The dangers of blind loyalty

Have you ever been very loyal to another, only to find yourself betrayed by them unexpectedly?

I have. In fact, recently, and I’ve been wrestling with how to prevent myself from being taken advantage of by another’s adverse change of heart in the future.

When I read the Bible lesson yesterday, the passage “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another,” jumped out for scrutiny.

In the past, I’ve interpreted this verse as wise counsel to stay out of debt, to not put yourself into a position where you’re serving creditors, and becoming enslaved to worry and fear about how to pay bills more than you are paying attention to serving your debt and duty to God.

As I listened for fresh inspiration, the words, “Owe no man your loyalty,” screamed out for attention.

I thought, “Whoa!” Isn’t loyalty a good quality? But then I thought about my recent sour experience where I did have loyalty to another, and thought they had loyalty to me, but when selfish pursuit entered the equation, without warning the loyalty suddenly meant nothing. My trust felt betrayed.

As always, I know these types of trials serve to lift us higher and closer to God.

I remembered Hymn 204 from the Christian Science Hymnal, which refers to God sending His witnesses to speak the truth, and states in part,

No trouble shall touch them, no foes that appear,
Shall e'er from their loyalty move them;

And the lightning bolt of inspiration struck me; it was loyalty to God that I needed to perfect, and not loyalty to mortals.

Loyalty to a mortal can be blind and misguided.

For example, blind loyalty to a good boss may work fine 98% of the time, but if the boss had a temporary lapse in ethics or discretion, our unwitting compliance could lead to evil consequences that harm the innocent and injure our career.

Mortals are fallible.

But divine Mind is infallible, and this is where our loyalty needs to be placed—to the right and the true, to the moral and the spiritual, and not into mistake-prone mortals.

When we put our trust in God, rather than in man, we are able to more clearly sort out the right from the wrong and make better decisions for everyone involved. This rule works for marriage, family, church and any other relationship we are involved with.

“Owe no man your loyalty…” and no man will be able to violate your trust and faith.

Throw my loyalty more consistently to Truth, I decided, and my relationships with others still would be healthy and a joy, but also strengthened, protected and purified by my commitment to right and keener discernment of lurking errors that need to be admitted and faced up to along the way before they stab me in the metaphorical back.

I feel a lot lighter today! No burden of false loyalty to carry around anymore...

Cheers

Wingsuits of Mind

I admire people who break the limits of matter-based thinking, exceed conventional expectations and demonstrate the limitless possibilities of Mind.

A reader sent me this link to a short video of a brave and fearless man named Espin flying in his wingsuit that certainly falls into this category. His gravity-defying feats will take your breath away…

“He did fly upon the wings of the wind.” Psalms

Watch out for the killer biscuits

This story is so funny, I wanted to share it with you…

Killer biscuits wanted for attempted murder

Linda Burnett, 23, a resident of San Diego, was visiting her in-laws and while there, went to a nearby supermarket to pick up some groceries. Several people noticed her sitting in her car with the windows rolled up, her eyes closed with both hands behind the back of her head. One customer who had been at the store for a while became concerned and walked over to the car.

He noticed that Linda’s eyes were now open, and she looked very strange. He asked her if she was okay, and Linda replied that she’d been shot in the back of the head, and had been holding her brains in for over an hour. The man called the paramedics, who broke into the car because the doors were locked and Linda refused to remove her hands from her head.

When they finally got in, they found that Linda had a wad of bread dough on the back of her head. A Pillsbury biscuit canister had exploded from the heat, making a loud noise that sounded like a gunshot, and the wad of dough hit her in the back of her head.

When she reached back to find out what it was, she felt the dough and thought it was her brains. She initially passed out, but quickly recovered and tried to hold her brains in for over an hour until someone noticed and came to her aid.

According to Snopes.com, this story is not true, but evolved from a comedian’s routine many years ago. It’s still a blast to read though, because it points out how absurd human mind conclusions can be when drawn from physical sense testimony.

While most of us would likely not repeat the above scenario, how often have we repeated the act in different situations, and with more serious consequences?

I’m thinking of the recent spate of flu cases across the country. How many people have caught the flu, not through material contagion, but from seeing it in others and believing they’re going to catch it too?

Like the Pillsbury dough container exploding with great noise, the media advertises the flu with great ado, and if one hasn’t avidly protected their thought from the mental contagion, they might at some point believe they’ve been “shot in the back of the neck” too and start manifesting the same symptoms.

The physical senses can be so misleading at times. They cannot be trusted.

Jesus Christ instructed, “Watch!” And he meant watch for spiritual truth so one doesn’t get tricked by the human mind into drawing erroneous conclusions.

God created us spiritual beings governed rightly by spiritual sense. When we listen to spiritual sense and not to physical sense testimony, we draw the right conclusions about our health and well being and spare ourselves much grief.

Watch out for those "killer biscuits!"