Just How Quick is this Year Going?

The question posed in the title above is such a common modern cliché—often for people stuck for what to say—it’s not funny. Yet, speaking non-truths like this with routine abandon denigrates us more than we often think or know.

Before we plunge into the issue itself, let’s first refresh ourselves with one of the most important things Jesus ever said:

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full.”

~John 10:10 (NIV).

Lies initially, then truth. This is what Jesus is saying. Whether we’re Christian or not, this principle is true to all of life. One way or the other we stand for either truth or we perpetuate the lie—we all do.

Indeed, we tolerate lies and forgive same. We have to; we’re human. But this very knowledge we have regarding our common propensity is alone setting us free.

Most Cliché is Broad Truth, but It’s Often Applied Inappropriately

The time only seems to be travelling quickly; we suspect this because we either have so much on or, paradoxically, because we are letting life slip through from between our fingers.

Time is one of the most constant of the constants, if that makes sense.

No second is faster or slower than another. Time incongruence is an oxymoron; when we think these ways we encourage a very insidious form of insanity.

Possibly the worst thing—and this gets us back to the original issue of truth versus lies—is we’re incongruent not only in our words, but also with others via our small talk. Do we think it’s even possible to personalise our communication with complete strangers? It is. We just need to be ourselves.

Making the Most of Father Time

For us to propagate that time is flying by is at best a reminder to make the most of it in the immediate future, and at worst it’s a reminder that we’re falling for a commonplace lie; the result of which will almost certainly be less of the abundant life that Jesus came to give all—a life freely available to us now.

The less we speak in such incongruent ways the more truth will stick hard and fast to us; not one day or one year will appear to go faster or slower than the other. Time will just ‘be.’

We will then dispel this perception, saving our precious conscious thought for things more worthy, like marvelling over the mystery of time in context with the movement of life—which is ironically quite close to the original false thought, but it’s bounded to truth i.e. God.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.

This Too Shall Pass!

On memory-defying days we can be fooled for thinking all of life is against us. We lose all comprehension of how good life’s been and how good it can still become.

We’re known for our gratitude-amnesia in this regard, though gratefulness seems nothing to do with it.

We stop believing in truth to chase the lie that is presented right before us, and it beckons: “believe!” We’re ensconced to it. Then we cannot for the life of us escape. We’re restrained by this mental nemesis for the rest of the day and perhaps into the next, and often beyond.

Name it a thousand names... the names don’t matter—we’re stuck.

Two Polar Aspects - Triumph & Disaster - Both Impostors

As Rudyard Kipling stated poignantly in his classically salient poem, If, both triumph and disaster are thieving impostors. Both of these rob us of the truth about ourselves and our world.

One deludes; the other vanquishes our hope.

One we welcome willingly; the other we despise.

Yet, both are cruel—and both will pass. Success and pleasure may come to us all, however, they’re fleeting. Failure and pain come too, but they don’t last.

Triumph and disaster, individually and together, take us into temptation; one to allure us in our striding ambition—the other intuiting fear, and so much we avoid even living at times. Both of them attract us away from what is noble and right.

Eternity Calling

The longer term view is reminding us—calling us to it—to not fret; this is a live project and we are “go.” That is, we’re never standing still but we’re moving never more certainly forward, centred in the breadth of time.

We need an eclipse to take place over the fear we normally succumb to.

To answer the call, in walks Eternity: the perspective.

Eternity—as present foci—never has us throwing ourselves off the bridge to the wind of our demise. She chastens us with perspective to remain.

She also ensures we don’t get carried away with our ‘successes.’

She is balance as justice is balance. The winds of eternity gust only in our favour as the balance of things—over the perspective of time—gently evens out in context with the truth as we simply try. All Eternity wants to know is, “Are you trying?”

Eternity is a maze of ever-golden wonder beyond the harsh scape of this planet and its cares and the momentary folly of carnal attribution.

Perpetuity is calling us beyond the strains of the current time. It calls us concurrently to both seriousness and fun; to the aspects of balance in responsibility (seriousness) and simultaneously not to take ourselves too seriously.

