The Invisible Enemy

Imagine a world with neutral people. These people are neither good or bad. They can be anything that they choose or allow to be. Imagine in such world, a communicable disease lying dormant in one corner, waiting for someone to get infected.Finally, someone came in to catch the free disease. Then, this person transfers the disease to his family members and it starts pouring down to the whole community.

This is a perfect illustration of what is happening in our society today that we tend to see in a different way. We think that when a boss yells on us or when a friend betrays us, that person is directly hurting us and that person is evil. Some of us categorize people into good or bad ones. While some, thinks that all people possess both good and bad side.

It sounds logical to think that all people are good-natured with hidden shades of dark side. We all see it, a compassionate person who turns into monster when angry, or a person with strong integrity, committing a fraud when pushed into a certain condition. On the outside, people simultaneously do both good and bad things. No person can stand tall and say that he hasn't committed any offense all his life. But this is not because of man's nature of having both bad and good side.Being good or bad is not something that is attached to our identity. People are neutral being, meant for good and expected to choose greatness.But there is an invisible force in our world that creeps into our beings like a disease. It meant to harm the person carrying it and all those who will come in contact with that person.

When someone hurts you, it's not the bad side of that person. Don't take it personally. It's the disease that is hurting you and poisoning the other person's spirit. When someone harms us, our initial response is to fight back. It's right to fight back if we really know who we are against with. Don't fight back the person. He is just a person, just like you- neutral and open to contract disease. The disease is the real offender. Such disease comes in many forms like insecurity, jealousy, pride, emptiness, frustrations, disappointments, hatred and fear. These are our issues, our push-buttons to trigger the monsters in us. We are born clean, with the absence of these issues. We just acquired these issues as we grow up, as if we are contaminated by invisible illness. We can say that, "I am like this because someone hurt me in the past." But we have to understand that "someone" was already contaminated and he/she just transferred the disease in you. Don't lose sight of the real offender.

Forgive. It's for yourself. Indeed, forgiveness is a very selfish act because it releases us from emotional burden and frees a space for us to experience peace of mind. Some people will say that they already forgave those who hurt them but they cannot recover from the negative effects of the emotional damage. Let's say, an abused woman has already forgiven her abuser. She no longer feels the anger whenever she sees the person. She can easily talk or deal with that person without any hatred or memory of the past. In another words, she view her offender as a fresh person or a stranger who has nothing to do with her past. But, deep down, she feels unworthy, dirty and little. Even though, all her hatred for that person banished, the effect of the offense lingers in her.

It's possible to forgive another person and still feel the weigh of their offense, not as something done to us, but as something that we are. Someone in the past who told you that you're "worthless," you've forgiven that person for real. But still, deep down, you believe you are worthless. And it's not easily cured by soothing words like "you are not worthless" or "you are important and special." Because words cannot easily change a hardened belief.So, what changes such beliefs? Let's start with the questions, "what caused you to believe?"

What caused you to believe is not really a proof but two things- emotion and repetition. If someone told you "you are worthless," your initial reaction is hurt or anger. We do not initially think to protect our minds from that person. We simply feel the anger, the emotion. The stronger the emotion, the deeper it thrust in our subconscious mind, creating a new-found belief out of some random opinions. In another words, strong emotions anchor deeply to the nervous system which becomes automatically linked to our bodies. So, our bodies receive the suggestion to function accordingly to a certain emotion. And the more often we experience that emotion, the more effectively it is memorized by the nervous system. Outside, the anger is directed to the offender with mental arguments like "I'm not like what you think. You don't know me. You just an asshole!" But deep down, as long as you can feel the anger, it slowly creeps in to your nervous system as an imprint.

If what caused us to believe is the intensity of emotion and constant repetition, what cause us to change our beliefs? Same things- emotion and repetition. We have to feel in a way that we prefer to believe or see ourselves. If saying to yourself the opposite makes you feel such a way, then do it. every person has his or her own way of sensing or feeling something. Paint a new mental picture of the person that you want to become and feel it deep down until it finally marks the subconscious mind. The principle of believing is merely a battle of energies, of which emotion is stronger. If you've been told "you never amount to anything" and you contradict that statement mentally with positive affirmations about yourself, the stronger emotionalized idea is the one that will prevail.

Above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it- Proverbs 4:23

To sum up all, we are continuously in battle, not against one another, but against the diseases of the spirit - fear, hatred, insecurity etc. It will be an endless cycle of contamination if we will fight against the person as the offender when the real enemy is unseen and discreet as a disease. Cure begins with awareness.