. It's patient, taking the extra time to dot the "i's" and cross the "t's." It insists on doing things right, even if that means it takes longer to get all of one's ducks in a row before starting.) So what the unbelievers are actually saying is that they don't believe in fear, because fear is the only thing operating within the Elokim realm of creating all the bad things in the world.
To not believe in God because of people's short fallings is no different than asking that the laws of the universe be violated every single day; for physics to cater to the arbitrary whims of every single person at the same time. It's like wanting life to be a video game, expecting us all to have the cheat codes to give everyone infinite lives or invincibility shields. People should walk on water, fly, live forever, never fail. People should be made to never cause harm to anyone else in any way, purposed or not.
People who say they don't believe in God are people who chose to interpret some past event in their lives in the worse possible way. They blame God for whatever happened to them, having not learned the powerful lesson of taking responsibility for the events that occur in life; even if--especially if--the event wasn't their fault. Then unbelief morphs into ego's gas-lighting, which says things like, "I want to live life on my terms," which is impossible. Nature can't be escaped.
The irony is, physics, Elokim, actually does cater to everyone's whims. We use our God-given power to create in the world according to our faith or our fear. This is another thing that can't be escaped: Thoughts lead to emotion. Thoughts and emotions together color perspective. Perspective and the decisions born out of it determine what events are going to predominately occur in our lives. And it determines the environmental life conditions we find ourselves living in. Whether we want this to be true or not.
It's just right now we're still children learning. As we come to understand the difference between faith and fear, we come to grow up. Over time we get better at creating from faith, realizing its superiority. Then the things that people use as reasons to be mad at God fall away.
But the maturation process is hindered by the amount of fear that's advertised through media and television, teaching its examples to the young. Most of them aren't being taught anything else by anyone else.
In other aspects of our life, if we eat a diet predominated by junk food, or intake more calories than we burn, and fail to exercise, we become obese. Our health falters, as it does with not getting adequate sleep, water, or calming moments of peace.
What about sex? Elokim, as the Law of Nature; as "How Things Work," says 'Pleasure from sex is given so that we'll be motivated to reproduce with our spouse. Reproduction is the primary purpose of sex, any and everything else being a secondary consideration.' Though sex serves to build and maintain the bridge of connection between a married couple, the two becoming one, as we become one with God, sex is an action that says "I want to reproduce," whether we want to accept this or not.
Spiritually, to have sex with someone is to marry them. The two become one.
The rules, regulations governing this is Elokim's expression of how things work. Doctors today mirror God's "rules," e.g. minimize the number of sexual partners. Why? To protect against STD's. But fear says "Don't miss out on anything. Have as much sex as possible." Fear sees sex as a cure for loneliness. It's thought of as free fun. But no action is free. All actions are seeds sown. And superficial connections don't align with our true, underlying nature. The act produces psychological and emotional changes that find superficiality confusing and painful. And in order to counteract these states we have to harden the heart, resulting in the promise of a deeper connection feeling like a threat.
Why? Because going deeper demands a shift from F2F. And fear will make the afraid very scared of letting go of the illusion of control that fear creates. (Only faith reveals how we're in control.) But the afraid won't be nearly as scared of an "unwanted" pregnancy or STD, despite the act of sex being a statement that says "I want to reproduce" or "risk catching something." They're far more afraid of a meaningful, long-term commitment to one person. Why? Who taught us to view the world with eyes that say 'If things don't work out, or if someone let's us down, then this should make us feel terrible inside. And we should avoid terrible emotions at all cost.' Who said we don't have a choice in how we interpret events? The maturation process from fear to faith reveals that if we're let down that's just part of life. We learn and move on.
In faith, the external doesn't control the internal. Only our choice of what to think and feel does.
Likewise, the afraid fear being without junk food more than being sick. They fear missing TV shows more than exercising or improving life conditions. They fear being without their vices more than the vices' inevitable negative consequences. The afraid define control as being able to gamble life away.
The "fools" through their rebellious ways" (107:17) were those who didn't understand Elokim, the natural way things work. Consequently, they misaligned themselves with who and what they are, suffering "affliction because of their iniquities."
But only when the natural consequences of their behavior compounded to the point that the cost outweighed the perceived benefit did they then realize their error. Fear says, 'The things that happen to other people when they behave the way I behave won't happen to me because it's never happened to me before.' (Fear loves to use the "it's never happened to me before" justification to do about anything. But it's the number-one cause for most of the woes that we humans experience in our lives.)
So the afraid drink and drive until they kill a family. They care more about a text on their phone while driving than they do about their life and the lives of anyone else, actions speaking louder than words, intent and sentiment.
Now overwhelmed, realizing all the warnings equally applied to them as they did to everyone else, "Then they cried to [Hashem (Spirit)] in their trouble, and [proving themselves committed to the way of faith] He saved them from their distress. He sent out his word and healed them; He rescued them from the grave" (107:19-20).
But have we? Have life conditions become difficult enough for us to actually question our life choices? Have we taken responsibility? Or do we still deny fault, blaming the world and God for providing options to choose from that result in us inviting trauma into our lives? (If we're still able to blame others for anything, then life's not yet become difficult enough for us. But no worries. For as long as the willingness to blame resides within us, that willingness will make sure that our life achieves the proper level of overwhelming misery that'll help us shift from blame to responsibility. Then we break free. We learn how to become infinite, co-creating with God, changing the condition of our lives and the lives of many others.)