It is our appropriate measure for every occasion, barring absolutely none. Besides, it’s all we can truly do in our hope to truly know, and appropriately love, God.

For God is Eternity.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.

Wisdom to Brighten Your Face!

“There’s nothing better than being wise,

Knowing how to interpret the meaning of life.

Wisdom puts light in the eyes,

And gives gentleness to words and manners.”

~Ecclesiastes 8:1 (Msg).

Who knows someone wise? I think we all do. Although none of us are perfect, I bet that everyone who considered this question just now has rapidly conjured in their minds the picture of someone they know, trust and admire.

What is ‘Wisdom?’

What is wisdom but to see life acutely from God’s divinely-balanced perspective? It’s practically knowing the right courses of action to take as we are dealt the cards of life. It’s responding aright, come what may. It’s ability of character; not what we say, but what we do.

It is, therefore, a thoroughly worthwhile and sensible goal to invest in wisdom; to become wiser.

There are many different takes on this proverb—there’s even some confusion as to what it actually means. The Septuagint (Greek) version (a.k.a. the LXX) of the Old Testament has it:

“Who knows the wise? and who knows the interpretation of a saying? A person’s wisdom will lighten their countenance; but a person of shameless countenance will be hated.”

(Adapted to be gender inclusive.)

Another word for “countenance” is tolerance, or otherwise patience. The Greek work translated “countenance” in this proverb is πρόσωπον (prosōpon) and it means many things; even “face,” “appearance” and “presence.”

A Portrait of this ‘Tolerant’ Wisdom of ‘Presence’

Even in the midst of great cognitive, emotional or spiritual difficulty the person known to be wise is found gracious, resilient, even quietly and humbly confident. They seem to have a winsome and serenely regal and unhurried way about them, even when they’re challenged. They are generally both godly and ‘popular.’

This is what is indicated by the first lines of the LXX—“Who knows?”

These questions are framed as impossible to answer with any authority for the people not housing such wisdom. The person with wisdom can determine who are wise—as they keep such company—and they can also divine a saying, repealing the ambiguity that ordinarily locks vision of such truth from the eyes of commoners.

Having our ‘Presence’ Lightened

Wisdom is good for us; it makes our face shine with delight. God, also, is attributed as the source of putting light in our faces (Numbers 6:25).

Having faces lit positively must surely be the goal of any sensible human being, and the way of doing this is a heart after wisdom.

Surely we should focus on Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, James etc and learn to wrangle with the theology in these great wisdom books. But we should not stop there! We should be voracious in our broader wisdom reading—extending past Christian circles so we can hone a discerning mind and heart for truth.

Better still over all this is to be able to understand life and not be confused and overwhelmed by it. This is said by and large, for there are some things which will confound anyone.

Wisdom can hence solve (or resolve) a great number of spiritual and mental ills, but only God can resolve it all.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.

General Reference: Roland E. Murphy, Ecclesiastes – Word Biblical Commentary (Nashville, Tennessee: Word, Inc., 1992), pp. 79-82.

Ebb ‘n’ Flow

What we took very much for granted yesterday or a month ago has potentially changed, irrevocably, and often without any notice.

This is a difficult truth for people of both Type ‘A’ and Type ‘B’ personalities to accept but it’s nevertheless something we all have to adapt to. The pace of life and the state of play—their ebb and flow—are not only impossible to predict, they often collude, making it painful just trying to adjust to the moments as they come.

We get either excited at our opportunities or alternatively we cherish an opportunity to relax, but these things don’t last.

Sooner or later we’re back on the treadmill of life and we find it frustrating that we can’t control things more. Of course, what I’m pointing out here is obvious, but many times we’re not adept at taking account of this, or we’re just lazy, unfortunately at times to our demise.

We get used to the flow and want it to remain, or we just can’t wait for the next ebb—but none of the ebb or flow we really want will maintain itself.

The stream of life is like a sawtooth chart; up and down, side-to-side, back and forth and so on.

Life is unpredictable.

