Eternal Happiness! Leaders in business, and in similar business-like operations, when they have something that works well, they begin a struggle to achieve ‘sustainability’. Getting "that something" to start to work well is one type of leadership skill. The next skill needed is to keep it running well over time. We’ve published a little bit about achieving Supernatural Happiness, and now we’ll discuss the question of: how sustainable is happiness ‘forever’?
Hollywood and stories/novels often portray good and evil as necessary repelling forces, forces that somehow and in someway must exist together. Many fictional stories depict times when the balance is out of order – such as when a current 'evil' moment must then require 'good' to
intervene and restore order. What is missed by these fanciful story imaginative authors is that evil is an unsustainable cancer against good, and that good is sustainable and does not need a cancer to exist, just as our bodies do not need a disease to prosper. It is simply a fact that evil is self-destructive and is therefore not self-sustainable. What these fanciful stories do seem to understand is that good (a sacrificial self-less way of being) is not compatible with evil (a self-centered, destructive way of being). It is simple enough for us to conclude that good is sustainable forever and evil is not.
The question then presents itself, then why does evil exist if it is not sustainable? Good can survive without evil (a health body does not need cancer to function, that is something we can grasp), so then how and why does evil exist today if it can’t survive forever? Again, it can't survive forever because it is self-destructive.
Happiness forever then, can only be sustained in the supernatural, in a supernatural place where evil does not exist. In our personal journey today, this means that we can start to understand and experience the beginning of that happiness, but for it to last forever we need some conditions to be true around us. We begin the journey to forever happiness by embracing our relationship with the supernatural in our daily practices. Those daily practises allow the supernatural support system, a system design for us to be reunited with our original design (the original plan).
In Christian studies there are 2 amazing examples of achieving this level of happiness and to have it make a big difference in our life 'right now'. We can begin to experience some of this eternal happiness now, today, no matter what the personal discomfort and storm(s) that go on around us.
- Would you like to be able to sleep in peace and happiness despite your current circumstances?
- When all others around you are troubled and fearful, would you like to get some peaceful rest?
- Yes, that includes physical sleep to then wake-up being confident and calm?
We’ll discuss a few examples of people doing just that in what could have been a very fearful moment for them...
Almost anyone in the Christian faith knows at least one good example (story) about achieving this state of being (a mindful peace), but many think that it is not easily achievable for themselves – how wrong they are! Many people unfortunately miss, and misunderstand, how this is achieved. In fact, our second example below is often one of the most overlooked and misunderstood examples.
The first is Jesus Christ, in Christianity He’s identified as the son of the living and creating God who sustains all things. Many who believe this think – sure, Jesus knew God and sure he could be very confident because of who He was. Yet many forget that this son of God came to live like God's created humans, he was to be challenged like us, and he was to show us a better way – a way that would restore us to the original design, sustainable and perfect – a state/place where we were intended to be.
There is a famous story about Jesus sleeping in a boat in a sudden fierce storm, he was tired and had fallen asleep - just as many of us do on a long-distance airline flight, but his companions (fishermen by trade, who knew how to travel by boat) were dealing with the storm’s winds and waves that could capsize the boat. We’re told that Jesus did not have a particular daily advantage over regular people, 'except' that he practiced what we each ‘could’ also be doing -- connecting with the supernatural.
He meditated and communicated with God everyday and throughout the day. He did not fail nor was he distracted by influences of the natural or of the 'bad' supernatural. If his relationship with God wasn’t there, always, He would have questioned why it wasn’t. He expected to always have it (do we?). We can’t allow daily distractions to prevent us from wanting this relationship, to live with our minds connected and aware of the supernatural forces. Some of the powerful creatures that exist in the supernatural are willing to assist us every day; and if we desire forever happiness then we must not allow the negative (evil) supernatural or natural to become our preferred or our regular influence.
The story of Christ sleeping in a boat in a storm is found in The Bible’s books called Matthew and Mark. It tells us of one night when they were all travelling in a boat that they began struggling in a sudden "furious storm" – yet some of them were great boatsmen, seasoned fishermen. They were afraid and feared for the worst, they couldn’t believe that their leader, Christ Jesus, was asleep on a cushion and it tells us that they “woke him” in their panic – they very much wanted him to participate in their fear and struggle. It is our natural human desire to want others to share in and/or help in our experience, even if that would be miserable for those others!
