Our way of thinking is like a path in the woods, which started with one thought in response to one stimulus, and which through repetition, became a superhighway of mental habits. If you’ve ever noticed that the same kinds of challenges keep showing up in your life, it’s time to consider new thought-responses to those challenges.
Rare Faith is a new way of thinking that can sometimes feel difficult. It’s blazing new thought-trails in your mind – traversing spaces that have never been traversed before. It’s overcoming years of thought-habits. It’s consciously choosing a new response to old familiar stimulus. In short, it’s work! It’s not easy! But if you forge ahead, pioneering new trails in your mind, trust the process, and think consciously along the lines of higher thinking (looking at setbacks as a blessings, anticipating good things coming, elevating your thoughts in gratitude no matter what, etc.), then soon enough you create new neural-pathways that lead you to a more abundant life. And not just in your perception of life, but in real life itself.
My dad sent me this poem, which illustrates the nature of MY thoughts pre-Rare Faith:
The Calf Path
Sam Walter Foss
One day, through the primeval wood,
A calf walked home, as good calves should;
But made his trail all bent askew,
A crooked trail as all calves do.
Since then, two hundred years have fled,
And, I infer, the calf if dead;
But still, he left behind his trail,
And hereby hangs my moral tale.
The trail was taken up next day
By a lone dog that past that way,
Then a wise bell-weather sheep,
Pursued the trail o’er vale and steep;
And drew his flock behind him too,
As good bell-weathers always do.
From that day, o’er hill and glade,
Through those old woods a path was made.
And many men wound in and out,
And dodged and turned and bent about,
And uttered words of righteous wrath,
Because ’twas such a crooked path.
But still they followed; do not laugh,
The first migrations of that calf;
And through this winding wood way stalked,
Because he wobbled when he walked.
This forest path became a lane,
Which bent and turned and turned again.
This crooked lane became a road,
Where many a poor horse with his load
Toiled beneath the burning sun,
And travelled some three miles in one.
Thus, a century and a half
They trod the footsteps of that calf.
The years past on in swiftness fleet,
The road became a village street.
And this, before men were aware,
A crowded city’s thorough-fare.
Then the central street was this,
Of a renowned metropolis.
And men, two centuries and a half,
Have trod the footsteps of that calf.
Each day a hundred thousand route
Following that zig-zag calf about.
And O’er his crooked journey went
The traffic of a continent.
A hundred thousand men were led
By one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way,
And lost a hundred years a day.
For thus, such reverence is lent
To well established precedent.
A moral lesson this might teach,
Were I ordained and called to preach.
For men are prone to go it blind,
O’re the calf paths of the mind.
And work away from sun to sun
To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten path,
Out and in and forth and back.
But still their devious pursue,
To keep the path that others do.
But how the wise old wood-gods laugh,
Who saw that first primeval calf.
Ah! Many things this tale might teach,
But I am not ordained to preach.
So, as we recognize that many of our existing, natural thought-patterns may be crooked, yielding undesirable results, we can intentionally imagine better destinations, blaze straighter trails, and establish new habits that help us realize a life of greater joy and serenity.
Discover how to think when you don’t know what to think, by downloading the free book: Hidden Treasures: Heaven’s Astonishing Help with Your Money Matters
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