2-18-02. Sunday Journal
THE "SHOT DOWN" FACTOR
By Dalton Roberts
IPS Features
One year in my journal I
was writing about job burnout. I had taken off a few days and almost immediately
after returning, old problems reared their heads and I was right back where I
was before I took off.
I called it the "Shot down factor." If you rest yourself from a job
and as soon as you return get shot down again, your burnout is almost complete.
When rest doesn't rest you and you're just as tired after one day back, it's
time to start thinking about some other way to make your living.
The same is true in relationships. Sometimes we take vacations from each other,
or see counselors who prop us up for a while, but when the vacations are over
and the props are removed, if all the same problems are there and there's been
no significant change, the relationship is on its last legs.
Always weigh the "shot down factor" as one way to help you reach a
decision.
THE MIRROR IN THE MAHATMA
For 200 years India had given in to their own political and economic enslavement
until Mahatma Gandhi demonstrated through his life the power of one man's "satyagraha,"
or soul force,
Reporter William Shirer said, "There was a mirror in the Mahatma in which
we saw reflected what is best in ourselves."
There's a mirror in each of us. It literally is our soul and what we reflect out
to others is that inner light. To the extent that our soul is loving, kind,
considerate, compassionate and true people can look into our eyes and see it.
They then know the power of keeping our mirrors polished.
Paul in II Corinthian 3:18 says we are transformed by looking at Jesus. When we
look at anyone who has cleansed their energy field of moral and spiritual
pollutants, we can see not only their glory but the mirror that shows us our own
higher selves.
We cannot believe we can do something special and transformative until we see
someone do it. We cannot believe we can be someone special until someone who is
special helps us see we share in a common specialness, a common glory, a common
destiny.
When we shine up our own inner mirror, we help others see their own glorious
potential. It's not like we're saying, "He, look at me! I am hot
stuff!" No, no no. It's saying, "There's something worth shining up in
me and in you. Let's spray a little Windex Soul Spray on each other."
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