High powered, well off, entrepreneurs and preachers are banding together to preach the same "gospel" (I KNOW, scary isn't it?): If you don't have the best/newest/most expensive of anything you desire, including perfect health, you aren't believing/praying/wishing/dreaming/imagining/collaging/vision boarding (did yours come from Oprah.com? Mine did!!!) in absolute positivity and perfect faith (never letting a doubt creep in) and are, therefore, sabotaging your entire LIFE. It is, folks, all your fault that you don't have 3 cars, a big screen TV, a nice house, fabulous jewels and perfect health AND a guaranteed "get out of hell" card with a free ride to heaven!!!! Sounds good, right?
The problem is that humans are not geared to be 100% positive, 100% of the time. And the burden of trying to do so heaps guilt and frustration onto an already overburdened nervous system. Trying to live up to these standards is hazardous to your mental health!!!
What started this musing was an email story about a "treasure room in heaven" in which are stored all the blessings that GOD/Divine/Universe wanted to bless/gift you with IF you had simply believed/prayed/wished/dreamed/imagined/collaged/vision boarded in absolute positivity and perfect faith, BUT YOU DIDN'T, so said blessings/gifts are still locked away in said treasure room. Cars, money, health, TV's, clothes, jewels, whatever your little heart desires, is sitting in that room just waiting for you to come up with the right combination of or words to believe/pray/wish/dream/imagine/collage/vision board. And when you GET THAT RIGHT MAGIC COMBINATION of belief/prayers/wishes/dreams/imaginings/collages/vision board, then and ONLY then will you receive your treasure...
What is it I pray/wish/dream for/of? I want the money to go visit my mother (found on the kitchen floor with blood sugar of 30 and almost comatose) before she dies. I want to be able to go see my father (rushed to the hospital with pulmonary edema from feet to armpits/diagnosed with congestive heart failure & enlarged heart ON TOP OF his already diagnosed COPD). I'd like to be able to afford a new pair of jeans from Walmart. I'd like to be able to have enough money to help my daughter, who's man isn't working now for 2 months. When my other daughter lost her job and couldn't find a job for 11 months, I'd have liked to have been able to help out. When my first grandson was born, I'd have liked to been able to go see him (as he spent several weeks in PICU).
On a more frivolous note, I'd like a working car to be able to drive into the woods and walk and rest in nature. I'd like the work I'm doing on exercising and weight to show some progress. I'd like my hair to stop thinning. I'd like the winter depression (happens as soon as we "fall back" into darkness each fall) to leave me alone...
But I have evidently not mastered this magic prayer/belief/dream/imagining combination. Nor has much of the world. And then I beat myself up for not having mastered it. Why CAN'T I figure this out if it's so simple? I'm NOT utterly stupid you know? And it becomes another burden on my sometimes overburdened emotional life, threatening to capsize the fragile boat in which I navigate life. And then I cry...
And then it's OH NO...a negative thought!!!! I've just perpetuated the negativity that has denied me the blessings of life I already don't have!!!! And the vicious cycle goes on and on and on...
Or maybe I'm just a whiny baby? Maybe that's the problem...OH NO!!! Another negative thought!!! LOL. Ohmygosh, it's freaking impossible I tell you...
Oh, and lest you get me wrong, I am totally and amazingly blessed in life with the people I love and who love me. I am blessed with a house in which to live (many in the world have shacks or nothing). I am blessed with the ability to buy food, every month, to nourish my family (3/4s of the world cannot do this). I am blessed with a fairly decent public transit system (even in America, many people don't have this). I have a job (and in this economy, that is such a blessing). I have much for which I am utterly thankful.
Oh, yeah, there are things I don't have that I want, even that I perceive as "needs", but in the scheme of worldly things I am blessed. So don't think this is one of those "oh, she has so much what is she complaining about" things. It's not.
It's a call to examine what kinds of burdens what we think and teach lays on people. And a call to tread more softly with the hearts of the people around us. Truly we can never really see the burdens a heart carries...
8 comments:
I agree with you. IMO, that gospel is an evil, shallow, insidious message that can lead to despair and guilt. Those who preach/sell it usually get rich off the backs of those who can't afford it thus lining their own pockets.
Jesus said in this world we would have trouble and the poor would always be with us. And, not all riches (in fact not most riches) are material. Material riches can very well be a curse. Just look at all the nuts on Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight every evening.
I agree with Brian, that entire mindset is "evil" and selfish. I think we learn by the good as well as the bad, and hoping, wishing, wanting, needing. Hey I want a 20 year olds body, but that is not ever going to happen. Wanting it will not make it so. I stopped reading a book because of this premise.
By all means, being optimistic makes life more bearable, but we have the ability to cry for a reason. Happiness and sadness are part of the whole.
aisi, it is not in the having or not having, but in the craving for the matter-ial at the expense of the spiritual. the apostle paul wrote, "i do not speak from a position of lack, for i have learned in whatever state i am to be content. i know how to be abased and i know how to abound. everywhere and in all things i have learned both to be full and to be hungry; both to abound and to suffer need. i can do all things through (as) Christ who strengthens me." (how often is the last sentence used out of context?!) Jesus taught, "seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you". as long as one's eyes are fixed on the temporal, the physical, rather than the Eternal, there will be a sense of lack or excess, neither of which are true "in My kingdom". if we seek only to know God aright, we will, like paul, find ourselves content. the following quote is attributed to "an unknown persian saint": "seekers of the world are doomed. seekers of paradise are mercenaries. seekers of the Supreme Being are blessed". wise soul.
Debra:
Among your many blessings is a remarkable talent for writing. Are you an English major? If not, you could have been, or could yet be - but more important, I hope you continue with your writing and consider what next level(s) you might take it to. And by all means always keep your embrace of what is real, versus the unreal postulated by these mercenary priests you describe.
Rob
Rob, not that you will necessarily see this, but yes, I was an English major. I loved English and writing and English lit. My all time favorite classes.
Debra
ONE bad thought does not negate all the good thoughts you might have. And if you check out some of these teachings I think you'll find that written somewhere. Apparently you are listening to the wrong folks if they're affecting you negatively. Great piece of writing.. I was an English major too, didn't know that about you :)
I know that one thought doesn't negate the good thoughts you might have had, I was using one thought as an example. Because truly you cannot know at which point you have thought enough negative thoughts to negate the good in your life. And yes, this was written about some of the more extreme LOA/Prosperity Gospel teachers. Not about all.
The Gospel of Prosperity does not have any place in Christian theology. The Gospel of Prosperity is not the Gospel preached by our Lord and Savior Jesus.
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