Is fear Natural?

We are all in a journey moving forward. Survival is one of the components of life but not the ultimate goal. We are God’s unique creation privileged to be part of this beautiful universe and with human connection. We all face challenges and we do have ups and downs, but life carries on for each one of us in its own special way. One of the biggest challenges we all face is fear when we keep progressing especially. At times we notice things are falling apart and we have less control over it.

Fear is a universal experience. Even the smallest insect feels it. It’s not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is part of being alive, something we all share. We react against the possibility of loneliness, of death, of not having anything to hold on to. Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.

Here comes the God factor, when naturally we are inclined towards God to address our fear, we use religions as a gateway to reach God for help. Let us understand, embarking on the spiritual journey is like getting into a very small boat and setting out on the ocean to search for unknown lands. With wholehearted practice comes inspiration, but sooner or later we will also encounter fear.

Alice Walker puts this beautifully, ‘Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.’.

We have always imagined God as a means to achieve our ambition, fulfill our wants, which most of the time turns out to be selfish ones, fill our money bags with cash, use it for our entertainment, use it to destroy lives, create human domination, use it to gain political strength and to intimidate one another. When things are slightly different from our expectations as we experience currently, battling with pandemic and catastrophe breaking upon us, we feel under powered.

Bible cautions us and at the same time assures us on abundant life. It says, “A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.”. You have a fair chance to make a choice to put your trust on God and find balance and serenity in life.

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The Intimate Truth!

What is that in us that makes us want to believe in a lie? Is it our ignorance? Or our superficial life style? Or our selfishness? Yes, you heard it right - selfishness. Our believing in a lie could start off as ignorance but even after knowing the truth we still want to go with the lie because we have got comfortable with it or we want to be accepted by the majority.

God our Heavenly Creator made us for one simple reason, to have a relationship with Him. The catch here is once we have a relationship with God we have to mirror His character in our day to day life. This is the most inconvenient part in this demand. So as humans best do, we have taken the short cut to having various religious rituals. Here starts our selfishness. Because we want to carry on with our agendas and not follow God's commands, we have created rituals which are a lie. Let's be honest! Do you really think if we perform some ritual we can become pure with having zero intimacy with God. We have come to believe the lie that by being ritualistic we are intimate with God. The means has replaced the destination. That's a big "NO" my friends.

God says in the Bible, "I am the way, the truth and the life." God our creator made life simple for us being the embodiment of truth but we find it so hard to believe our obeisance to God could be that simple by accepting Him as "The Truth." The very fact of the statement makes us stagger because we have believed in a lie for generations that an all powerful God demands complicated worship. We thought we could fool God by all our rituals but not surrendering our true self to Him. We prefer to give importance to rituals and continue with our depravity of mind but never wanting to surrender ourselves to God because deep down we know we need a major overhauling. 

My friends, let start being honest with God. For starters let's be truthful to our Heavenly Maker. All He expects from us is an intimate relationship with the one He created " fearfully and wonderfully". Begin to give importance to Him keeping your selfishness aside and change yourself if needed. Your rituals are not going to take you to heaven. It's your intimacy with Him.

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When God becomes an option..

When people have multiple choices in life eventually God becomes an option. You may be among others wondering if it is really necessary to take time out from the daily chores and spend time with God when things are all going well? Or you may be similar to people who think God should understand what they go through, especially when they go through difficult times. Apparently, some claim God should pitch in and help them in their troubled times, keep them happy and give long life with all blessings (which defines as extravagant wealth most of the time).

Now, I may be forced to define many factors if I seriously delve into this subject. For example, who you define God as? Where do you think is His abode (as the general understanding is that God is confined to religious buildings and for some, an allotted place in their houses). How is God different from you? In some cultures, people consider one another as Gods, irrespective of people being mere human. In some countries the powerful ones, the dictators force people to look up to them as God.

Now let me state my case, the major and clear demarcation one has to make before worshiping God is to separate Creator from the Creation, failing which even human beings try to make an attempt to place oneself in the position of God and customize the  moral values and moral standard based on their own specification.

God is not a formula or an equation nor He can be based on somebody's fantasy and imagination that is just worth narrating to the kids.  I am also not talking about religion which is merely defined by structures, systems and rituals, I am addressing to a God who defined morality and holiness and the one who made an atonement for our sin. You can neither attain your salvation through your good works (which is simply not possible), nor it is logical to place the faith on a God who is confined to only a particular period of time. But you need a God who lived among people and after His death resurrected and wants to live in our heart. The Bible cites the statement of Jesus when He said, “..Because I live, you will live.”.

Don’t make God an option. The breath you have is from God. Don’t take life for granted!

The moment people start defending religion they start putting one religion over the other based on majority of followers, number of gods, how big and magnificent the shrine is and number of visitors to the shrine. God and religion cannot be succumbed to feelings, and emotions alone, but on facts and experience.

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Vaccine for Bullies!

We have a greater danger than Corona Virus in this world? Can you guess who? It's us Human beings. Even a pandemic is unable to stop the violence and hatred we see around us. We have calloused our conscience to feel compassion when a man's breadth is leaving his body, pleading "I can't breathe", we have lost our rationale and still continue to pillage and burn religious sites, we dare to take lives of people in the name of caste/racism by lynching them. A Corona virus can be overcome by vaccine, what about us?

Our morality has eroded to an extent that no pandemic, no earthquake, no locust attack and no gas leaks can alter the depravity of our souls. The Bible says," Don’t be naive. There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God. They’ll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they’re animals. Stay clear of these people." The real question is do we want to be identified as one of those mentioned here? Is this the purpose God created us to be in this world? 

