Mind Games
Have you ever read about Mind Games? If not you can also catch some clips on youtube that show how the eyes can see something yet the reality is that what is seen is not what is perceived. I have watched and read about several of these things and I will admit time after time what I thought I saw was not correct. It makes me wonder how the mind can be so easily fooled. I bet you wonder that too, don't you.
Mind games are applicable in everyday life. There are times we are fooled into believing something that turns out not to be true at all. Often it leaves us feeling like a total idiot or at least embarrassed for thinking something was what it wasn't. This can be the case for many things such as love, relationships, opportunities, faith, work, or even missed calls in a sporting event. Just about every facet of life is susceptible to having your mind play a trick on you. Some mind games can be subjective too, consider something as simple as running through a yellow light yet the police officer says it already turned red. Or a friend sharing a story with you that you later recount to someone else, thinking you are sharing it accurately yet to your first friend you changed some key details.
Let's look at the case for us as it relates to love, faith, and relationships. Love is without a doubt the thinnest rope known to mankind as well as the thickest. It is one of those things that is never fully appreciated until loss or fear of loss comes into the picture. But even before that the old term love is blind becomes applicable. For love to be a love that endures and grows there must be more than what I will call a mono effect. It takes two to tango and it takes two or more to love. We were made to be social communal creatures hence that is where love and relationships grow and at times go.
In this same game love can easily be mistaken for something it isn't. When two parties are involved and one has a different agenda than the other it can be blamed as a mind game. Often the truth is the clarity of feelings was blinded by the so called love of another. This can cause serious pain and confusion when the so called truth is revealed. One person saw it one way yet the other saw it completely different. Which was right, which was wrong.
This can also be huge in our faith and spiritual development. We spend months, years, or a lifetime following and practicing a truth we firmly believed in only to discover it wasn't what we thought it was, or was it. See the mind game coming into play again. I think of Christ in the 6th chapter of John's Gospel when he describes the bread as being his body. That truth must have been a mind game to some of his followers because it was very difficult to believe. As the people close to him started drifting away he asked his disciples if they too would be leaving. Peter said to him, "master where would we go, you have the words of eternal life". As you can see some saw it one way while others saw it another. Not sure how I would have viewed the bread as his body if I had been there.
I am not writing this in the hopes you will question everything you see and every feeling you have. I am actually writing this in the hopes you will trust what you see and what you feel. It is in the development of our trust of humanity that we can grow in our ability to love. One bad apple does not spoil the whole bunch, nor does one wrong decision, or one missed chance.
Even though you will be faced with feelings in life that do not turn out the way you hoped, I can assure you that there will be a grace disguised in what looked like one thing but turned out to be another. God surely knows much more than we. In our stubborn silly human nature as we walk the tight ropes of life on our high horse thinking we know more than we know it is God who is making light for the road ahead. As we are broken down from our selfish, have it all, know it all attitude God always awaits us with love, forgiveness, and acceptance. It is the perfect model and it is not a mind game. Love can spin us around in circles, toss us high in the air, and knock us hard to the ground but through it all our little shack in the woods is filled with the fire of a God that loves no matter what.
I want to end with the love of faith and spirituality. God placed in each of us the gift of The Holy Spirit. That gift can be watered and fed by our actions as well as the actions of others. There will be times in life that you will be so bitter with God that you want to spit out The Spirit that dwells in you. There will be other times that the fire for life and God will be burning so hot you just have to share it with others. It is the balance of the two that will make your spiritual being find the love that truly does exist. Faith and spirituality can also be found in church but with that so can judgement. Your church life should be there to develop a faith of love and forgiveness. If you see the spiritual growth developing any other way I can tell you that the devil is playing mind games with you. Christ taught a message of love, turn the other cheek, give your tunic to those in need, forgive those that have harmed you, and seek those that are lost. That is the message that was intended to be delivered by our spiritual leaders.
