THOUGHT: THE MAGIC WAND CHANGE

 

THOUGHT: THE MAGIC WAND CHANGE

By Rev. Dr. Arthur Chang

                                                                                                                 

One of the five unavoidable givens is “Everything changes and ends.” There is no way to stop change. As fish live in the ocean, humans live in a reality of change. Meister Eckhart said, “God is that great underground river that no one can dam up and no one can stop.” Eckhart, the great medieval mystic, may well have described change as God’s nature, despite the paradox of ancient tradition that thinks of God as changeless. In this era, process theologians assert that God, though changeless in some aspects, does change in others. If we argue that God is love, where love is the compassionate responsiveness between two entities, then how can God love us if God cannot feel us individually? In loving us, God must feel us. To feel is to change.

 Thought is our magic wand of desirable change. Humans are not helpless pawns being moved about by a super mind. We have the freedom to think and to change situations we do not like for better ones. The present is the result of our past thoughts. The future, which is open, will be the result of our present thoughts. Thought will make these changes possible. George Bernard Shaw said, “Some men see things as they are and ask, “Why?” Others dream things that never were and ask, “Why not?” Dream is intuitive thought. Thought moves us from limited to unlimited possibilities. Thought is our magic wand for bringing desirable change. Even after twenty-seven years in prison, Nelson Mandela remained true to the thought of freedom for his people, who were living under apartheid in South Africa. Freedom seemed impossible, but it was achieved.

The magic is not simply thinking about the changes we wish to make. We do not just think about food and become satisfied. The magic is in knowing the path to our goals, or destinations, our purpose. Life is actively changing and we are part of its activities. Our thoughts do not change our situations as much as they change us to see new possibilities in our situations. Change is process. That is the nature of life. The process is governed by unchanging laws, which are the only unchanging things in our reality.

Gandhi said, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Gandhi is echoing the Chinese sage, Lao Tzu, who said, “The way to do is to be.” Our thought must be integrated with who we are and what we do. It is not just that we think; the magic of the wand of thought is that it translates into action—our action in the world.

Ernest Holmes says,

“When you want to do a big thing, get the mental pattern, make it perfect, know just what it means, enlarge your thought, keep it to yourself, pass it over to the creative power behind all things, wait and listen, and when the impression comes, follow it with assurance. Don’t talk to anyone about it. Never listen to negative talk or pay attention to it, and you will succeed where all others fail.”

The mental pattern is the magical pattern of the wand of thought. We must accept it and know it has a reality in our universe. This means it is in accord with the way universal laws work. It works for us by working through us. This is the power back of the creative process that life is. To wait and listen is to sharpen our senses to the intuitive inspirations that will come and following them with assurance. This means to act; to do your part knowing the universe is doing its part. As Mandela did not spend his time listening to negative talk, you, too, will find success if you are true to yourself, using the magic wand of change.