Community:Church of the Dark Star/Sermons/2017-02-04-Freedom from Worry

Chaos
by Amber Raine


 * ''Danellosi Mellonamin, Bienvenue Tout la monde, Good Morning Friends and family. Such a beautiful day isn't it? Look around us, yet again we see the wonders that are upon us in this world and the one across the rift.  Often times we miss the great things that are surrounding us because we are too wrapped in the worries that nag at us and leave us clouded.  Today I wish to share with you a path of how to rid yourselves of those worries, and see the positives that are all around you, no matter how dark it may currently appear.  Before we get into that however, I wish to share with you some of the wonderful events that are happening in our community.  Today we get to welcome a dear Purple friend back to this side of the rift, after being away for such a long time our friend Grimace has returned to us and tonight there shall be a celebration of welcome  Eclipse Maiden shall be hosting a radio party on Radio Free Britannia and all are welcome to join the celebrations and welcome him back tonight at 8pm NBT  On February 10th we shall be helping raise money in a charitable telethon for Iron Maiden.  As many know Iron Maiden is going through some serious medical issues and there will be a fund raising telethon to help him cover those medical bills.  You are already able to head on over to the GoFundMe and donate, for every person who donates 25$ toward it they will recieve a wonderful cloak here in New Britannia.  Lastly, next week, February 11th, Paxlair will be hosting a Festival to Sequanna just in time for the earthly holiday of Valentines day.  This Festival will cover many events and will envelope the entire community in a shroud of virtue. Namely Compassion, Spirituality and honor.  We hope you will join us for all of these events as we celebrate as a unified community.  So with those all covered, I have a question for you all. How many people here today get excited when you find out about something new?  something that might be good for your life that might have you feeling like you are going to make progress in a direction you have really been wanting to go?  A new promotion at work, a change in your relationship status, the promise of an event or prospect of a partnership?  Most of the time people get excited about the new thing. Many people get excited about when they finally reach their goal.  But what happens between hearing about it and actually achieving the reward at the end? That is what I call the middle.  To be honest with you we live most of our lives in the middle. Every body gets excited about the new things.  A lot of people never reach their goals, they never get to their destination , they never see their dreams fulfilled  They never experience the fulfillment of their potential or promises in their life because they don't know what to do in the middle.  Everybody gets excited when they finally arrive and they reach their goal but  You know that there are wonderful things out there, and you know you want to have them, but you have to decide that you are going to have them and that you are not going to let anyone or anything take them away from you.  You must make a decision today.  I finally decided that I am not going to spend the rest of my life without peace.  One of the things that you are going to have to learn to do if you want to have peace is learn how to not worry.  Worry is nothing more then making a down payment on a problem you may never have.  Worry is a total complete useless waste of time. Worry never solves your problems.  All it does is torture you. It torments you. It goes against everything we talked about last week. Faith. Nothing at all.  "I can't help it I am just a worrier." No, you have peace and you have power.  I have peace and I have power therefore I am not going to live in a constant state of worry.  Some of you, if you would just change your attitude your life would do a 360 degree turn.  If you would just say "I am not smart enough to solve this."  I, me, myself, I am not smart enough to solve this. I do not know what to do.  And when people say "what are you going to do? What do you think?"  Just look at them and say "I don't have a clue"  I don't know but I do know somebody who does know and I guess the answer will come to me when its time for it to.  Let me read you something, the definition of worry...  ~opens up the page to where she has it book marked and reads the definition of worry~  This is the definition that I got .. ready for this? I didn't make it up.  ... To torment oneself with disturbing thoughts ...  ~looks up and tilts her head and lets out a slight chuckle~  Does anybody here have enough sense to not torment themselves?  ~turns toward Kazyn~  "what what are you doing tonight?"  ~turns the other way and shrugs~  "I dunno, I thought I would torment myself."  ~turns back~  "What?"  "Yea I just thought I would spend the day making myself completely and totally miserable."  Will anyone here seriously disagree with me? That does not sound like something you are likely to want to do.  ~returns to reading from the book~  ... To torment oneself with disturbing thoughts, to feel uneasy, anxious or troubled. To torment with annoyances, cares, and anxieties.  To seize by the throat, take into the teeth and shake or mangle.  ~looks back and up laughs~  Well that sounds like a lot of fun and how i want to spend the rest of my life!  Can we all agree that worries and cares and anxieties of the world.  The deceitfulness of riches, and spending your time focused on who has what and who doesnt, who has said what and who hasn't  Does nothing more then chokes the very breath of faith and peace, suffocates the very power out of every one of us?  Spend all that time your spending worrying and focus on how good it is going to be when you finally achieve your goal.  Fight the good fight. If it helps, start saying some positive things to yourself out loud about how good it is going to be instead of how negative you think it is.  Your own voice will disrupt the wrong thoughts your having. You will believe more of what you say then what anybody else does.  The pracitcality of how not to worry. Learn how to get some humility. It is a virtue after all. And none of us, no matter what path we follow need not embrace them all.  