Breaking With The Past.

In those days and in that time I will cause to grow up a righteous Branch of David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. -- Jeremiah 33:15 

Genealogy has a few of my relatives caught up in the ancient ways where knowing who you came from mattered.  Rooted in a common myth, if you were the child of a crook the chances were deemed pretty good that you'd become a crook.  Yes, simple minded - but most stigmas that get stuck to a person are more lie than truth.

Understanding of the ways we inherit stuff from the past have expanded a great deal.  Long ago inheritances were passed on by family relationships, usually father to eldest son.  This was the Biblical context.  Early Christian writers, like Matthew and Luke, worked hard to trace the familial lineage to "prove" Jesus fulfilled this ancient Biblical prophecy of who the Messiah would be.  The underlying expectation of a Messiah was that he would be a new kind of king, a holy ruler who would vanquish all the other imposter rulers.  Jesus claimed a different kind of messiahship and with it a different definition of power.  Jesus didn't see power arising from the tip of a sword or other forceful means.  Jesus embraced the power of everlasting connection with truth and wisdom.  This power was present in the true self and in the true community of believers.  Another word for this power is Love.   

Then Mendel came along and demonstrated that genes carry information forward, mainly physical traits.  Current thoughts embrace ideas that familial energies get handed over, family system dysfunction gets passed on, and there are a growing host of ways genes can get turned on or off like switches. Perhaps the definition of sin is how all the mistakes and misperceptions of the past come to roost in our psyches.  Voices, stigmas, and messages we've accrued from our long lineage tell us we're not good enough, that we can't trust, that only through control and force can we be safe, that watching out only for myself is how to gain security. We believe these partial truths and dismiss spiritual virtues of love, generosity, kindness, gentleness, compassion, inter-dependence... as "sucker fluff for losers." Yet in fact, it is those very virtues that comprise the invisible web of life that keeps the environment and humanity in existence.

The "righteous Branch of David" is the truth that lays hold of us and feeds the roots we share with the human family - those living and those past.  All humanity possesses the very same needs to be accepted, loved, kept safe, possessing hopes and dreams. We are blessed by that Jesus kind of messiahship.  It is our present state.  Will you live it into the future?

Prayer:

May we put down our insufficiencies and need for control to pursue our adopted state within the Divine.  Amen.

Actionable Suggestions:

1. Journal about the implicit and explicit messages you received about yourself that still control your self-worth and confidence.
2. Search Youtube.com for videos on how to do tapping and use it to diminish the internal messages you no longer want to be living out.
3. Interview older members of your family about any messages that they've carried through the years that probably held them back from accomplishing more.