Are You Soft Soaped or Terrorized?
We’re told of a second coming a savior that will take away our sorrows. But, if a rescuer came would we recognize it? What form could this deliverer take that would convince us, or is it just the idea that captivates us? We imagine a prince charming on a white horse charging to our aid.
The desire is that somebody out there can banish our difficulties. This story line is what keeps us from living our lives to the full. It’s the idea that someone else is going to step into the breach that has the power to overcome, a Thor, a Cuchulain, a Joan of Arc, a Gandhi, a Jesus, a Moses.
It’s that wonderfully convincing word ‘faith’ that has us in a quandary. It sends us scurrying to hide behind a well-articulated story line fully convinced that somebody else will take up the can and carry it for us. Somehow, this is what will solve all the problems in the world. It’s just what we need because the difficulties are much too big and complicated for a mere mortal to handle. These are things only a superpower can deal with, a megastar and not right away but sometime in the future. All that’s required is that we believe and wait.
We remain at the ready and the time line shifts back and forth. There’s just enough to keep our interest high, a bit now and again that keeps us guessing about when the day is coming. In fact we don’t want that time ever to arrive for if it did we might have to actually do something to change the status quo.
The more people we gather around us that consider that self-same tale, the more convincing is the story. The more we think this way, the more comfortable we feel with it. Comfort is a large part of the set up. The bigger the problems is made, the smaller is our ability to deal with it. The further the solution is placed away from us, the less persuasion needed to keep the momentum going. We’re fully convinced of our helplessness. Now the emphasis can shift from any difficulties. They will eventually be sorted out in an unspecified way by some other unknown. All we have to do is to stay in agreement.
And this is why ‘belief’ is such an important word to those who spin the story. Have ‘faith’, but whatever you do don’t go looking past the accepted truth. We’re not here to solve the problems. God forbid we should venture beyond what we know. No, that would show we don’t have complete confidence in or subservience to those that weave the plot. Our duty is to wait like dedicated soldiers, assume that all is cared for and commit to a steady diet of devotion. Don’t let the side down.
Belief is the tag word that keeps you within a boundary and ensures you don’t look further. If you seek beyond blind faith, hope and charity or peek even momentarily in a sideways direction you lose your place in the congregation. There are rules and conditions that work to convince you that your devotion is necessary. All you need for your salvation is to stay within the boundary line and be ardently loyal.
In order to ensure you never venture from the keep, your allegiance to the faith has to have a commanding set of rules. A complicated structure satisfies the intellect. Taken in bite sizes, it is something to aspire to, to look up to. Something that is us not them, in which I can identify me as I am. It vilifies the way I see me. I can invest in it. It gives me an immediate return with manageable or no risk involved. It’s right and good, my color, shape and size, something I have no problem saying ‘yes’ to. It’s safe and insured and assured. The rules guarantee that I end up being part of the club of comfortable and comforted dependents.
The second coming is not about another person, it’s about you. So, don’t wait around for someone to soft soap you or indeed terrorize you into handing over your trust. Take charge yourself. Learn who you are. Why follow some other individual or group’s ideas of what is good for you? Know yourself, trust yourself and guide yourself.
If you attach to an organization, is it encouraging you to stay inside its boundaries? Or are you being inspired with confidence to fly the nest, to go beyond, to seek other directions, or more importantly, to go within to discover? You can uncover the answers to all the questions that are asked. There is no need to depend on a savior. Nobody else can or will rescue you and if they tell you they can, they’re lying. Salvation lives inside you.
