When What We Think We Believe Conflicts with What We Do Believe

Is this an upward or downward spiral?

Often times in society we take a position on how we feel about certain issues. The one I will use to illustrate my point is sexual orientation. I witnessed a person I know go through a mental/emotional conflict the other day. Recently this person’s close friend had shared that she is homosexual. In today’s world that should not come as to big a surprise or even that big of an announcement. The person’s friend handled this news very well on the surface and their relationship did not skip a beat. As the days went on the news spread within their social circle that this person was a lesbian. Still, no problem, best friends being what they are love each other and one’s sexual orientation did not make an impact on their relationship. Then it happened, someone within their social circle accused the one friend of being a lesbian because one of her best friends was a lesbian. Now this accusation unseated what was lying just beneath the surface of this person. She immediately defended herself in a very loud way stating that she was not gay, that she was not a lesbian and did it in such a way that made one believe that being homosexual was some sort of disease.

What I witnessed was a conflict that many people go through as they struggle with how they truly feel about different issues. In modern society we have learned to be politically correct, we have learned to suppress some of our feelings and thoughts and practice some form of tolerance to the point where we even fool ourselves about what you believe and how we feel about different aspects of our life and society in general.

In the above case, this person accepted homosexuality; however her deeper beliefs were uncovered when her sexuality was challenged. In my lifetime, I have seen this played out in so many different ways, race, gender, even machismo. I listened to people openly defend the rights of others only to succumb to the pressure of the masses when push came to shove, when it became personal.

Interesting enough, this conflict between what we think we believe and what we do believe is a product of our fragile and insecure ego. Our ego has a fear of labels; it fears the very labels which our deeply rooted within the ego, the very same labels that the ego projects on others to falsely shore up the house of cards which our ego is.

When we gain awareness of the difference between ego and spirit and an understanding that the spirit always comes from love we then begin to understand there is no room for tolerance of other people, there is only room for total acceptance. When we love, we do not fear what others may think or say about us, for we understand that their words and thoughts do not have any true impact on who we are. We understand that we are not fragile beings who are defined by the thoughts and opinions of others or by the accepted views of a culture. When we are coming from spirit we use love as our tool, for it is our way of being and we love freely, without expectations of reciprocity.

It is a wonderful exercise to challenge what we think we believe and why we believe what we do. Who or what do you lack acceptance of? If you think about it from a viewpoint of pure love and acceptance and with an understanding that your acceptance of other thoughts does not change who or what you are you then begin to accept and allow your fears to fall away to be replaced with a knowing of love and acceptance.

Love the world!