Our Deadly Attachments
Have you inventoried the things in your life you are “attached”
to? We all have them and until we identify them and understand their roots they
often act as invisible anchors, slowing our spiritual progress. Does this mean
we have to strip away and discard all we own (physically and mentally) to grow
spiritually? No, but we must discard our attachments,
mental and physical. Possessions are not a spiritual hindrance unless we define ourselves by them. We
are not the house we live in or derive any real status (positive or negative)
from its physical location. We are not the car we drive, wristwatch we wear or
any other material possession for these things are all passing, mere ornaments
of living, gifts to enjoy but of little spiritual value, destructive if they
lull us into a false sense of perceived spiritual entitlement because we “own” them.
As hindering material attachments, possessions, may be, they pale in
significance when weighed against our mental attachments, the possessive thoughts
we routinely embrace, particularly those kept in our secret “closet of heart
and mind” which plant the deepest and heaviest anchors. To hold that any group
or people are either favored by God or despised, plants an anchor. To place
anyone or anything on a pedestal, a sacred cow, another anchor. To fail to
recognize the inherent dignity of anyone, for ANY reason, another anchor, wishing violence on anyone, there are
many more. We are spiritual beings, the power that is within us, moves us is
beyond measure; it is no less than the Creative Life Force that animates the
mayfly and powers the stars. As great as this power is, we can set enough
anchors to slow our growth to the point of it being imperceptible. We must
begin cutting away the anchors slowing our progress, for if we don’t, our fate
will be the same as the Rich Young Man from the Bible, who failed to
demonstrate and …went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions (Matthew
19:22)
Vincent Lee Jones 