The story tells us that Christ woke up, calmly dealt with the situation using supernatural connections, and then questioned his companions -- why they weren’t in a better state of mind! We’re told that his companions became "even more fearful" of Christ's power, compared to the fear they had during the storm. What they witnessed of the confidence and control of the supernatural amazed and confused them.
The other example of someone with confidence in their daily supernatural relationship is found in The Bible’s old testament. Both Jews (judeo-christians) and Muslims have records of a man named Jonah. Much of the world knows the basics of this story, a prophet of God who is instructed supernaturally to go to the ancient city of Nineveh and warn those people of a judgement coming upon them from God (i.e. a supernatural, not natural, catastrophy). Jonah knows immediately what God is up to, because of Jonah's daily relationship practices, he knows that God cares for all people including these agressive Ninevehites. Jonah doesn't want to do it.
He then plans to run in the opposite physical direction (like resisting or trying to avoid a parent’s instruction). As he runs, he is still someone who is in a relationship with the supernatural - that relationship may now have an issue to correct, but like a parent-child situation it doesn't suddenly go away. His dislike for the task, and his own plan to put himself so very far away so as to not be usable, does not mean he is suddenly disconnected from his relationship with the supernatural. Jonah isn’t suddenly not a prophet of God, he isn’t suddenly not in a relationship with God, he doesn’t suddenly lose his own care for God, and doesn’t suddenly lose his recognition of his God. the relationship may be changed yet one is still there while Jonah is physically and mentally running to a far away place to hide.
We're told that Jonah gets to a seaport and into a boat and heads away, in the opposite direction, from the land where he’s supposed to be. Surprisingly we suddenly see that his personal confidence and comfort level with God has him asleep in that boat as a great storm comes up (note: this one is also a supernatural challenge, but for a very different reason, we really must improve our understanding of natural and supernatural daily interactions). The boat's very seasoned sailors are struggling to deal with this storm, and we're told that they know it is a very unusual storm (i.e. a supernatural vs natural cause).
The professional sailors begin to ask everyone to seek their supernatural understanding, their god to stop the storm. Nothing is working and they must wake Jonah up, in a bad storm!, and tell him to do the same thing… Jonah “calmly” tells them what this storm is all about (i.e. it’s about him and God). The sailors try a heroic thing, to protect their passengers including Jonah, and they continue to try and save the boat. Eventually it gets so bad that they must go back to Jonah and ask him more about his relationship with God. They then reluctantly follow Jonah's instructions to throw him overboard to stop the storm.
Just as Christ used his connection with God to stop his storm, God also stopped Jonah’s storm and we’re told (just like Jesus’s companions) that the sailors were more afraid of what they had just witnessed, than they were of the storm. This had the positive effect for these sailors to realize which supernatural power to develop a lasting relationship with!
Jonah must have had the ultimate supernatural meditative life. He was daily connected with the supernatural. Even when he tried to avoid doing what he was asked to do (ran away), he could still sleep even in the middle of a tremendous storm... just as Christ would ~800 years later!
Jonah was one of the greatest prophets of God ever recorded (I’d say he’s in the top 5, though scholars would not agree!, but certainly he makes the top 10), he is among the few that Christ mentions in The Bible’s New Testament. In fact Christ mentions Jonah a few times (mentions about Jonah being in the fish, and he mentions about Nineveh listening to and responding to Jonah, and they too - like the sailors - realized which supernatural relationship they needed). Jonah is the greatest preacher of all time (depending on how you count his words in whichever language) in few words (about 7-9) he saved many more than 120,000 people (in the bible the 120,000 population was adult men only, therefore including women and children would be a lot more).
Jonah had a lot to learn, those lessons are for another discussion, but for this discussion Jonah was always in a supernatural relationship with God. Sure, he unwisely tested it when he ran the other way, but he was still connected in a relationship. He was unlikely to have completely stopped his daily practices of meditation. At the very least he certainly didn’t stop benefiting from his past practices, and we can see that he was still at peace with God. Yes, Jonah was not behaving well and was being difficult in the relationship, yet he continued to be looked after and through discipline he was restored to favour – and though still reluctant he finally did his job. He became the greatest preacher ever, based on fewest words for the most people saved!
In these stories we learn that Jesus and Jonah relied on their relationship with the supernatural, it was a daily part of their lives. When things suddenly became difficult and threatening they had a 'learned' inner peace that prevailed.
Jesus Calms the Storm
35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took himalong, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the wavesbroke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