The only thing we can do really is try to understand ourselves and pick our normal, preferred patterns—and more appropriately, our weaknesses—and cater for them.

Meeting Both Extremes and those Between

For the Type ‘A’ go-getter it’s a matter of accepting that life does ebb and slow at times; patience is called for. Peace and spiritual harmony need to be attracted. ‘Chilling’ at those down, ebb-times is a wise move.

For the Type ‘B’ slow-getter it’s different, of course. Learning to merge and continually re-merge with the traffic in the fast lane can become an enjoyable challenge. It’s possibly about choosing the move and making it decisively, even aggressively—with account for others, of course.

God is there to assist us come to a better understanding of ourselves, and this is certainly very much in context with our worlds.

When we know ourselves around the ebb ‘n’ flow of life—and we can predict our next moves in accord with the times with some level of accuracy—we’ll be able to ride those waves more confidently.

We cannot expect our world to change. We must adapt to it.

Coursing with Life

Up and down, round and round we go... until we don’t anymore. That’s something to think about.

The times we take life for granted or gently whinge within ourselves about the common inconveniences and hassles are times when we’re looking the gift horse in the mouth. We need a reality check.

We’re robbing ourselves.

Let’s find the joy instead of the sadness with life.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.

Our Pasts Propel our Futures

How we see our immediate and distant pasts, has a direct influence over how we see our present and our future. This reality buoys our hope or it sinks it.

The past is hence compelling.

~*~*~*~

It compels us, headlong into the future, any future we choose...

Of course, this is dependent on our perspective of our pasts!

How is our perspective, today, holding us back or throwing us onward into the unknown future?

Destiny

“When we dare to dream with passion of the unknown.”

~Author Unknown.

A good venture in life: to create our own perspective.

This is to dream up a future entirely worthy of our lives and to set about creating the ‘scripts’ with which we will engineer that result.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.

When Darkness Swims Over Us

I love the power of a single image, mind-captured and set to music. The symphonic sound of Oxygene II (Jean Michel Jarre, 1976) and the graphic of the human mind stripped from within by utter paralysing confusion—when not in this state—is entirely alluring.

I felt immediately drawn to press these keys.

I know there are those who feel paralysed right now. Something has happened over their lives that has stripped them emotionally bare and numbness contains them.

I know this is possible because I’ve been there. It’s a horrible place to be in.

Let’s Picture It

It’s like there is a whole world beyond us—yet, visibly it’s known to us. But mentally and emotionally we’re stuck in a crevice and the walls are just too high. We clamour to escape the feeling but then after a while we just sit there, exhausted and utterly encased in a prism of despair.

How long this pervades is anyone’s guess. Stinking thinking has us trapped.

We certainly have absolutely no idea when this rancid spiritual weather pattern will break. The crevice that contains us is bland and uninviting and it reminds us over and again what sordid lives we have right now.

We’ve lost perspective.

Breaking Past It

Anything different. Anything to break out of this withered cage-like experience. Anything. The trouble is we don’t take to risk that well, at least in this frame.

Yet, we must.

We must fly away a little from this situation. We need to strive to find our logical minds again—to see objectively, and beyond a wholesome grief, it’s to get out of our wounded-child state.

Sure, what we’re feeling just now is real—it’s never been realer. The terrible things have indeed happened. It’s fact. It’s our experience. No one can deny this truth, least of all ourselves—and we wouldn’t want to anyway!

But still we are where we are.

But we can’t stay there.

This is often a ‘to’ing and fro’ing’ we have within ourselves. We loop endlessly within ourselves, replaying the same thoughts as if to give them a new try; but we know what the answer’s going to be. It doesn’t change.

Things won’t change unless they do.

What we’ve set up is a dangerous cognitive precedent—a sort of mental brainwashing has occurred. Looped within itself the mind has become enswathed pathologically. Trapped we must now get out.

This is not impossible to break away from.

The moment we break clean away from this horrendous loop—becoming magically aware—power is available to us... it’s in this moment we continue running; back into the arms of a God who seeks to renew us, and our minds, through the soothing of our hearts.

