Recently I heard a story that I've been thinking about....a lot.
I just finished teaching a class called Prosperity Plus at the Center for Spiritual Living in Carson City. This incredibly powerful material was put together by Mary Morrissey, and my students experienced many shifts in their thinking, some were subtle, some were more like the "wack-upside-the-head" variety.
I also experienced a shift that I want to share with you.
As a minister in New Thought, one of the things I get to do is take ancient wisdom, such as the Bible, and translate it metaphorically so that people can hear and understand the lessons, and apply them in their lives. The Bible was written by many people, in the language of their times. Back then they taught in metaphor. The Bible was never meant to be taken literally, the mistranslations have not served us well. I'm not an expert on the Bible, I learn new things all the time, and I learned something new in this class.
Mary Morrissey told us about the David and Goliath story in the Bible. You know, the story of the little shepherd and the giant? David ended up slaying the giant, but what isn't often told is the inner process he used to do that.
See, we live in what is called a "condition based world." This means we place more importance on our outer conditions, and we base our decisions and our actions on those conditions.
It's backwards.
There is an inner world, which is so much more important than the outer. This is the world of our thoughts, beliefs and dreams.
David was able to slay the giant in spite of the outer conditons: Goliath was huge, powerful, mean and had a lot of weapons. He was also arrogant. David was small, had only one weapon, and he refused to buy into the common fears of the time, that the giant was too big to slay and he certainly couldn't do it with his one little weapon, a sling shot.
But David wasn't into condition based thinking. He knew the power of his thoughts. He had heard that the king would give a castle, freedom from taxes and the princess to anyone who slay the dragon. David heard about the princess and kept his eye on the prize. All he could think about was the princess. He kept his eye on the prize. He would listen to the naysayers who told him it couldn't be done. He kept his eye on the prize.
And he slayed the dragon.
Have you ever had anyone tell you it can't be done? I have. Very recently as a matter of fact. I listened to them tell me it couldn't be done, for a little while, then I told them I didn't want to hear it anymore. See, I've got my eye on the prize and someone telling me it can't be done is not the direction I want to take my thoughts. I've got my eye on the prize.
Conditions would indicate that what I am trying to do can't be done. But I don't live in condition based thinking. I keep my eye on the prize, and my thoughts are more powerful than conditions. So I keep my thoughts tuned to the prize.
And I know that if I keep doing this, what some told me wasn't possible will happen. It already is beginning to happen! I just need to keep my eye on the prize, just like David did.
Are you living in condition based thinking? Do you think you can't do that because you were told, or because conditions would indicate you can't? Or are you keeping your eye on the prize, knowing that your thoughts are much more powerful than any conditions?
I'd love to hear your stories about how you got the prize!
I've been doing a lot of thinking lately on how the basic laws of life work. You may have heard about one of those laws: it's called the Law of Attraction. Almost every spiritual, scientific, philosophical and psychological discipline throughout the ages has either proven or spoken of this law.
