Our Backwards Way of Solving Problems
In spite of knowing what to do about problems, I catch myself thinking of how to deal with them the old-fashion, backwards way: by discussing, reasoning, explaining, demonstrating, negotiating, and educating. I have a lot of patience, and a lot of procrastination.
I find myself dreaming of a life I wish I had but do not have, because I am stuck with the life I do have (i.e., things are not going my way). I am keenly aware that exactly this is creating my life: my dream with the sense of stuckedness . . . is the creation of the stuckedness! This is much akin to Neville Goddard's wife's problem with her boss: she argued with him constantly in person because she argued with him constantly in her mental conversations (see http://www.realneville.com/txt/Mental_Diets.html). I have much envied her ability to alter her mental conversations with her boss in her imagination. Just as I envy Neville's revising the day every night before he went to sleep. I know to do these things, but life has not been conducive to actual doing.
What, you might ask, am I supposed to be doing about problems? Two of Neville's lectures come to mind: "If You Can Believe" and "Live In The End." Put these two ideas together: in your imagination, live in the world wherein your problem is solved, and believe that it is the world that you are living in. That, I am convinced, is the forward solution to our problems. I believe the Bible: "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." Because what we believe . . . becomes! I think it, so it is it.
Biblical believing is belief in having. Say, for instance, that you really enjoy your job and want a promotion for more responsibility at work. Do not believe that you can get a promotion; do not believe you deserve a promotion; do not believe you will get a promotion; do not even believe that you have been chosen or are satisfied that a promotion is forthcoming. Imagine you have got the promotion and believe that you are in the state of HAVING GOT it. Your scene is what you would do AFTER the promotion. Believe you are doing THAT.
Say you are a teacher and your students are not interested in your subject. Can you convince them that your topic is really interesting, necessary, and advantageous to know? Good luck. Imagine those are your students' opinions and believe that YOU HAVE, in the state of your experience with them, evidence of those opinions. No, let's push this back a bit further. Imagine you go to the local university for a graduation, and the graduating class is all your students! Believe their success. Congratulations.
In "The Law of God and His Promise" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eyqadF9R9Y), Neville used his own experience of needing tickets for a voyage from his old family home on Barbados back to New York. To get the tickets, he imagined boarding the ship he was to sail on, believing he HAD GOT the tickets for the voyage. You see, he did not imagine purchasing the tickets, writing the check, receiving them, holding the tickets in his hands. He imagined what it would be like if it were already true that he HAD the tickets. What would he do then? He would board the ship with his family. What would THAT be like? He would ride the tender with his family out to the ship at anchor and walk up the gangway holding the salty rail, and then turn with them to wave a both joyous and sad farewell to his father, sister and brothers. He imagined the scene and BELIEVED the boarding . . . and then he received the tickets!
I know I have to imagine a scene in the end I desire and believe it. The trouble is, I just can't decide what end I want! I do not want for anything except for some things to go my way, freeing up some time. I am really hard to shop for for Christmas.
I find myself dreaming of a life I wish I had but do not have, because I am stuck with the life I do have (i.e., things are not going my way). I am keenly aware that exactly this is creating my life: my dream with the sense of stuckedness . . . is the creation of the stuckedness! This is much akin to Neville Goddard's wife's problem with her boss: she argued with him constantly in person because she argued with him constantly in her mental conversations (see http://www.realneville.com/txt/Mental_Diets.html). I have much envied her ability to alter her mental conversations with her boss in her imagination. Just as I envy Neville's revising the day every night before he went to sleep. I know to do these things, but life has not been conducive to actual doing.
What, you might ask, am I supposed to be doing about problems? Two of Neville's lectures come to mind: "If You Can Believe" and "Live In The End." Put these two ideas together: in your imagination, live in the world wherein your problem is solved, and believe that it is the world that you are living in. That, I am convinced, is the forward solution to our problems. I believe the Bible: "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." Because what we believe . . . becomes! I think it, so it is it.
Biblical believing is belief in having. Say, for instance, that you really enjoy your job and want a promotion for more responsibility at work. Do not believe that you can get a promotion; do not believe you deserve a promotion; do not believe you will get a promotion; do not even believe that you have been chosen or are satisfied that a promotion is forthcoming. Imagine you have got the promotion and believe that you are in the state of HAVING GOT it. Your scene is what you would do AFTER the promotion. Believe you are doing THAT.
Say you are a teacher and your students are not interested in your subject. Can you convince them that your topic is really interesting, necessary, and advantageous to know? Good luck. Imagine those are your students' opinions and believe that YOU HAVE, in the state of your experience with them, evidence of those opinions. No, let's push this back a bit further. Imagine you go to the local university for a graduation, and the graduating class is all your students! Believe their success. Congratulations.
In "The Law of God and His Promise" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eyqadF9R9Y), Neville used his own experience of needing tickets for a voyage from his old family home on Barbados back to New York. To get the tickets, he imagined boarding the ship he was to sail on, believing he HAD GOT the tickets for the voyage. You see, he did not imagine purchasing the tickets, writing the check, receiving them, holding the tickets in his hands. He imagined what it would be like if it were already true that he HAD the tickets. What would he do then? He would board the ship with his family. What would THAT be like? He would ride the tender with his family out to the ship at anchor and walk up the gangway holding the salty rail, and then turn with them to wave a both joyous and sad farewell to his father, sister and brothers. He imagined the scene and BELIEVED the boarding . . . and then he received the tickets!
I know I have to imagine a scene in the end I desire and believe it. The trouble is, I just can't decide what end I want! I do not want for anything except for some things to go my way, freeing up some time. I am really hard to shop for for Christmas.
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
3:26 AM
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