Yeah, but only if you submit to it, right? How many people have we told "the truth" to only to have it thrown back in our face, or totally ignored, or whatever, you know? Not that we've ever done that, no, we're perfect, but you know...
Here's what I want to tell you about slavery: Anything that fulfills 3 or more of our basic human needs will become our slave-driver (... UNLESS we find something BETTER... oops that was the punch-line for later. Oh well, here's the preview.) That's right, there are 6 fundamental human needs. Needs, not values or wants or desires, needs, and they shape everything we do. Are you ready? Here they are:
- Certainty/Comfort: This is the survival need. We need to be certain we can be comfortable or at least go on living...
- Uncertainty/Variety: If you know exactly what's going to happen, when it'll happen, and how it'll happen you get... Bored out of your mind, so God in his infinite wisdom gave us a second human need: Variety, Adventure, Excitement, Fun, something new, surprises, (Did you know "problems" are just surprises you don't want? I bet you did!) but that's not all... drum roll please, the third human need is...
- Significance/Uniqueness: We all need to feel important, special. Some get it through piercings and sleeping around, others through fighting fires. We all need it (PS. Some get it by "being spiritual", right? Yeah, some do...), but what we really need is the fourth human need...
- Connection/Love: Most of the people you know settle for connection because love's too scary. Hey, we've all been hurt before right? And we'll get hurt again, but that's life. We need love and we're going to find a way to get it, even if we have to lie to ourselves or have split personalities. We're human and we're alive so we need to...
- Grow: If we don't grow we, what? ...Die, exactly. We must continually expand who we are (that's why meditations end in concrete resolutions btw, but you already knew that too, didn't you?) Still, you can grow and not be fulfilled unless you...
- Contribute to the greater good: This is what St. Paul calls our "spiritual worship," giving our lives to a cause (or a Person) bigger than ourselves. That's what moms do, and dads too! It's what they pay you for if you have a job or what you pay people for when you hire'em.
Now, one interesting question is: What's your lead need? Yeah, that's interesting, but not the topic of this post. Like I said any behavior that meets 3 needs is an addiction, healthy or unhealthy. What are you addicted to? Prayer? Why? "Because it makes me feel good (aka comfort/certainty). Because I get to learn something new (growth AND variety). Because I get to connect with God (Love AND significance if you talk to the creator of the universe, right?) Because it makes me a better person all day long (contribution).
On a side note, you can experience these at different levels. And you can also figure out why people don't pray (or why you don't do something you know you're supposed to...): "It's too hard (no comfort!). It's boring (no variety and no growth!). I'm wasting time (no significance and no contribution!). I feel like I'm just in a monologue (no connection or love!)." What's that mean? No prayer (or whatever your case might be...). How can we turn this around? By changing our approach or what we think about or adding something new to the equation (like music makes lots of things better: cleaning the house, running, taking the bus, etc. Isn't that why everybody goes around with headphones any more?)
Now let me tell you all a secret: If you meet the last 2 needs: growth and contribution, you'll meet all the others also. If you miss those 2, you can never be fulfilled, just surviving. In reality, if you don't meet those two needs, you're living in sin, guaranteed. Think about it. And let me know what you think...
God bless,
Live from your heart,
Scott
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