Unity Center
 2041 Old Fanning Bridge Road, Mills River NC  28759
(828) 891-8700, 684-3798
Email: unity(at)unitync.net

The Master of Your Life: God or Mammon

Webster's Dictionary definition of mammon: material wealth or possessions.

I've heard this passage from the Bible since I was a young boy attending the First Baptist Church in Louisburg, NC. Unfortunately, much of my life I didn't have a clue what Jesus was speaking about since I didn't know what the word mammon meant. As luck or destiny would have it, when I started attending Unity Center several years ago, I learned that this passage was one of Rev. Chad’s favorites to explore with the congregation.

From those explorations I learned that one of the ways to define mammon is that it's material wealth or possessions. In other words, it's the physical aspects of our existence, versus God, or the metaphysical part of life. So, it appears to me that what Jesus is saying is that we have a choice to make. We can either serve the material or physical part of our existence, or we can serve the spiritual or metaphysical aspect. We cannot, however serve both.

This doesn't mean that we cannot participate in both the physical and metaphysical aspect of living. Indeed, we cannot help but participate in both since both the physical and spiritual are a part of who we are. However, it is important that we choose which will be our master. In other words, which aspect of our life will rule and be the primary force that shapes our lives? It's a matter of becoming clear about our priorities.

Another way to think about this vitally important lesson that Jesus was trying to impart is to consider the direction of our perception or our consciousness. Is it outer to inner, or inner to outer? Our experience of life is a matter of perception. The question is whether you view the world 'out there,' i.e., the physical reality that you perceive with your 5 physical senses of seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and smelling, and then have the physical shape your inner perception of your thoughts and feelings? Or will you create thoughts and feelings from the realm of pure possibilities (also known as God and a few hundred other names), allowing those thoughts and feelings to be the building blocks that form your inner perception which will then radiate out to give you your experience of the physical realm of life?

It appears to me that many of us spend too much of our time allowing our inner world to be shaped by what we perceive is happening in our outer physical reality — especially during these recent times. Someone walks up to us and says something which we then assimilate with our physical senses, which then elicits some fairly automatic thoughts and feelings. In fact, for many people this is so much the way life occurs that it may be difficult to imagine any other possibility. But, just for a moment, let's see if we can consider an inner to outer approach to life, which is what I think Jesus not only recommended but also demonstrated was possible.

I'm suggesting that living a life in which we are serving God rather than mammon becomes possible when we take ownership of our power to create our own reality starting from the inner or metaphysical realm of life. This realm of life is composed of thoughts and feelings, which come together to make up molecules of meaning -- the basic building block of our metaphysical or inner universe. Contrast this to our outer, physical reality that is composed of atoms which make up molecules of matter -- the basic building block of our physical universe.

So the choice we have is to either create our lives from molecules of meaning which will then give us our experience of our outer, physical reality -- the inner to outer approach. Or, we may remain in a more reactive, automatic mode allowing our 5 physical senses to inform us what's happening around us, and then unconsciously making it mean something, often something fearful or lack-based-- the outer to inner approach.

Making this perceptual shift is perhaps one of the most challenging and life altering transformations and is an integral part of becoming truly enlightened.

Why is it such a challenge? Well, in part because as a society we've come to love, honor and cherish, indeed to worship the physical realm of our existence. We've been taught to depend upon our 5 physical senses and to ignore or distrust our inner metaphysical senses. We're so caught up in the physical aspect of doing and having that we spend almost no time in the metaphysical realm of being and spirit. No wonder many of us are challenged to even consider the notion of living from inner to outer. We haven't even taken the time to ponder the possibility.

But you have, haven't you? Just now. As you're reading these words, something is going on over there in your thinking nature. It may be thoughts like, "What is this guy talking about? How ridiculous can he be?" Or, it might be, "Yes, I see what he's saying? It makes sense. It resonates with my experience of life as well."

Whatever your thoughts right now, I'm asking you to ponder this different way to view life -- an inner to outer approach. Why not conduct an experiment? Count up the number of years you’ve lived from outer to inner, then dedicate an equal number of years to trying inner to outer. At the end decide which gives you the more fulfilling life and then continue to live in that way.

Dr. W. Bradford Swift co-founded Life On Purpose Institute in 1996 with his wife, Ann, to assist people like you to clarify their life purpose so they could get on with the joyful challenge of living on purpose. He is the author of Life On Purpose: 6 Passages to an Inspired Life, and maintains a life coaching practice in Flat Rock, NC. www.lifeonpurpose.com

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