Personal Freedom II ...

Monday, Feb 8, 2015. How free am I in my reactions, in my emotions? We have discussed this in the light of the 2nd letter of Peter. It is an important and interesting question. It is a question which has daily significance, if you are in interaction with many different people, with different ideas of people how things should be done.

Relationship issues …

Perhaps we can just talk about some experiences here. One point: if you expect someone to interact with you on a partnership level, but he does not take you in, that can lead to strong emotional reactions. This can happen between different units in your company or institute. It can happen within the hierarchy, when your boss has a more top-down approach, where you work more team-like.

We had the problem in our church, when some people have a different idea of what “team” means than others. Quite interesting thing, indeed. Does “team” mean, that everyone has the same to say, that a democratic process involves all in the same way? There can be questions, where this is adequate. There can be others, where this does not lead anywhere. Even democratic states today do not give the same decisions to everyone, there are panels and working groups, which come to some conclusion using their particular knowledge and experience.

Clearly, where decisions are made, there will also be conflicts. Different people might prefer to go here first, and there second, and somewhere else last. This might have consequences, and might have an effect on many. How do your emotions interfer with such decisions?

God and the others …

I have been intensely thinking about this triangle of relationships - myself, the Lord, and the other people. Can it be that I am in peace with God, but have trouble with the others? Does it not also interfer with my relationship to the Lord? I think it does. It is something I need to bring into my sessions of prayer and silence. It is something I need to work on, together with the eternal God!

Somehow I am going back and forth again and again. One possibility would be to pull myself out of this world, out of the activities, let it be my professional activities or church activities (both of them have similar challenges sometimes). But we are not meant to leave this world, but to live in it. God wants us to be in the world, but live with his spirit. We are meant to be visitors here, with our eternal home in heaven. But we are still here, and we need to get our relationships and our emotions in shape.

I also ask myself: where do I see the progress? There are times, when I feel the holy spirit to help me greatly! I feel him to give me the peace of the Lord into my heart and into my mind. There are other times, where I feel being thrown back in to an unbalanced state, with high emotions of a deeply hurt soul. But I have the hope and trust, that he will use these moments, to show me more of himself, that he is has sufficient healing power. to calm myself down, and that he will help me to get through the rough times, and arrive at his silence, the living silence of the eternal Lord. (RWEP) ... more texts