Blog 2097 – 06.22.2021

Looking Forward

I have been cautioned and caution others that two of the best ways to miss out on the present are to spend too much time looking back or looking forward. Having said that, both of those things in limited doses can enhance our enjoyment of now. George Santayana said, “They who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it.” And it is also true that if you have no destination in mind that you will not know if and when you have arrived. We more often than we realize create our tomorrows by the thoughts we entertain today.

Yesterday’s blog was a tongue in cheek fun piece not intended to offend, but to encourage us to take responsibility for our own happiness. A friend recently quoted me as having said, “We all have our own favorite drug.” I do not remember saying those exact words, but it sounds like me. We do all have a certain weaknesses and a preferred addiction to something that we believe fortifies us, soothes us, and eases our pain. For many alcohol is their drug of choice. It is statistically the one drug that causes the most death and destruction, mental illness, homelessness, and so many other problems around the word. It’s lure and promise of “good times” has many young people addicted years before they can legally buy it themselves. The list of addictive drugs is long and ever growing. Comfort food is on that list as well and for many of us the more access we have to comfort food the more we consume till we suffer other life limiting and shortening problems along with our addiction. But these drugs are the more obvious ones, to me the most deadly and destructive drugs are those beliefs that we continue to hold on to that are no longer serving us, these we should have chucked long ago, but still we continue to enshrine them on the thrones of our hearts and minds.

Like the old cigarette commercial we would rather fight than switch. In the advertising game they call that branding. On a Father’s Day Phone call with my son on Sunday as is our custom when we have those rare opportunities to talk at length we touched on many subject. One was the strange religious beliefs some people have like snake handling. Some people actually believe that picking up snakes is a way to prove that they God’s chosen people. The God I believe in chooses to love every person, each and everyone of His/Her children, in fact all that He/She has created and continues to create, “World without end, Amen.”

Doubt about Who and Whose we are is the biggest problem we ever have to face and no drug can relieve the lost feeling of that untenable position. “l Can’t” is the greatest false belief and the hardest to let go completely of despite assurances such as. “I can do all things through the the knowledge of the anointing that reinforces me.”

The very idea of God is a drug to some, a crutch. It is so easy to set up a false god or fixate on one aspect or element of the divine, Aye Men and Aye Women, Awe Man and Awe Woman. Many think they have found “the answer”, “the cure all”, “the be all”, “the end all”, “the good stuff”, “the one and only true religion.” I am reminded me of a line in a mid-nineteen seventies Christian song that says, “Till you find Him in the mirror, you’ve got a long way to go.” Whether we look backward, or forward, of at this present moment we can if we open our hearts, minds, arms, hands, mouth, ears, and eyes, see all the Universe has for us.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OBCchFH6AVk55iiiOP5ZRJErTMINrJZn/view?usp=drivesdk

The Greatest Love Of All