A Confession
I have a confession to make.
EVERYTHING I have always done in life was first run through the filter of “Right and Wrong.”
So what’s the big deal? That’s what we are supposed to do, right? No.
That’s another way of saying “Good and Evil” which is the problem with the world in the first place, the choice Adam made which put us in this place of choosing control, as we discussed in recent posts.
Points out that the choice to keep control is deeply ingrained in me, for sure; more than I had imagined.
So what is wrong with doing the “right” thing, you wonder? Isn’t that what we are supposed to do?
Again, forgive me for being the Total Renegade, but NO, we are not supposed to live by “right and wrong.”
There are problems when we do this.
First, it is all about me. As Eckhart Tolle points out in his new book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, the ego lives by identification and separation. ”Right and wrong” is totally about identification. You are either “right” or you are “wrong.” Either way you are then separated. If you are “right” you separate from all those that your “rightness” defines to be “wrong.” And vice versa.
Second, it is all about control. If I define myself to be “right” I have subscribed to some/someone’s belief system about what “right and wrong” is. Once having made the decision, I make sure (I control my behavior and situation) that I continue to behave “rightly.” But what if the belief system is different from someone else’s and what I say is “right” is actually “wrong” to them?
For example, I grew up in Maine in the ’50s and ’60s where swimming was done only from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The water was too cold outside those dates (and not so warm then, either!). For us it was no big deal to go “mixed bathing” (boys and girls together). On the other hand, “Christians” in Maine at that time thought it was “wrong” for women to wear makeup. Then we moved to Florida where we soon discovered that mixed bathing was tantamount to committing the unpardonable sin but wearing makeup was expected – the more the merrier. Imagine my consternation when I came home one day and my sister met me at the door with lipstick on! I thought she was the newest local stripper!
Third, when we live by “right and wrong” it is all about mindless following. We throw away our thinking and our ability to react to life situations and to other people. We identify them as either “right or wrong” by our belief system, become judgmental and critical and loving people goes out the door.
So what, then, are we supposed to throw away the rule book and just do whatever we want to do?
Yes to the rule book part, but not to the we want to part.
This is the crux of the matter and the whole point of our being here on the planet.
We have the choice to begin to live by transcendence, to live at a higher plane where behavior and thinking is determined by Someone else for other reasons. We have the choice to not live all about me, to not have to control everything, to be present and constantly aware to the moment.
This is what Yeshua modeled for us. Everything he did was only done AFTER he heard (listened to) Father tell him what to do. Everything he did was also “wrong” by the cultural standards of the time. Healing on the sabbath, eating before washing your hands, befriending women and “sinners” (the “wrong” people) were all “wrong” and is why He was killed.
Living and acting on the basis of what Father tells us will put us at a level that will have us living by Love, not by rules, living in the moment, not by habit, living in response to life and people, not just walking over them and being critical.
Will it be easy? No. It will be a total letting go and releasing of everything we have known before. For those of us who think we are “right” we have to let go our “righteousness” which is the hardest thing to do.
Will we be wicked? No. Father won’t tell us to do wicked things, though He may tell us to do some “wrong” things.
“Right and wrong” – just another way to spell “control” and another way NOT to enter that place of Communion with Father. Whether you have been “right” all your life, one of the good guys, or “wrong” all your life doing all the “bad” things, it is all the same. From the basis of Father’s heart and looking for Communion with you, both are “wicked.”
So – confession. I have spent my life living by “right and wrong” and have been “righteously wicked.“
Time to change and start living by Communion.
Blessings,
Dr Jon
