The convergent epiphany

So, here of late, I have been dealing with some minor issues dealing with time management. Once I started researching time management, I discovered that TM is only one leg of a more complex stool....we could call the stool 'life management'. Now, when I came across that term, I immediately thought in spiritual terms, but let me come back to that.

So, this concept of life management deals with managing time, money, relationships....the whole ball of wax. Initially, that seemed a bit overwhelming, but then I realized that those issues existed whether I had a plan to deal with them or not; and not having a plan seemed more overwhelming....so I threw myself into some research.

Very quickly, I came upon this guy named David Allen (how could you go wrong with anyone named David, right :-) His approach to life management intrigued me because he didn't start with a 'system'. He started with the user; the user's mind to be more precise. His argument was that you are not going to use any system for very long that doesn't work for you. The human mind does not deal very well with the things that it does not trust. To force the mind to deal with a reality, or a system that it does not trust, fosters worry and anxiety. Think about your past, and something that has worried you, or you have been anxious over. Odds are, the source of your worry was the reality of an unknown outcome. Your mind did not trust the system you had in place for dealing with the unknown (or not have in place for that matter).

Now it's time to go spiritual on you :-)

God tells us that his plan for us is perfect. We can know that in our hearts, and we can know that in our souls, but our minds need some convincing. Our minds deal with the physical reality we are in in the moment. Worry and anxiety enter into our lives when we fail to trust the perfection of God's plan. Think about anxiety for a moment. When do most of us feel most anxious? When we feel like we have no control over our physical surroundings. Our minds do not trust the perfection of God's plan, so they try to take control over the physical reality to substitute 'our plan' for God's. Control is an illusion. Sometimes, it makes us feel a bit better to feel like we are in control, but there is that nagging knowledge that the little bubble we have built for ourselves is still surrounded by a reality that is beyond our comprehension.

So, the human mind deals best with systems that it can trust.
It is easy to know God's perfection with our hearts ("Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart...)
It is easy to know God's perfection with our souls (...all your soul...)
Our mind needs a system in place to trust in the perfection of God's plan (...and all your mind".)

So here is the challenge really. How do we accept and trust a plan that we see evidence daily to the affect that it is anything but perfect? Let's ask Job. OK, go ahead and moan and groan...nobody likes talking about Job, right? I mean, who can make it through that story in one sitting? It is down right depressing. Sure, God blessed him beyond measure in the end, but look at the crap he had to go through to get there. What about his friends and his wife that came to talk to him while he was in the middle of misery? Basically, they were all asking him the same question, "Do you still think God's plan is perfect? Now, we read about Job, and we hear sermons about Job, and we see/learn that he never lost faith. Does that mean that he was able to ignore his physical reality? Not by a long shot. At times, he was angry with God. He was disappointed, he was in pain, he felt like God had abandoned him. That is what his physical reality was. Through Job, God tells us that it is OK to be angry with him. It is OK to be disappointed. It is OK to hurt. It is OK to feel alone. Because, through all of that mess, God's plan will be revealed to be perfect. If we could have asked Job in the middle of his story if God's plan was perfect, what would he have said? What would we say in the middle of our stories?

So, Job probably never fully understood the true perfection behind God's plan for him. He found God's abundant blessing on the other side of the misery, true; but do you think that Job knew how many trillions of people would read his story? In Job, God gave us a worst case scenario, so that we could have hope and faith in the middle of our physical realities....to put it another way, God gave us a system by which our minds could trust the perfection of his plan....and THAT, my friends, is Life Management.

So, here is food for thought...if our story were written down for generations after us to read, what would they learn from our story?

I Declare....

I Declare
I declare that the Declaration of Independence IS still relevant.
I declare that all people ARE created equal.
I declare that we ARE endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights.
I declare that we DO have the right to our own lives.
I declare that we DO have the right to Liberty.
I declare that we DO have the right to pursue our own happiness.
I declare that the PROPER role of government is to secure these rights.
I declare that a government exercises JUST power when, and only when, acting in this capacity.
I declare that WE DO have the power and authority to protect our own rights individually.
I declare that government ONLY has power and authority given to it by US.
I declare that when a government becomes destructive to that purpose, THE PEOPLE have the right to alter or abolish it through whatever means are required.
I declare that I will not exercise this right for light or transient reasons.
I declare that I will suffer the evils of an unjust government, so long as those evils are sufferable.
I declare that when those evils sink to absolute despotism, I will exercise my rights to their fullest.
I declare that I will prepare with due diligence, for the day when I may be called upon to exercise that right.