~*~*~*~*~

Get out into the sunshine. Close your eyes. Breathe in, hold, breath out. Plan. Get inspired. Anything will do. Keep moving forward. See what you cannot see. Hold it in faith.

Hope. This stench is being removed, even now.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.

Trusting Our Spiritual Instinct

“But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”

~Matthew 10:19-20 (NIV).

Sometimes we plan what we’ll say too much. At times we enter meetings with our tactics already carefully prepared for clinical execution; this is not always the best approach.

And although most meetings don’t resemble the process of arrest, there are certain similarities where the above wisdom of Jesus’ applies.

Recently, I met with a person who had had an encounter at work where they were asked a question regarding the status of a project. At the very point the question was asked they needed to go to the toilet. As they reflected there they thought about how they should respond.

But a strange thing then happened...

They immediately felt the tug of the Holy Spirit pointing them to this passage above.

The message was clear: “Prepare not—trust your instinct, the instinct that I will give you,” came the clear and affirming direction from God.

Planning Too Much?

Sometimes we can undermine or subvert the Spiritual instinct we could otherwise get from God—the flesh intervening—in our overweening, or at times short-sighted, plans.

This is not to say we shouldn’t plan. Failing to plan, as we know, is planning to fail.

It’s just about knowing when our planning is done; when we’ve extracted as much of God’s wisdom in our preparation as we reasonably can. At these other times we can leave the moment in God’s hands. We do this so we can be more aware of and awake to the movement of his Spirit.

Trusting God in our Moments

So, if we’ve had the sufficient forethought and done our planning prior to the execution of our meetings, decisions, presentations and deliberations why would we not want to leave the rest to God in faith?

This is to arrive ‘for duty’ with a freshly conscious mind that is prepared to be ‘present’ with others, listening, and godly aware—particularly for God-spoken changes to the plan, if not to appear keenly interested, which is God’s will for us in all our interactions.

When we arrive clear of mental encumbrances we’re so much freer to hear God’s silent will in the mix of everything else colluding and competing for our attention.

How the Meeting Finished

After this person above arrived back at the table, ready to answer the other person’s questions, they were confidently free for this other person to ask them about the project their way.

They were free also to ‘hear’ what information the other person wanted and, even more specifically, how they wanted it.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.

Jettisoning Fear a Moment at a Time

“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”

~Marie Curie.

Most of our fear is founded in the unknown. As soon as we commit to enquiring of it in truth it falls away, and then things are seen for what they really are. Even if they’re still daunting we can somehow muster the required courage to negotiate the rest of the way.

The acute anxious pain of fear is somehow ‘numbed’ this way.

What Did Marie Curie Mean?

If we count it worthy to call fear that which is not good, or not of God, we see where Marie Curie was coming from. Indeed fear is the very barrier to God and all godly constructs imbued of wisdom—that truth-of-life that smashes fear every time.

Fear also stands in the way of science—that very desire to know how things work and how to interact with life—for science is simply humankind’s attempt at knowing the things of God.

Using the Higher Mind to Conquer Fear

If our fear is the way of lies (i.e. it’s characterised by an absence of applied truth) and it represents us in our child states—devoid of childlike faith, which we know to be good when instituted with God’s wisdom—then we can see that the higher mind is the way to truth, and the jettisoning of fear, a moment at a time.

The higher mind is the gateway to logic and a screed for testing all things.

Imagine the paving of a driveway. If there is substance and truth to matters these are left behind and levelled into a base for the construction of pavement known of positive hope and intention.

This is solid ground for us to stake our lives on, reducing further any grip that fear might have on us. The fear is represented as the loose rubble removed for that level surface the pavers are soundly placed upon. Truth sees to it that none of these pavers wobbles under our feet or as the car tyre rolls over them.

If, however, the higher mind reveals information as suspect, i.e. it reveals the information contains ill-founded fear-based constructs, it omits this and we feel a boost of confidence; this restores us and our courage is buoyed.

