Tuesday, February 8, 2011

DALE ANDREWS: MORE WISDOM


This is my friend Dale Andrews' latest word of wisdom to us all. Information about his new book is at the bottom. Be sure to order a copy. You won't be sorry.


LAWS AGAINST LAWS


I woke up this morning with a startling realization: we have all of the wrong laws. We have outlawed everything but the source of the problem. Our law codes are endless reams of words that never address the real issue: negativity. We have settled for condemning the symptoms and the people plagued by them without ever getting to the source. The original voice of evil in the Garden of Evil was the first negative thing spoken in creation. The rest of the story has been one of endless suffering.

Psychologists say that for every negative thing spoken to a child, it takes ten positive ones to heal the wound. Call anyone "bad" long enough and their life becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. God often re-named people to make a point. Jesus changed the name of one of his most influential disciples from "Wanderer" to "Rock." He could not afford for this key apostle to think he was but a drifter in life. The church would need stability; it would need a "rock."

"Thou shalt not..." is just the beginning of the correction. It is fulfilled/replaced with "Blessed are..." The Gospel is about God's affirmation of us. It stands in defiant opposition to the endless negativities of formal religion and secular law. In the end, the negative will be negated. Evil is a vacuum - an emptiness of negativity and lies. It is the black hole of soul that forever collapses in upon itself.

We need a law against the nay-sayers - the paranoid rule-makers that set themselves up to be paper gods. Law is inferior to spirit. It is for those lacking a conscience. It is also a means of social control among the power-hungry and untrusting. They build litigious walls only to discover they have walled themselves and others away from life itself. Creation culminates in the statement: "And the Lord God saw that it was good..." The story since then has been one of rules instead of choice and affirmation.

We don't need a sign that tells us what too fast is. We know. We can look at our surroundings and tell what is an appropriate speed. The government needs a few dollars. Toss them some. "Loving God, neighbor, and self" is sufficient spiritual instruction for everyone but sociopaths. They need solid negative boundaries - like jail cells. The rest of us can lovingly figure it out as we go.

Over-controlled societies go out of control. They replace spirit with law and wake up too late to discover that soul-murdered people will live like animals. Rules atrophy the spirit. "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free..."

Dale Andrews


Things I Say To Myself,
by Dale Andrews. Available through Xlibris, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and independent bookstores ($35 hardback, $25 paperback). Downloads for Kindle and ebooks available ($10). Audio version available by the end of February ($10). Short reads with lots of meaning, humor, and insight...

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