I learned long ago that the messages you need the most do not always come in ways that you expect. Sometimes they arrive unexpected from an unsuspecting person. So it is with the powerful message that came to me about enlarging your vision.
With all the tragedies, greed, injustices, war and rumors of war and other images and realities that do not serve a new WORLD VISION, even the most visionary are challenged. It has been weighing on me, as I know from my studies and life that what we see and perceive is what we manifest. Whether it is positive or negative is up to us. So, I've been hoping to be touched with my own renewed VISION and POSITIVE ENERGY ---- a larger vision, a quicker vision that will benefit our world and all its people---a world free of all the harmful, hurtful and horrific things currently going on.
What came to me was a book written by the popular young evangelist, Joel Olsteen. It's called Your Best Life NOW. When the book arrived unexpectedly in my path, I didn't really plan to read it. My stack of books to read was already high. Additionally, all my prejudices and presumptions about evangelical ministers seemed to pop out at even the thought of it. "I don't need this book," echoed silently in my head. It was almost like a defensive response. "What am I so afraid of?" I had to ask.
Interestingly, the book seemed to draw me to it. I opened it. I read the Table of Contents. Enlarging Your Vision was one of the first chapters. "Okay, I'll just read one chapter," I conceded to myself. Well, I ended up highlighting and underlining a good part of the chapter. His writing isn't profound, but it brings together the basic pearls and gems of TRUTH through the ages. It's a reminder of all you know, have learned or need to learn. There are some elementary stories about seemingly superficial worldly things, but I found myself substituting topics that I cared about, recognizing we are all at different places, seeing and experiencing life from different vantage points and that in the stories were lessons for us all if we're open enough to listen and extract the ones we need. Olsteen's messages for me were a reminder of just how powerful our thoughts, our talk, our actions and our VISION are in shaping our future.
What I really liked about his message is that is wasn't full of gobbledygook or religious ideology. Instead, it is warm, welcoming, inclusive and full of hope and possibility. Consequently, although he has a clearly Christian perspective, most of the lessons are fundamentals in most of the wisdom traditions. He seems to be embracing the world. Here is one of the stories that hit home...
Get Rid of Those Old Wineskin
"Centuries ago, wine was stored in leather wine skins...Animal skins were dried and cured until the leather could be shaped into containers to hold the wine. When the wine skins were new, they were soft and pliable, but as they aged, they often lost their elasticity; they wouldn't give anymore. They would become hardened and set, and they couldn't expand. If a person poured new wine in an old wineskin, the container would burst and the wine would be lost."
Joel Olsteen goes on to share that Jesus wanted to wanted to encourage His followers to enlarge their visions. "You can't put new wine into an old wineskin." He said. The lesson is that we can't have a larger life --- a better world --- a more generous world for all people with restricted attitudes. If we are set in our ways, bound by our parties and beliefs and perspectives and stuck in our thinking, it is pretty hard to achieve anything more than a world sick and reeling, longing for us to ENLARGE OUR VISIONS.
I'm still reading. Still underlining and I also bought the audio. What I like most is that he transcends the obstacle of one's mind being able to take in 10%. Because of his simple, but powerful repetition, it has been helpful in reaffirming your attitude about a lot of things. Two visionary friends are reading it too. They have had the same experience.
The significant lesson is the reminder of how easy it is not to listen to another perspective. Most of us are pretty good at shutting down anything new and different, instead of LISTENING and receiving the goodness that may in fact be there. Perhaps, everything doesn't work for us, but if we are open to the world of possibilities, perhaps we will find just the right combination to help shape a new world that many of dream about.
MAYBE we are ready to receive his message of renewal. Maybe we are willing to come to it with a "beginner's mind." Maybe it was just an unexpected renewal arriving in an unexpected package. All I know is that I am grateful for the coaching on ENLARGING MY VISION.
"You knock at the door of reality,
shake your thought-wings, loosen
your shoulders, and OPEN."
--- Rumi
How are you enlarging YOURS? The world needs it!
Debbe Kennedy
Come for a visit the Global Dialogue Center
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