We change poverty into prosperity by learning and providing the tools for renewing the mind.
Faith, as a shifted-to state of being, values life too much to bet its peace and opportunities for abundance on rolls of the dice. Faith lives responsibly. Before sex, it asks: Will this risk the loss of my marriage and family, the loss of my health, or a pregnancy I'm not ready for?
Will starting to drink risk alcoholism, personal vulnerability, or driving drunk?
Will drugs lead to addiction, DUI, or arrests?
If the answer to these questions is 'Yes,' then faith isn't going to invite the unnecessary risk into one's life.
Vices have side effects. Faith considers these, like a chess player who considers the consequences of moving the King.
WORK-RELATED CHALLENGES
All work comes with challenge. It's why it's called "work." But there's truth to the quotes, "When your vocation is your vacation, then you've found success"; and, "When you love what you do you never work a day in your life." But effort is always involved. Change demands it--change of self, like learning something new, and change of the environment, like putting a book, product or business into the world that didn't exist before. (To put something into the world, everything in the universe has to shift to make room for it. And the universe has built into it a system of making sure that we're committed to what we're building by making it not easy to just move the universe out of the way.)
Passion is a big part of finding one's purpose. "Passion" comes from the Greek word 'pentho,' meaning 'to experience a painful sensation,' of an emotional nature. "Passion" is defined as a strong feeling; a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object or concept. To be 'passionate' is synonymous with being 'enthusiastic.'
When we're passionate about something we're doing in life, it meets a deep-seated emotional need within us. That need is always connected to an envisioned goal that screams within us, compelling us to make it into reality.
Passion is an emotional pain that motivates. Faith knows such pain as an enjoyable part of personal growth and progress toward the achievement of an envisioned goal.
Passion is a storm of peace.
Fear, on the other hand, locks people into work that fails to meet their primary emotional needs. Unless their most important 'end' values are security and safety, and money is the sole 'means' value believed to make them feel safe and secure, then money as a primary driver will garner only misery. Why? Because money will fail to achieve any sense of life satisfaction.
Jesus had passion. No amount of suffering and emotional turmoil would keep him from accomplishing the goal for which He came to earth. Carpentry served its purpose for its time. It would have provided job security. But it would not have met his emotional needs. Jesus had to make a career shift from safe to faith in order to live his purpose for being here.
So do we.
Also the disciples had passion. Their work was more important than any amount of hardship or setback suffered. Their goals more important than any temporal world interests. In fact they celebrated the pushback encountered and the lack of interest in the things the world found of interest. The disciples recognized the world's resistance and their own ability to put first things first as internal progress toward the goal of expanding the light into the dark.
One of the main signs that a career choice is one's purpose is, when we encounter challenge, frustration or setbacks as part of the work we do, these make us feel more excited and motivated to acquire the lessons presented in these events and use the new information gleaned to jump forward with greater effort.
But suffering emotional turmoil from doing a job that fails to meet our values creates a storm of misery within us that depresses faith, tempting us to sink down into fear and dampening our light, life and love. We're demotivated when we fail to gain any meaningful results from suffering , leading us to do the bare minimum at work, in our relationships, and in our life pursuits.
Like with the "merchants on the mighty waters," (107:23), experiencing the ups and downs of the sea's waves, "in their peril their courage melted away" (107:26). The worst thing they could have done was lose faith, the only thing that would rescue them. But when the fear became unbearable, when "they were at their wits end," "they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress" (107:27-28).
If what we're doing for a living, or if the relationships we're in, cause extreme emotional swings, lifting us to only crash us down, are we passionate about what we're doing, or about whom we're with, or are we afraid?
Does the chaos serve us, carrying us forward toward an achievable goal, or does it keep us trapped in a stagnated state that promises only loss and setbacks with no chance of life getting any better?
The sea merchants represent the only group of "some," out of the four groups, who allowed external conditions to change their internal state. The three other groups of "some" created the external life conditions in which they trapped themselves from their internal states. The homeless, the prisoners and the sick all became so by choosing to live a life according to the dictates of fear instead of according the natural flow of a life inspired by faith. The afraid fight with egotism against having the best that life has to offer in order to settle for the "best" that fear has to offer. This equates to trading a feast on the table for crumbs on the floor.
But whether problems are caused from the inside out, or from the outside in, shifting us from fear to faith, or faith to fear, it all occurs in 'ani,' "I am." We're never outside of or invisible to this all-encompassing, unifying aspect of God. The moment we shift focus from nature (Elokim) to Spirit (Hashem), inside 'Ani,' through Christ, Hashem hears us and His unfailing love and wonderful deeds are made known to us.
So, in closing, let's awaken this love in us through our deeds for those we hear cry out in fear and pain, helping:
1) house the homeless,
2) provide means for the hungry and thirsty to feed themselves (while feeding them until they get to that point),
3) by visiting and mentoring those in prison,
4) by visiting and providing means of healing to the sick, or
5) inspire those living their purpose to not lose courage, to believe in the vision placed on their heart and help guide "them to their desired haven."