Let us agree, we have lost our sense of purpose as humanity and totally diverged from the real intention of our Heavenly Creator. He intends us for this ".....friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse...." You can do this only if you ardently seek your Maker and intentionally be filled by His power. He is the vaccine for our depravity. He leaves the choice to us. He is a gentleman! Remember your life doesn't end here. " .....If all we get out of God is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot." We are created for eternity. He wants to make a charismatic person out of each of us but we degrade ourselves to be bullies mocking the very purpose of our creator. If we want to spend our eternity with God its time we prove ourselves worthy here on earth. Heaven has no place for bullies!

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Chasing After The Wind!

It's too disheartening to know that an young Indian actor Sushant Singh Rajput we see on screens gallivanting happily could suddenly take away his life and be seen no more. An actor who dies of sickness itself is heart breaking but one who is young and healthy takes away his life leaves a lot of unanswered questions in us. What could possibly be going wrong in a person's life that pushes him to tragically take his life? Is it that he is not good looking? Or in poverty? Or has no one to love him? Or has no family? It's too complicated for ordinary people like us to place our fingers on.

We end up blaming the world or society in which they were in. But is it truly the world or society to be blamed? What is it in us that makes us go so empty that we come to a conclusion that life is not worth living? Yes life can be tough, life can be so cruel but life has a purpose. We all want to make our life meaningful aligning ourselves to what the world demands, there starts our tug-of-war. We fail to understand we have to align our life to a higher being who is responsible for our existence in the first place. Because of our disalignment, our inner self struggles to comply with all that the world demands. The world raises it's narcissistic hood like a snake and strikes before we realise it. At this point our responsibility to God to fulfill His purpose seems like an alien proposition.

Wake up, my friends! We are an inch away from being sucked into the empty chasm that people go through before ending there life. Submit yourself humbly before your maker as the world today can give you multiple reasons to not live another day. It is only with your Heavenly Creator's help can you silence the inner voices, which force you to give up. We have a Saviour who says "Come unto me those who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest." Your saviour is no person or thing. Your Saviour is your Heavenly Father who created you for a purpose and has bestowed you with gifts that fulfill the very same purpose. Surrender yourself to Him and ask Him. He is willing to reveal it to you wholeheartedly.

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(Guest writer- Sarah)

Joy Stealers!

We all have our own share of challenges which we go through, the intensity may vary from person to person but no one can imagine a problem free life. Let me list out three reasons that has a potential to spoil our happiness.

Tomorrows Fear:  If you notice most of our energy is expended in thinking how our tomorrows will look like. The negatives flood in as fear surfaces which disturbs our socio emotional health. Do we realize tomorrow is not guaranteed? Life is limited and uncertain. You can calm the emotions of your heart by trusting God the one who has made us. The wealth and all the resources we possess cannot assure peace and eliminate fear. God makes provision for all. The Bible says, “do not be anxious about tomorrow.”. Well you may say it is easy to be quoted of such beautiful hope but practically it is impossible. Let me tell you there is no hope beside God and this Corona has taught us that strongly.

Present Burden: Generally, the mothers & housewives at homes will tell the challenges they face when it comes to managing things for the day. Sometimes it can be overwhelming. How often, for many the day starts with a burden over so many things to get accomplished. By the end of the day it can actually be draining. And the present burden sometimes changed to be a never-ending problem. Jesus made this strong claim, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”. Does it call to covert? Absolutely no! The problem is we put our religious belief in boxes and we assume we need to fall in some category of creed. God should mean relationship not proselytizing. Do we hear that? It is all about relationship that makes the difference.

Past Regrets: This is another area where many struggle because of the mistakes they have committed, guilt accumulated and live in depression and privation. For that matter, no one is perfect and we all end up committing mistakes. Our past guilt and sin problem cannot be addressed by external factors or visiting a shrine, though temporarily we may find some peace. It is a heart issue and a spiritual problem which may have to be dealt at an entirely different level. The Bible warns us that the wages of sin is death. We need to be freed from our guilt to live happily and peacefully. Would you consider looking unto a God who can forgive your sins and set you free from all your guilt?

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Is life exhausting you?

If you observe, most of the things that we do in our life is so repetitive and mundane. It becomes part of our existence. In fact, some regular activities lead people towards ‘Obsessive Compulsive Disorder’ (OCD). Now for some of you may wonder what is OCD? It is defined this way, “Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder in which time people have recurring, unwanted thoughts for that matter even activities, ideas or sensations (obsessions) that make them feel driven to do something repetitively (compulsions). ... Many people have focused thoughts or repeated behaviors.”

Does what life gives us bring happiness or peace in our life? I asked my 14 years old daughter how would she distinguish happiness from peace? This is how she explained to me, Example: “If I have to play PUBG or ‘clash of clans’, in the beginning the interest level seems to be so high and I feel so happy at that moment, but then it forces me to play more and more to experience more happiness just to find that it is culminating to mental fatigue and excitements is also fading away. But peace is when there is calmness in my heart and without any material things,  I still have the joy in my heart.”.

It made lot of sense to me. Frankly speaking one who finds peace and joy even in his/her loneliness is the person who understands the true meaning of life. The external situations can always be daunting, challenging and threatening but if you have God in your life you have perfect peace. The Bible says, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you.”.

We just wish sometimes things are different, but soon the different activities can also become so boring and tire us. C. S. Lewis explains this: "Heaven understands hell and hell does not understand heaven.... to project ourselves into a wicked character, we have only to stop doing something and something we are already tired of doing; to project ourselves into a good one we have to do what we cannot and become what we are not.”.

"Jesus came to remind us that we are bound to the temporal subsist without life's blueprint. Though we continue to exist, we miss life for what it was meant to be. He wants us to see what it means to live through the lens of the eternal. That takes place when He makes our lives His home. There, He has promised to bless us." Ravi Zacharias.

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