Meditate | Me, My-self, and My-Self

“Human self-hood is nothing but evil; presented in visual form it is extremely ugly. But when infused by the Lord with charitable love and innocence, it appears virtuous and lovely.

Love for our fellow humans and innocence are what excuse self-centeredness, or a person’s evil and falsity. Not only do they excuse it, they almost eliminate it, as anyone can see in young children. When toddlers show love to each other and to their parents while glowing with childish innocence, what is actually evil and false in them does not seem so and even gives pleasure. This shows that no one can be let into heaven without some innocence” (Secrets of Heaven 164).

So, we are nothing but self-interest. Self-centeredness is what our ‘self’ or outer being consists of, whereas the Lord possesses the will, our true will, in our inner being (see Secrets of Heaven 105). This sense of self really makes for such a dangerous dynamic in our lives. Our self-hood is at once our damnation and the very vehicle through which we come into heavenly marriage with the Lord. This to me is a very powerful example of the amazing feats the Lord’s divine love and wisdom are capable of. 

Why I Believe in Organized Religion

Derrick observes that many people are drawn to spirituality, yet repelled by religious organizations. While admitting his fundamental bias, he argues for organized religion and asserts that both the individual and the community have something to gain from engaging with each other fully. -Editor

"I am athletic, but not sporty."

"So you don't like group sports, but do you run?"

"No, running is too boring."

"So, do you swim or surf?"

"No, I don't like the water—I always feel like Jaws is going to chomp me from underneath."

"So, then you train at the gym."

"No, I bought a membership but never went, so I dropped my membership."

"So, is there anything you do?"

"No, I am just athletic."

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Meditate | Trusting the Word

“And Jehovah God commanded the human concerning it, saying, ‘From every tree of the garden you are definitely to eat’” (Genesis 2:16).

“To eat from every tree is to depend on perception in order to know and recognize what is good and true; a tree is perception” (Secrets of Heaven 125).

“If we do not rely on the world for our wisdom, on the other hand, but on the Lord, we tell ourselves at heart to believe in the Lord, that is, in all that the Lord has said in the Word, because those are reliable truths. This is the principle in which we base our thinking. We use rational argument, factual knowledge, sensory evidence, and physical phenomena in confirmation, but whatever fails to confirm the Word we put aside” (Secrets of Heaven 128).

Definitely eat of every tree in the garden; depend on perception from the Lord to know and recognize what is good and true. For me I read, “TRUST;” trust the perception I get from the Word.

In Secrets of Heaven 128 it teaches that we should use worldly knowledge to confirm perception and not the other way around; and if something doesn’t confirm our perception, to put it aside. So often when I read the Word, the loving, true ideas in it directly oppose false ideas I’ve been holding onto (…go figure). It’s almost laughable how hard it is to cast these false ideas aside and let myself believe something more loving and promising of my eternal happiness: like the simple message that I don’t need to worry! The Lord’s thoughts are not my thoughts. I want to trust the Lord’s thoughts, which are available in the Word. So I’ll work on trusting for now and maybe eventually my trust will turn into a continual reliance on what I hear the Lord telling me through the Word. 

Using an Annoying Game to Deal With Annoying Thought Patterns

Malcolm throws a wrench into the gears of the ever calculating, meritorious self-machine. In so doing, he experiences moments of sincere love. Below, his strategy is revealed. - Editor

The Game

Have you heard of “The Game”? According to Wikipedia, there are 3 rules:

1. Everyone in the world is playing The Game. (Sometimes narrowed to: “Everybody in the world who knows about The Game is playing The Game”, or alternatively, “You are always playing The Game.”) You cannot not play The Game; it does not require consent to play and you can never stop playing.
2. Whenever one thinks about The Game, one loses.
3. Losses must be announced to at least one person (either by using a statement such as “I Lost The Game” or by alternative means).

I played this for a little while in college and soon tired of it and stopped playing. Some might say that that’s not possible; nevertheless I accomplished it. I was not able, however, to stop people around me playing it. Most meals at the dining hall were punctuated by someone joyfully exclaiming, “I lost!” followed by a chorus of other “I lost”s.

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Meditate | My Dear Self-Interest

“The tree of lives is love and the faith it leads to; in the middle of the garden means in the will that belongs to the inner self.

The main thing the Lord possesses in a person or angel is the will, which the Word refers to as the heart. Since none of us can do good on our own, our will or heart is not ours, even though it is described as ours. What is truly our own is self-interest, which we call our will.

Because the will is in the middle of the garden, in which stands the tree of lives, and we have no will aside from self-interest, this tree is the Lord’s mercy, the source of all love and faith and so of all life” (Secrets of Heaven 105).

I remember vividly a number of years ago waking up in the morning from sleep with the phrase, “there is love in your heart,” reverberating through my mind. It felt like a huge awakening. Acknowledging this phrase as true meant trusting the Lord to supply love to me in or through my heart. Reading this passage takes me to the next level—the Lord IS my heart! It’s not my heart at all; the only thing that is my own is self-interest! Contemplating this in meditation, my heart feels like it is a glowing red, vibrant center giving light, warmth, and life to the rest of my body. It is by living from my heart that I truly can live from the Lord.

So next in my meditation, I think about my day. My will is self-interest, and the Lord’s is my heart. Yes, after examination, I realize everything I want to do today—“my plan”—is self-interest: I have a haircut appointment; I need to do laundry; I have an interview scheduled…all self-interest. Then I ask, “What is the Lord’s will?” What would it look like? What would I do today if I lived from my heart and humbled my self-interest to that…?

I have no answer at all. Then I realize, of course I don’t know—I’m all self-interest! So then it comes to me—“live from love according to faith.” This simple phrase just keeps repeating itself in my mind. This means sacrificing knowing the future and any attachment I have to what I’ll really end up doing today, because to live from the Lord, from the heart, means to live in the present; to live without self-interest is to live in the present because self-interest immediately wants to know the future and “what’s in it for me?” So I’ve got to go do that now—live from love according to faith. That changes my perspective on my day!    

Editor's Box | Digest: Articles 41 through 52 in 2010

October 8 through December 31. Catch up on any of the articles you've missed!

October 8, 2010
“Meditate on the Word of God” by Alanna Rose.
Alanna Rose shares a beautifully simple practice for enjoying and engaging with the Lord's Word. Revelation can often feel intimidating in length or confusing in content but Alanna describes an approach to taking small, bite-sized pieces at a time. This method offers the opportunity to cherish and delight in the Lord's truth.

October 15, 2010
“Genuine Christianity” by Chelsea Rose Odhner.
Genuine Christianity testifies to the value of reading and understanding more about Emanuel Swedenborg's life history. In this highly recommended article, Chelsea Odhner shares some of the insight she received from learning more about the context in which Emanuel Swedenborg wrote. Chelsea uses a light touch and makes the case for reading a biography of Swedenborg by supplying a couple of the tantalizing shifts in thinking which she herself experienced.

October 22, 2010
“My Word!” by Heath Synnestvedt.
Heath Synnestvedt invites us to join his musing about words. With playfulness and irony, Heath suggests that the use and meaning of words have an important effect both on how we experience and respond to reality. (Heath intends the use of lower case “i”).

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