Discovering My Illusion

Nothing in our lives stays static.  All changes.  Yes, cycles occur in which things tend to go around and arrive back to where they were (Ecclesiastes 3:15), but that is still constant change. Our challenge is to be able to see reality as it is.  Just when we think we have it, it changes.  People change.  Circumstances change.  Further, we have a hard time getting it right in the first place because we create illusions of it. This happens because of our addictions.

When I am being motivated by a security addiction, it acts upon my perception as a filter.  The security aspects of any situation are blown out of proportion and I begin fearing the worst.  Never mind that the worst that can happen never seems to actually happen. I dwell on it anyway. That’s if I am caught up in a security addiction.

In that condition, if I feel you don’t love me, I interpret happenings and circumstances in such a way that they prove my fear to be grounded.  This doesn’t mean that I should ignore what I see.  Y’shuah says that we know a tree by its fruit (Matthew 7:16).  Paul describes two types of fruit at Galatians 5:19-22.  Yes, I may perceive what underlies what I see (determining the tree), but when my consciousness is being dominated by fear, I will magnify particular aspects of what I see beyond their relative importance.  I may not see all the fruit, but only the fruit that tends to support my fear.

One problem with this is that people and situations change.  Just because I fear something that is actually happening, it doesn’t mean it will continue happening.  And it doesn’t mean that it will result in the thing I fear.

If I am afraid of something, I like to ask “Why? What is the worst thing that can happen?”  And then, “Okay, suppose that does happen. Well, what is the worst thing to which that can lead?”  And then, “And if that happens, what is the worst that can result from it?”  An analysis like that often reveals the pointlessness of the fear.

The real futility of being caught up in a security addiction is that when my addiction has seized control of my thoughts, it blinds me from what is really happening.  I fail to see the contrary evidence.  I am trapped in an illusion.  The situation has changed and I’m still stuck with my illusory view of it, which wasn’t even valid before things changed.

A big part of freeing myself from this trap is to recognize the problem --- to discover that my addictions form these illusions that blind me to what is really happening.

Once I recognize what’s happening, I can take steps to deal with it. This is the direction in which this series is going.