Get Behind Me, Self!

Revelation Knowledge follows.  

The self "Eases God Out" (Ego) and typifies ignorance of the Spirit of God.  Self fights valiantly to retrench and rebuild when faced with the possible loss of another to God.  Self "religiously" dominates anyone it can, allowing self-righteousness (and not the righteousness of God) to rule and reign.  Self admonishes that it can only believe in, trust in, and hope within her confines, and finds misleading Scriptures to prove that tenet.  Self pronounces and denounces any as a sinner who falls short of her perfection.  She alone wants all the glory.

Self creates chimeras, feasts on perceived failures, and gorges on the gratuitous.  In three, pithy words: self is dangerous, often masquerading as the true "I Am." She subsequently debilitates and destroys while erecting monuments to mirages. Self dons hundred of faces to distract, detract, and diminish.  She appears tireless, even when one attempts to sleep.  Because the self lives within and without, the ego seizes territory in the mind to manipulate at will.

How did I become a prisoner of the ego? I wish I knew!  Like a snake, it slithers around, posing nuanced questions that produce incorrect responses.  I've read about Eve in the Garden of Eden, the first person to be victimized by a hoax.  Angels in the heavenly choir win hands down as the first created ones.  God banished them forever after Lucifer, the choirmaster, duped them into participating in the insurrection against El Elyon, the Most High in Heaven.

Poor, deluded Eve! Lucifer began with one, apparently harmless question.  "Did God say, 'You shall not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

Innocently, the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.'"  

But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Hush, hush,
Somebody's callin' my name
Hush, hush
Somebody's callin' my name
Oh my Lord, oh my Lord, what shall I do?

A play on words and Eve became the first human to be scammed, Adam the second. 

One of the reasons I've been so adamant about teaching active listening skills to students can be traced to Eve's deception.  "I know you believe that you understand what you think I said but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant," might have guided Eve's behavior.  Today's students aren't always offered communication classes, either.  I also speculate how the ego got such a mind and thought-hold in my life.

That "confession is good for the soul" represents the most cogent basis for writing this blog.   I am the "self." "her," the descriptive adjectives, as well as the revealing voice I claimed so long as mine.  I am the ego in this piece, pure and simple.  I certainly won't claim pride in baring my being for your close scrutiny.  However, I must.  I must if I am to be healed, delivered, and set free from the "me" one sees, whom the ego woefully manipulates.

What the self, ego, and I do shame me.  I'm so tired of being defined in ways that fail to reflect the Spirit of my Creator.  I know I am made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27, NRSV). yet, my thoughts and subsequent behaviors do not always mirror the "Great I Am That I Am." In truth, I fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23, NRSV), and not because of defective parts.  Rather, defective thoughts, loyalty, and action perform the work of culprits.

"For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want I do.  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me" (Romans 7:19-20, NRSV)).  The writer of the Book of Romans solves my conundrum in 50 words or less.  The ego impersonates me and arises from sin, the sin of self.  It is what keeps me dwelling on me as the Source and not on God as the Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent Alpha and Omega. 

"Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (Philippians 4:8, NRSV).  

'Nuff said.