But humans! They are more complicated. If things are not going as they want they complain. And if they can’t complain outwardly they do it inwardly. They make themselves miserable. “This is not what I expected.” “How can he/she do this to me?” “Why does this happen to me?” And so it goes on.
Recently I was introduced to the work of Eckhart Tolle and I would recommend anyone who does not know him and has an hour to spare and a computer to hand to “google” him. His message is simple but a challenge to live. I hope I do not distort him but I understand him to be encouraging us to separate the thoughts which flow through our minds from the consciousness of self that we have. We identify with the former but it is the latter that is the only reality.
I am alive here and now, sitting on this chair, focusing my thoughts on what I want to say to you. I am sifting my thoughts, rejecting those that hinder what I feel I want to say and welcoming and developing those that I feel are relevant to my purpose. A dog can’t do that. He (or she) can’t sift out the good and bad. The dog just hopes for the best.
My power of sifting carries a cost. Sifting means I choose what is best. But I don’t just do it in my thoughts. I have to live by the choices I make, otherwise they are a waste of time. They change nothing.
In this time of Easter we see the Jews having a hard time sifting the message of the apostles. On the whole they decide against them just as they had decided against Jesus. They found it difficult to “listen” with their minds and hearts (John 10:27. Luke tells us that “jealousy” (Acts 13:45) got in the way. They were not looking at the message itself.
They were in a default mode of seeing how the message would impact on their own status in the society. They got scared of what they saw and so they did everything to prevent the message getting through.
The Jews serve a wonderful purpose in the scriptures because they are really you and me. What they think and do is just like we so often find ourselves thinking and doing, It would be quite sterile to think ‘if I were in their shoes and heard Jesus or the apostles speak I would have acted differently.’ Would I? How can I be so sure? To listen to Tolle is to become aware how trapped I am in my un-freedom.
Post published in: Opinions & Analysis