christopherhildreth

I’m a quote fiend, and Thomas Merton is a good victim for me. “Anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity.” You may need to read and re-read those words. In general terms, anxiety of any kind stems from two forms of fear. One is the fear of losing control and the other is mistrust of the One to whom you are losing your control.

A repetitive topic here is that of Ego and its negative influence over our inner essence. Ego desires to remain in total control of your life indefinitely. Any fluctuation that may mean a renouncing or relinquishing of any control by your Ego will result in many different reactions. Frustration, guilt, shame, hate, anger and jealousy are just a few.

Specifically when related to spiritual, or as some would call “religious” issues, anxiety is the major symptom of intense insecurity. Another term this could be known as is “I believe it because ‘they’ told me and I haven’t really bothered to check it out myself, but I’m willing to cut friendships, offend family and ostracize myself from other people anyway” syndrome.

Never in all of scripture, both Christian and otherwise, is a follower told to “take someones word for it” in regard to spiritual teaching. Instead most spiritual documents call for a follower to look inside themselves and find the Truth. If the Kingdom was not “within” Christ would have never said so, especially if it was 180 degrees in the “out”. The difficulty is that “within” is a place few of us are willing to enter.

Last week I suggested that we look inside ourselves to begin the process of becoming Aware. The one thing I know is that the first step of peering deep in the crevices of our spirit is the most important. At the portal to our inner self He waits to guide us down and ultimately back up. It has been said that “the journey of a thousand steps begins with just one.” Take that first step within and prepare for the journey of a lifetime!

This entry was posted on July 12, 2008 at 10:36 pm and is filed under Awareness, Belief, Context, Influence, Life, religion. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.