Life may be a mind game at times but the true model of Christianity is not. Do not follow a message that condemns follow one that lifts up with love. Peace is the answer and it does exist somewhere in the heart and soul of everyone. It takes each of us doing our part to accept that it is there. Every now and then when one of those silly life mind games pops up just brush it aside and find the message and grace that is possibly being delivered.
peace be with you
Dale
Mind games are applicable in everyday life. There are times we are fooled into believing something that turns out not to be true at all. Often it leaves us feeling like a total idiot or at least embarrassed for thinking something was what it wasn't. This can be the case for many things such as love, relationships, opportunities, faith, work, or even missed calls in a sporting event. Just about every facet of life is susceptible to having your mind play a trick on you. Some mind games can be subjective too, consider something as simple as running through a yellow light yet the police officer says it already turned red. Or a friend sharing a story with you that you later recount to someone else, thinking you are sharing it accurately yet to your first friend you changed some key details.
Let's look at the case for us as it relates to love, faith, and relationships. Love is without a doubt the thinnest rope known to mankind as well as the thickest. It is one of those things that is never fully appreciated until loss or fear of loss comes into the picture. But even before that the old term love is blind becomes applicable. For love to be a love that endures and grows there must be more than what I will call a mono effect. It takes two to tango and it takes two or more to love. We were made to be social communal creatures hence that is where love and relationships grow and at times go.
In this same game love can easily be mistaken for something it isn't. When two parties are involved and one has a different agenda than the other it can be blamed as a mind game. Often the truth is the clarity of feelings was blinded by the so called love of another. This can cause serious pain and confusion when the so called truth is revealed. One person saw it one way yet the other saw it completely different. Which was right, which was wrong.
This can also be huge in our faith and spiritual development. We spend months, years, or a lifetime following and practicing a truth we firmly believed in only to discover it wasn't what we thought it was, or was it. See the mind game coming into play again. I think of Christ in the 6th chapter of John's Gospel when he describes the bread as being his body. That truth must have been a mind game to some of his followers because it was very difficult to believe. As the people close to him started drifting away he asked his disciples if they too would be leaving. Peter said to him, "master where would we go, you have the words of eternal life". As you can see some saw it one way while others saw it another. Not sure how I would have viewed the bread as his body if I had been there.
I am not writing this in the hopes you will question everything you see and every feeling you have. I am actually writing this in the hopes you will trust what you see and what you feel. It is in the development of our trust of humanity that we can grow in our ability to love. One bad apple does not spoil the whole bunch, nor does one wrong decision, or one missed chance.
Even though you will be faced with feelings in life that do not turn out the way you hoped, I can assure you that there will be a grace disguised in what looked like one thing but turned out to be another. God surely knows much more than we. In our stubborn silly human nature as we walk the tight ropes of life on our high horse thinking we know more than we know it is God who is making light for the road ahead. As we are broken down from our selfish, have it all, know it all attitude God always awaits us with love, forgiveness, and acceptance. It is the perfect model and it is not a mind game. Love can spin us around in circles, toss us high in the air, and knock us hard to the ground but through it all our little shack in the woods is filled with the fire of a God that loves no matter what.
I want to end with the love of faith and spirituality. God placed in each of us the gift of The Holy Spirit. That gift can be watered and fed by our actions as well as the actions of others. There will be times in life that you will be so bitter with God that you want to spit out The Spirit that dwells in you. There will be other times that the fire for life and God will be burning so hot you just have to share it with others. It is the balance of the two that will make your spiritual being find the love that truly does exist. Faith and spirituality can also be found in church but with that so can judgement. Your church life should be there to develop a faith of love and forgiveness. If you see the spiritual growth developing any other way I can tell you that the devil is playing mind games with you. Christ taught a message of love, turn the other cheek, give your tunic to those in need, forgive those that have harmed you, and seek those that are lost. That is the message that was intended to be delivered by our spiritual leaders.
Life may be a mind game at times but the true model of Christianity is not. Do not follow a message that condemns follow one that lifts up with love. Peace is the answer and it does exist somewhere in the heart and soul of everyone. It takes each of us doing our part to accept that it is there. Every now and then when one of those silly life mind games pops up just brush it aside and find the message and grace that is possibly being delivered.
peace be with you
Dale
Comments