The higher mind removes the rubble, clearing the way for sound thought.

Practically Training the Higher Mind

This is done quite simply in theory, yet in practice, of course, it’s a lot harder.

It really is the case of practicing logic and reasonability over all our activities, responses and initiatives—all of them, barring none.

Sure, we’ll get it wrong from time to time and give fear its place, i.e. in our doubting, but if we’re right-minded there’s no reason why we can’t see things more consistently and sensibly.

Training the mind can reasonably be distilled to a simple focus on being as reasonable, responsible, reliable, realistic and logical as we can be—at any given time.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.

Exhibiting the ‘Appreciative’ Mindset

“Wherever a person turns they can find someone who needs them.”

~Albert Schweitzer (adapted).

Appreciative systems are so much more powerful than depreciative systems are, particularly with regard to the world of relationships. They say “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”

Positivity works much better.

The exhibition of the appreciative mindset is simply the focal use of accentuating the positive at every turn, as a way of affirmation and for growth.

For instance, in the business world, instead of doing Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analyses, we can do Strengths-Opportunities-Aspirations-Results (SOAR) analyses. There are many other Appreciative Inquiry (AI) techniques.

But it’s the personal application we’re interested in right here; to become more positive influences (and influencers) within our world.

The Personal Approach

At this level we’re making a commitment to grow only in positive directions. We’re taking all the negative ‘stuff’ that comes into our shovels and reducing it for the minable positive—the rich commodifiable ore of transformation—to us and our worlds.

There is plenty in this world with which to draw appreciative energy from. In fact, there are so much of both i.e. also the depreciative, negative aspects of life. If we stay negative, at least two bad things happen:

1. Our effect is nullified.
2. We become miserable.

It always depends on us and our chosen focus.

When we’re stuck depreciatively, and we are dissatisfied with our results in life, we can just as easily shift to the positive, stronger mindset.

Exhibiting the Mindset of the Strong

Strong people don’t pick off opportunities to be critical or negative; they look for the positive.

The strong don’t need to delve into things that won’t be beneficial. Life is far too short for them to do this. They only want to maximise the opportunities to do the best they can with their time.

Exhibiting this appreciative mindset is a blessing not only for the world around us, but for us—little ole us—as well, for we’re infused with blessing from deep within when we see the affect we have on our world, and particularly our closest relationships.

Voltaire said,

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”

There’s no room for envy or petty jealousy with a wilful appreciation. It swells our own world on the back of others’.

Then at last we see that others are never a threat to us—even more skilled others. The moment of appreciation is the moment of disarmament. How appreciation often boomerangs. All things are ours!

Our Role in Life – to Encourage Through Appreciation

Connecting back with the quote at top, we see now how important it is to accept a role in life to encourage others—for in this, not only are others built up in ways they need, but we too are built up, spiritually, in God.

Appreciation – it’s a weird but wonderful spiritual science!

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.

This Time is Mine!

EVERY SECOND OF EVERY DAY is filled for us via our choices made in time.

Time, therefore, is a very abstract commodity—though it seems so tangible. We alone command it though it seems to control us; where is our mind for these things?

One of the key tricks of the mind that we can use at any time is to find the issue of choice regarding our time.

Taking to the precious seconds—all equally lined up, one beside the other, and none encroaching—we should smile, for it’s all ours; all serendipitously ours!

We slide back into bed for five minutes and we think not of five minutes time, but of the 300 tremulously beautiful and warm seconds, perhaps beside a loved one. Cuddle time! It’s the ‘now’ we’re appreciating, nothing else—no rapturous plans, no vacant hopes, no overweening pride-filled reflections... just simply now.

In just one day we have 1,440 minutes to spend. Freely we walk, breathing and enjoying a life that stands before no one else—it’s ours to do with as we please. Choice dictates that even if we loath the activities beckoning us, we have even a modicum of choice upon how we do them.

Nothing can take away our choice. It’s ours alone. This is power for living; power above which no one else has.

Wherever we find ourselves is no matter; this time is ours. Enjoy every screaming second!

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.