Today, we conclude our lesson on “The Clutch of Death” with these remarks on how the beliefs, sensibilities, and expectations of our families-of-origin can act as the greatest block to our soul’s freedom.
In Luke 14, several paragraphs after Jesus introduced the idea of the death clutch, he talked about how the love of “our people,” often wraps us in a set of belief and behaviors that condemn us to keep chasing the attachments and agendas that suffocate true life.
Few things inform our unconscious instincts as deeply as the primal relationships from which we come. “The Way Things Are,” usually comes to us in the voice of father, mother, or some other person of visceral importance in our lives.
To be truly free, we must come to a place where we see these beliefs for the beliefs they are. We may continue to hold them, or we may decide to set them aside. However, we can do neither, until we see our beliefs as beliefs. What we believe, we can decide to un-believe. But as long as we can’t see them, they remain powerfully deterministic programs running in the background of our lives.
Have a listen.
Doug
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