Imagine your favorite Super Hero really exists. Then imagine further, that everybody in the world has the same special super-natural powers as your Super Hero. Now, suddenly, these special powers are not so special anymore, are they?
What happened? Your Super Hero still can fly, bend steel, stop trains, use x-ray vision. Still, it's now normal, usual, nothing special anymore! So your Super Hero is not so special anymore, even though he/she continues to fly, to bend steel, stop trains and use x-ray vision.
I think with us humans it is the same situation: we have super natural powers, but since everybody has them, we don't see them as such anymore. We take them for granted. We don't even see them as powers anymore. Some of us even see their special powers as nuisance!
Let's just take our mind: we can understand so much of our world, the laws of physics and chemistry, the weather patterns, or how our body works. We invented computers, built the space-shuttle, and found cures for many diseases.
Or, think about our body: if we scratch the skin, it heals all by itself. If we eat something spoiled, our body takes care of it - either we throw up, get diarrhea, or our liver and kidney filter the toxins out of our blood. We have the best time in our lives making love, and as a result a new human starts growing! I mean, how awesome is that! If that is not Super Powers, I don't know what would be!
We are just used to our powers, and since everybody has them, we don't recognize them as such anymore. And we invent Vampires, X-Men, Ghost Whisperers and more...
There is another interesting aspect: most of us are not using our powers for the same purpose as most of our Super Heros. Think about it: Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Kick-Ass, Hulk, and so on - they all use their powers for the good of their city, society, humanity, even the world. We? We use it solely to promote our own personal vanity and comfort! We don't give a flying fig about the person next to us, not to talk about the next generation, or the people in a different country, and we definitely are not looking out for creation.
You think we care about this world? Give me a break! Listen to the news: when talking about a war or unrest, all we hear about are human casualties. Not a single word about the impact "our" mess has on animals or plants. In a natural disaster, again hardly a word about the fish, the birds, the trees - no everything is about humans.
We don't care that nuclear power-plants are polluting the environment for the next 100 million years (plus minus a few billion more) - we want to be able to use our remote to turn on and off the TV! The energy needed to power solely the remotely turned off entertainment appliances and chargers in the USA is larger than the output of the largest nuclear power-plant, larger than the largest water power-plant (the infamous Hoover dam). There are millions of other examples, where we - each one of us - is contributing to the slow demise of this world.
It doesn't make sense to ask for the elimination of electricity, or cars, to stop using machines and so on. Of course not! However, it would make a lot of sense to think about what we are doing, and what the long-term impact of it is - not just on humanity, but on creation as a whole.
But, let me get back to my original point - Super-Heros...
So, we have special powers and we use them mostly with our own benefit in mind. That's pretty sad.
But, the really, really sad part is, that many of our super powers are being used way to little. How much do we use our brain? Spiritually we are still repeating the same stuff that was said 100s of years ago. Mostly, we're vegetating on auto-pilot. Go to work, come home and watch TV, go to sleep. In between, we get drunk or high to quiescent our feeling hopeless, useless and frustrated. We believe and repeat unreflected whatever we're being told in church, by TV Gossip (often dressed up as news), even by coworkers around the water-cooler, or by spam email. Man, it's depressing! Why did we get such a great brain, if we're not using it? Why did we get such a great body, if we're just abusing it? Why did we get such an inquisitive and capable mind, if we're shutting it down, closing it up, and loosing it?
Final thought: back to imagining things: Imagine there is something like "your maker", and you'll meet her/him/it. What would you answer if you were asked "How did you use your special powers? What did you get done with them?"
Labels: Applying spirituality, Encouragement, Ideas for a New Spirituality, New Approach
