Your Secret You

Practical and profound ways to overcome stress.

The 'New' Illusion

There is an illusion to life that runs so deep, but once you see that’s it’s merely an illusion, it’s impossible to see the world the same way ever again.

The structure of life is a lot like ornate wallpaper–the kind with vines, leaves, or flowers. When you’re young, your view of the world starts as a small sliver like this.

The bigger your consciousness is in life, the larger your view is of the whole picture. When you’re young, everything about the world seems original and unique. Everything that crosses your face is new and exciting, and there’s so much newness and excitement to be found everywhere you go.

But as you travel in life–through the world and through time–you begin to see more and more of what life really is. If your consciousness grows, as you grow closer to God and farther from the traumas holding you back, you’ll begin to notice patterns in the maze of life. Your view of life becomes bigger and bigger, and you’ll find connections where you had never seen any before.

But the more things change, as the saying goes, the more things stay the same. What once seemed new and unique is actually a repeat of something that has happened countless times before–it’s just that you were unaware of it.

There are a limited number of notes in music, (12 to be exact.) there are only so many combinations of those notes that are pleasing to the human ear. There will never be a new musical chord that will ever be invented. Because of this, music has been, and always will be, rehashed chord progressions and melodies that have come before. Though a song may sound fresh and original today, there were undoubtedly songs that had similar or same compositions hundreds and thousands of years ago.

Novels, visual art, film, and every other type of art can be reduced to simple patterns. You can expand on any idea with a seemingly infinite amount of detail, but at its root, every aspect of life itself is a simple pattern. Our world, our culture, and our thoughts try their best to keep us from seeing these patterns, but it’s God who sees all of life’s patterns. Those who seek God with the utmost honesty and humility will have these patterns revealed to them.

If you could understand the patterns of life, you could understand the patterns of evil and easily defeat it. Evil doesn’t create new patterns, only a handful of old patterns repeated a million different ways–much like music. Good has its own patterns that defeat evil.

Suddenly, nothing about history is surprising. The same actions lead to the same reactions that either lead to good or evil. Even when culture and technology change the look of society, people have always had the same problems and spiritual struggle. There is no mystery to human behavior and human nature, it’s simply a matter of peeling back the veil and seeing yourself and others objectively. The truth, to those who see it, is as obvious as the sky is blue.

The good news is, that because your struggle in life is simply a pattern that has played out many times in the world before, there is absolutely a way out–even if you do not see it yet.

If you believe that you are unique in this world, with a unique personality and unique problems that have never been seen before, you may remain trapped in your problem life forever. The ego in us wants us to believe that we are special and unique, and that we have something new to offer the world, but that beleif can only destroy the good that God means for us. By realizing there is nothing special about ourselves, and seeing our weakness, God’s strength reveals itself.