By the Way: You are what you read

By REV. OZ LORENTZEN on June 5, 2021.

“You are what you eat.” This slogan, employed by both advertisers and common sense reminds us that we are not self contained or self governed, but are affected and influenced – to some extent we are made – by our environment and by what we partake of in that environment.

I think this is true at all levels of human existence, bodily, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually. Just as we need to be careful of our diet if we want to meet some fitness or bodily health goal; so we need the same level of attention and planning if we are to meet goals for our inner person.

I’m writing this today because COVID has introduced a wide variety of potions for our souls, emotions, minds and wills to ingest. And, it seems to me, that we are not always careful about what we are partaking of from this wide smorgasbord. But, a lack of care on our part will shape us and form us in ways we may not desire or intend – “you are what you read.”

Let’s look at the emotional response of fear for example: You are alone in a dark room, you think you hear a noise and you tell yourself it could be a burglar. Now you have two choices, one is to look for evidence or reasons to “talk yourself down.” The other is to allow your imagination to run free, to focus on the suspicious sounds and your feeling of fear and anxiety.

I trust you know from experience the end result of these two choices. What we feed through focus and intention gets stronger. So, we should choose the sort of inner person we would like to be, and the shape of the person we want to be post-COVID. And then, plan for and implement an intentional way to develop that during COVID.

Rev. Oz Lorentzen is from St. Barnabas Anglican Church.

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