Get some humility. Learn what you can do and what you can't do. Continue to do what you know you can do, try new things, but stop from trying to do things you know you can't.  Accept that you can not do everything and what you can not do someone else will always be there to help you out and do it for you.  Learn to confide, lean on and depend on others. Independance is great, but it only goes so far. Being independant when you know you need help is not good for anyone, physically, mentally or emotionally.  Therefore, stop being perpetually uneasy, anxious, and worried about your life.  The next time you start to worry just have a little talk with yourself.  Seriously, anybody ever heard me say "okay, just stop it?" Or "I need to just stop it"?  You know you have. Yes, believe me.. it helps!  Just have a little talk with yourself and say "all right just stop it. right now, just stop it."  Talk to yourself, this is not going to do any good. I've been there, done that. I'm not going to waste this day tormenting myself and making myself miserable thinking about this thing over and over.  And then you know what you should do? You should go get yourself a nice big bowl of ice cream. Seriously, get yourself a nice big bowl of ice cream and then go get involved with something else that will take your time and your mind.  Something that is going to be happy, something that is going to be helpful. Something that is going to be joyful and peaceful.  Learn that you can't fix everything, sometimes you can't fix anything.  You need to say to yourself often "I'm not smart enough to figure this out so I am not going to waste my time trying."  Can we try this today? Together? Let's just say "I'm not smart enough to figure this out"  Hmm, you don't sound convinced. Some of you even had some really weird looks on your face and didn't say anything at all.  It is like we really want to be the one in control.  Come on, say it with me with a smile. "I'm not smart enough to figure this out"  Thank you! Now realize, that doesn't mean your dumb. We are all smart in our own way. We all have wisdom we are filled with, and it is that wisdom that tells us when we are just not smart enough to figure something out.  And even if you do figure it out later at least you did not have to spend your time worrying and feeling bad that you couldn't figure it out at that very moment.  The other thing that you have to have if you are going to not worry.  Firstly is humility, the second thing that you have to have is experience.  We hear the saying all the time " There is no teacher better then experience "  I have experience with some things, I don't have experience with everything.  Infact I know that there are many things I Do not have. Every week that I have been able to be out here, talking to you about not worrying  and how our chosen path can bring us abundance and prosper. Bring us happiness and opportunity.  While at the same time I am struggling. You wonder why I miss week after week sometimes. I have been doing some serious struggling that only a few of you truly know about  I often times feel kind of silly to be up here preaching it and yet feeling that it wasn't even working for me.  But, I was in the middle... did you hear me? I was in the middle!  I still am, I am still in the middle of it. So much struggle going on, a lot more then many of you may ever realize. Those that do know what I am going through may start to wonder how I can be up here at all.  Truth is, I am in the middle and I can be up here because I know when I get to the end, it will be worth it.  I have started my journey and begun to set sail, I am trying to cross the path and have now become faced with so many different things falling apart beside me and in front of me.  I have things with my family and struggles about finances just like many of you here. Where is my company going? Am I going to lose that important person in my life that means more to me then life its self?  I have started my journey as many of you here today have also done. If you hadn't you would still be an infant and if you were at the end you sure would not be here today, the end is kind of eternal.  So we are not yet at the other side, we are in the middle and what we do in the middle is going to determine if we will ever get to the other side.  And it will determine how long it will take to get there.  I can tell you that I Have messed around the trying to figure out what I was going to do and trying to find the answers to the questions I could not answer.  I can tell you, I also was too proud to admit that I did not know the answer. Too proud to admit that I just could not do it on my own and nearly lost myself.  I messed around way to long but I am trying to help you not to make some of the same mistakes that I did.  And what did I learn? I learned I am not smart enough to solve my own problems. I learned I can not change my boyfriend, I can not change my kids.  I can not change the outcome to medical exams and what is going to happen to my family as they get older and are taken home.  I can not change who is running my country no matter how screwed up and what kind of circus it seems to be turning into.  I can not run the world! It might come as a surprise to some of you but it is too difficult!  Step back. Say to yourself "I am not smart enough to do this" and remember, just because you may not be able to do it now, does not mean that it is never going to get done.  But one thing we're not doing. We are not tormenting ourselves one more day. We may not have all the answers, we may not be able to change anything...  but we area also not going to stand still, in the middle of this path we have chosen to walk on and torment ourselves one more day.  Stand up, Proudly embracing the virtue of humility and accept that what ever happens, happens.  Anything and everything is possible. Sometimes nothing is possible. That is the path we have chosen to walk upon. But no amount of worry or torment is going to change the outcome.  You deserve happiness, you deserve peace, and you deserve to get to the end.  May the shadows of night keep and protect you always!''

Order
by Kazyn Phoenixfyre

Balance
by Winfield