Early Christmas present for all of us!

Consider the Lilies

Whew! 

This lesson feels like a breath of fresh air for me.

I forget to remember this, and yet, 

while reading it I am constantly thinking

"Well, of course!"

It's not that it's an easy lesson; it's that it is just so obvious.

Why would I ever resist something this obvious?

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious 

about your life...look at the birds of the air...

consider the lilies of the field."

Matthew 6:25

Everyone at some time or the other experiences feelings 

of what is known as insecurity. 

You feel insecure with the amount of money you have in the bank, 

or the amount of love you are getting from your friend or 

the type of educational background you have had. 

Or you have insecurity feelings regarding your health 

or your age or your physical appearance. 

If you were asked the question, 

"What is it that makes you feel insecure?" 

you would almost certainly give the wrong answer. 

You might say, "I don't have enough of the love of a friend" or 

"I don't have the kind of academic training that I need," or some such thing. 

In other words, you would point to some outside condition 

not realizing that insecurity feelings are not generated by anything 

outside of you, but only by your emotional programming, 

by something you are telling yourself in your head. 

Trust me here ...this is good news!

If you changed your program, 

your insecure feelings would vanish in a second, 

even though everything in the outside world remained 

exactly as it was before. 

MAGIC?

One person feels quite secure with practically no money in the bank, 

another feels insecure even though he has millions. 

It isn't the amount of money but their programming 
that makes the difference. 

One person has no friends, yet feels perfectly secure in the love of people. 

Another feels insecure even in the most possessive 
and exclusive of relationships. 

Again the difference is in the programming.

If you wish to deal with your feelings of insecurity 

there are four facts that you must study well and understand.

1. It is futile to ease your insecurity feelings by trying 

to change things outside of you. 

Your efforts may be successful, though mostly they are not. 

They may bring some relief, but the relief will be short-lived.

So it is not worth the energy and time you spend in improving 

your physical appearance or making more money or getting 

further reassurances of love from your friends.

2. This fact will lead you to tackle the problem 

where it really is, inside your head. 

Think of the people who in exactly the same condition 

that you find yourself in now would not feel the slightest insecurity. 

There are such people. 

Therefore the problem lies not with reality outside of you 

but with you, in your programming.

3. You must understand that this programming of yours 

was picked up from insecure people who, when  you were very young 

and impressionable, taught you by their behavior and their panic reactions that every time the outside world did not conform to a certain pattern, 

you must create an emotional turmoil within yourself called insecurity. 

And you must do everything in your power to rearrange the outside world--

make more money, 

seek more reassurances, 

placate and please the people you have offended, etc., etc.--

in order to make the insecurity feelings go away. 

The mere realization that you don't have to do this, 

that doing this really solves nothing, and that 

the emotional turmoil is caused solely by you and your culture--

this realization alone distances you from the problem 

and brings considerable relief.

It's workable...

4. Whenever you are insecure 

about what may happen in the future, just remember this: 

In the past six months or one year you were so insecure about events 

which when they finally came you were able to handle somehow, 

Thanks to the energy and resources that that particular 

present moment 

gave you, and not to all the previous worrying which only made you 

suffer needlessly and weakened you emotionally. 

The doing is always in the present moment; 

it can't be done anywhere else!

So, say to yourself: 

"If there is anything I can do about the future, right now, I shall do it. 

Then I'm going to just leave it alone 

and settle down to enjoy the present moment, 

because all the experience of my life has shown me 

that I can only cope with things when they are present, 

not before they occur. 

And that the present always gives me 

the resources and the energy I need to deal with them."

It's important to have something else to focus on in the moment,

something that you delight in doing or something that 
takes you out into Nature and the larger world.

The final disappearance of insecurity feelings will only come 

when you have attained that blessed ability 

of the birds of the air and the flowers of the field 

to live fully in the present, 

one moment at a time. 

The present moment, no matter how painful, 

is never unbearable. 

What IS unbearable is 

what you think is going to happen in five hours or in five days 

and those words you keep saying in your head like, 

"This is terrible, 

this is unbearable, 

how long is this going to last," 

and so on. 

Birds and flowers are blessed above humans in that 

they have no concept of the future, 

no words in their heads, and no anxiety about 

what their fellows think of them. 

That is why they are such perfect images of the kingdom. 

Of the promised land of joy and peace...

eternal, abundant LIFE

right here and 

NOW!

So do not be anxious about tomorrow, 

tomorrow will look after itself. 

Each day has troubles enough of its own. 

Set your mind on God's kingdom

It's happening right here, right now, don't miss it.

 before everything else

 and all the rest will come to you as well.

Yes!

It's the only way and not Polyanna at all.

It is absolutely logical and in the natural order of things.

It is WHAT IS...

already allowed and bearable!

In this context worrying makes absolutely no sense at all.

It is totally worthless, wasted energy, 

accomplishing nothing except 

to create hell on earth!

And you are free to do it, or not,
for the rest of your life.