One day I planned to spend the next Sunday fasting and praying. I had a dream that I was visited by my former high school principal who was the head of the only high school of our denomination in our county.
She insinuated her people were owed a debt and I had to fast for her ethnicity. She acted as if she were simply exercising just and proper governance. Yes, she said her ethnicity, not our church.
In retrospect, she and some ministers may have been practicing acting as if they deserved and were even expected to provide governance of spiritual practices such as prayer and fasting. Perhaps they had been lectured by some judge on the responsible use of some power the law granted them, then rehearsed karmically usurping his spirit and attitude? IDK, but they may have stepped right into "acting as if" it was their duty to ensure the responsible use of prayer.
This is similar to my suspicion that a man from a totally different, completely not related ethnicity was trying to channel royalty by illicitly hunting exotic game in parks and such, even though he was involved in governance and was not particularly a country person.
The incident of the dream seemed to lead to a loop of obsessive thinking in which I couldn't help but imagine that she and some of her former students and staff were trying their best to use quasi-legality to entitle themselves to the power which God might grant me in prayer. Any angle, anything I said about what I wanted to pray for. I thought to pray a little to help those who would have good will but had some little stumbling block, then I couldn't help but imagine various people repeating about how they could have something so good but they had "some little stumbling block, some little stumbling block."
Do I want to promulgate a decree that all must fast only for themselves as if I was Pope Just Some Guy the First? No, but I hope everyone reflects on the fact that they should not turn over power to people who might use it irresponsibly.
Quasi-historic claims of being owed often do not survive scrutiny especially in the information age.
Perhaps it's the very fasting and praying they usurp which lets them preserve their illusion?
Suppose, just suppose, that perhaps there was some weight to their centuries-old claim of being owed but a lot of other people could have helped. Besides, there is a strong chance that the power and trust people kept donating to them had corrupted them and left them entitled, though I'm not saying it went as far as, say, covering up rampant child abuse. Perhaps corruption and entitlement had led the good people of their own ethnicity to be the first to flee to other denominations.
I hope everyone at least considers not praying with or for any given church or sect unless they have given it plenty of prayer and fasting in order to carefully weigh the wisdom and morality of doing so.
If you want to pray to help someone else, the intention could be directed toward "all men of good will" or "Church leaders of good will."
Oh, I can hear them now. "But what is this good will you speak of? Can you tell me? Does it mean you get what you want? Who should decide? Who should decide? Tell me."
She insinuated her people were owed a debt and I had to fast for her ethnicity. She acted as if she were simply exercising just and proper governance. Yes, she said her ethnicity, not our church.
In retrospect, she and some ministers may have been practicing acting as if they deserved and were even expected to provide governance of spiritual practices such as prayer and fasting. Perhaps they had been lectured by some judge on the responsible use of some power the law granted them, then rehearsed karmically usurping his spirit and attitude? IDK, but they may have stepped right into "acting as if" it was their duty to ensure the responsible use of prayer.
This is similar to my suspicion that a man from a totally different, completely not related ethnicity was trying to channel royalty by illicitly hunting exotic game in parks and such, even though he was involved in governance and was not particularly a country person.
The incident of the dream seemed to lead to a loop of obsessive thinking in which I couldn't help but imagine that she and some of her former students and staff were trying their best to use quasi-legality to entitle themselves to the power which God might grant me in prayer. Any angle, anything I said about what I wanted to pray for. I thought to pray a little to help those who would have good will but had some little stumbling block, then I couldn't help but imagine various people repeating about how they could have something so good but they had "some little stumbling block, some little stumbling block."
Do I want to promulgate a decree that all must fast only for themselves as if I was Pope Just Some Guy the First? No, but I hope everyone reflects on the fact that they should not turn over power to people who might use it irresponsibly.
Quasi-historic claims of being owed often do not survive scrutiny especially in the information age.
Perhaps it's the very fasting and praying they usurp which lets them preserve their illusion?
Suppose, just suppose, that perhaps there was some weight to their centuries-old claim of being owed but a lot of other people could have helped. Besides, there is a strong chance that the power and trust people kept donating to them had corrupted them and left them entitled, though I'm not saying it went as far as, say, covering up rampant child abuse. Perhaps corruption and entitlement had led the good people of their own ethnicity to be the first to flee to other denominations.
I hope everyone at least considers not praying with or for any given church or sect unless they have given it plenty of prayer and fasting in order to carefully weigh the wisdom and morality of doing so.
If you want to pray to help someone else, the intention could be directed toward "all men of good will" or "Church leaders of good will."
Oh, I can hear them now. "But what is this good will you speak of? Can you tell me? Does it mean you get what you want? Who should decide? Who should decide? Tell me."
