by Ivo Tomasini | Dec 17, 2022 | Mental, Paranoia, Spiritual
In a world dominated by an incessant drum beat of “us vs. them”, we must ask ourselves – who are “them”? Who are we fighting? How well do we know them and how defiant is our stance against them? Today’s economically sensitive culture is ripe for picking an enemy and blaming it for whatever obstacles lay in our path to winning that bonus, chasing that dream, or freeing ourselves from addiction.
You realize the true battle suddenly lights up with picture perfect clarity – it is “you vs. you”
On the other hand, if we can stop to think as individuals, to wipe away the mental blur induced by an arbitrary antagonist, one can put into focus the critical obstruction keeping us from attaining our goals. Like the face staring back at you in the mirror, you awaken to the unflinching fact that the villain in this game is actually you. Once you step away from the hype spun by the media machine, hearsay, gossip, politics, news, talk shows, etc. – you realize the true battle suddenly lights up with picture perfect clarity – it is “you vs. you”.
The manufactured formula for swaying human emotion is powerful, and worth billions of dollars to those who control it. People almost always fall for the contrived notion of a hero saving us from the evil “them”. Our minds effortlessly take comfort in placing the full blame of our problems onto an external bad guy…eventually allowing all possible solutions to gradually slip further into the distance of an after thought, separating us from the present state of reality.
According to the bible, ¹ everyone is in need of redemption. Our natural condition was characterized by guilt: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Christ’s redemption has freed us from guilt, being “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). The word redeem means “to buy out.” The term was used specifically in reference to the purchase of a slave’s freedom.
The former slave gains because he sees the real fight for what it is
The former slave, like an addict who drops the drinking habit, gains back his full potential when he himself changes – or asks to be redeemed, without waiting for an elusive enemy to fall, or for some phantom hero to rescue him. The former slave gains because he sees the real fight for what it is – an actionable change that starts by asking for redemption.
The next time you’re brushing your teeth, stop for a moment to face yourself in the mirror and ask, “God, what can I do today that will help me find peace, even if it’s a tiny action?” Then spit, rinse, repeat every day, and know that with a little faith, things will begin to change and the enemy will fall.
References
¹Gotquestions.org
by Ivo Tomasini | Dec 4, 2022 | Financial
I know that rage, I lived with it for several years in my young adult life. It’s the type of rage that builds up over time. It begins to germinate somewhere within your psyche. It remains there, steadily growing, unrecognizable, because there’s no understanding yet of what is creating it. Something is wrong. Where is it coming from? How do you stop it?
I remember many years ago when I was told to show up extra early for training day on my first “official” job. I was about 15 years old and full of adrenaline and naivete. I was donning my crisp new uniform ready to enter into the grown-up phase of my life that came with a paycheck and a new-found sense of self-respect.
Her biggest problem was me – a.k.a. “Flipper” – that was my nickname
“Welcome to Burger King, may I take your order?” she emphasized. That was Cathy, the cashier girl and my supervisor. Cathy was about ten years older than me and I thought she had an attitude problem. Her biggest problem was me – a.k.a. “Flipper” – that was my nickname, even though I never had to actually flip a burger since the beef patty cooking operation was automated. My exact job was to bolt to the back freezer, snatch a fresh box of burgers, haul it to the grill station, tear it open, pry the frost-bitten patties apart and quickly fling them onto the conveyor grill. I had to repeat the identical process for the buns. There had to be a sufficient amount of burgers and buns passing through the conveyors at all times, otherwise the prep cooks would have to wait, and if they had to wait, then Cathy would have to, and that’s the last thing you wanted to have happen, especially during a meal-time rush.
“Hey Flipper, speed it up!” she would yell to the back. Her voice was like a death squad killing you with embarrassment, but what could I do? Very often I would have to stop the machine to battle a patty-gone-wild causing collateral damage to the grill, usually followed by grease fire and smoke.
Eventually I would learn the system, particularly the things I could get away with and the things I couldn’t. There were a lot of rules. But for us employees, we really only cared about our paychecks and the end of our shift. From that first job I learned that money, or having a substantial amount of it, equaled freedom. And I carried this mindset with me from one job to the next. Until it permeated outside of my workplace – it had become an accepted myth in my life that I clasped onto like my wallet.
My indoctrination over the years taught me that happiness, like freedom, was attainable after it was earned. Therefore, the way to earn freedom was to make money. You had to work to be free, to consume, to rent, to travel, to become independent. The motto around our family was, “Get a job”. You want a car? “Get a job”. You want to live on your own? “Get a job”. In other words, get money.
However, this “get a job” rationale was lacking a very important factor which was essentially in the form of a question: What kind of job? Should it be something I could do? Or something I wanted to do? But when you’re young and dumb, and you want to take that vacation, the quixotic mind will very often trick you to getting the job you can do (at least for now). Earn the money, at whatever cost, so you can have the freedom to…(fill in the blank here). Don’t worry, it’s only temporary.
There was a hole burning inside of me, an emptiness mixed with desperation. By the time I was in my late twenties, I was experiencing a terrible rage.
Temporary turned into about 18 years as I bounced from one job to the next that “I could do”, forever earning my freedom and chasing around an elusive “happiness” that came to me at the end of my shift. I found myself spinning on a giant Ferris wheel with no one at the controls to stop it.
There was a hole burning inside of me, an emptiness mixed with desperation. By the time I was in my late twenties, I was experiencing a terrible rage.
My salvation was the question. What kind of job did I want? I honed in on it. In Matthew 6:21 it says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” . How do I begin transforming my work into something that brings value back into my life, and others too? I let the question sink deep into my conscience like a detox program for the soul.
Eventually, I quit feeding the rage that was fueled by a false belief that money led to freedom, and opted for value-creation instead to pave the way. The only thing people ever want is whatever is of value to them, they’re even willing to pay for it.
If you ever find yourself flipping that proverbial burger at your place of employment, then I suggest you stop for a moment and think: Why am I doing this? Am I truly creating value in my life, or simply chasing dollars? Repeat this verse over and over until it revolutionizes how you perceive money in your life: “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” 1st Timothy 6:10.
