Self-Imposed Ghetto

The Warsaw Ghetto and Wall - May 1941

Have you built walls to shut everybody else out of your world?

I’m reading a book called Isaac’s Army; a story of courage and survival in Nazi-occupied Poland in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s.

A ghetto is defined as a part of a city, typically a slum area, occupied by a minority group or groups. It can also be a section of a city mostly occupied by a group who live there, particularly because of social, economic, or legal issues.

The Nazis forced all the Jewish people in most of the larger cities of Poland to live in a controlled area set apart by walls, barbed wire, and guards.

The Warsaw Ghetto had over 300,000 people living in an area of about 700 acres. It was roughly 1 ½ miles by ¾ mile in size.

There were several resistance groups operating at the time that totally distrusted each other. They would often meet but could almost never agree on any strategy to resist the Nazis.

From July to September, 1942, the Nazis carried out the Gross Aktion, in which over 200,000 Jews were herded into railroad cars and carried to the Treblinka Concentration Camp where they were exterminated.

Still the resistance groups would not even agree on the nature of the Nazi threat.

After a period of intense personal grief and shame over watching 80% of their number be taken away, the resistance groups decided that the threat was greater than their pride and distrust of their own people.

They pulled together and began a somewhat effective resistance. Unfortunately it was doomed to failure.

Your Own Ghetto

Have you sequestered yourself in your own ghetto of sorts by being held captive by your emotions? Many people have. Pride, fear of the unknown, inability to find relief, or lack of acceptance by family, friends, and peers have convinced you that it is better to live in solitude under self-imposed rules on contact with outsiders who don’t or won’t understand you.

Better to just accept your circumstances than fight them.

Or perhaps you’re like some of the zealous resistance fighters. Nobody is going to tell you how to live your life. You’ll show them that you are your own person by living life just exactly as you choose regardless of the risk to yourself and others.

For the Jews in Poland, it was very frightening to be forced to live in the ghetto. They never knew when the Nazis would knock on their door and haul them away. Many broke under the strain. Disease and death were rampant.

Have you reached the point where the pain of emotional separation or the increased risks of rebellion are putting strains on you?

Are you being stretched to the breaking point?

It’s hard doing it alone

The Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto who tried to do it alone almost always failed. It’s really hard for you to escape from your personal ghetto by yourself as well.

There are traditional routes that you may have tried - counseling, meds, clergy – and found little or no benefit.

You may have read books that shared various ideas; but they often don’t seem to work.

So what do you do?

It takes three things to affect significant change in your life:

• It takes knowledge – you have to know about an idea that can work.
• It takes belief – you have to believe that idea will work for you.
• It takes repetition – you have to practice the idea enough times for it to take effect in your life.

Finding Personal Peace offers you a simple, painless idea and gives you enough background so you to see how it can work for you. It then leads you through a process of repetition so that over time, you can develop a habit of peace to replace your habit of pain.

You can escape from your personal ghetto with knowledge, belief, and practice.
Start your escape today.


www.findingpersonalpeace.com

Thanks for reading our blog today. I invite you to respond in several ways: (1) Comment in the space below if you agree or disagree with what I've said. A dialogue could be interesting for all; (2) Share the post with your friends using the buttons below; and (3) sign up to get an email with each new post. There’s a place to do that on the right. Then you won’t have to remember to look for our subsequent posts. Thanks again!

What will You Give Up for Lent?

Peace is the Promise of Lent

Making change usually means giving up the old and taking on the new. 

I grew up in a non-liturgical church which didn't celebrate Lent. It wasn't until just a few years ago that I was part of a congregation that celebrates Lent. So I had a lot to learn.

Lent is a forty-day liturgical season that initiates the most sacred part of the Christian year.  Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes Easter. Sundays aren't counted for some reason.

The word Lent actually comes from the Old English lencten, which means "lengthen."  It refers to the lengthening of the daylight hours that occurs in the northern hemisphere as spring approaches.  It is in this period of transition from late winter to early spring that the season of Lent falls.

Forty is a number that has a lot of Biblical significance.

It rained for 40 days. Moses was on the mountain for 40 days receiving the Ten Commandments. Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Elijah went 40 days into the wilderness. The people of Nineveh fasted and mourned for 40 days in response to the preaching of Jonah. Jesus fasted in the desert for 40 days after which he as tempted by Satan. Jesus was among his disciples for 40 days after the resurrection before He ascended into heaven. So it seems logical that Lent lasts 40 days.

Why practice Lent? 

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “the purpose of Lent is to provide that purification by weaning men from sin and selfishness through self-denial and prayer, by creating in them the desire to do God’s will and to make His kingdom come by making it come first of all in their hearts.”

What does this mean to us? 

Looking at the concept of Lent from a secular perspective, it’s a time when we give something up; a time when we make sacrifice.

Maybe we give up some of our comfort zone. Maybe we give up beliefs and thoughts that are dear to us. Maybe we give up habits that have the capacity to hurt us and hold us back from where we might be otherwise.

Comfort zone 

That’s a subjective term. Your comfort zone might be horrendous to someone else because you may have gotten comfortable in an atmosphere of pain and negativity that you know than you might be in the unknown of the alternatives. So we say, “I’ll just deal with it,” and continue trudging through our lives.

Beliefs and Thoughts 

Again, the impact of beliefs and thoughts is subjective. It’s true that you were hurt. And the recurring thoughts that you have represent something that truly happened. And you may take some satisfaction in the vengeance you deal out every time you think about those painful things.

Habits 

We get comfortable where we are and reconcile that this is the hand we were dealt and we’ll just play it. Maybe I eat too much. It doesn't hurt anybody but me. Maybe I languish in a menial job. It’s my life. I’m not hurting anybody else. I speak my mind. Don’t I have the right to do that?

Giving up for Lent 

Think about giving up your painful comfort zone and spending your 40 days seeking a peaceful lifestyle.

Why not give up debilitating thoughts in favor of personal peace?

Why not give up habits that hold you back and offend others and take up new habits?

You can do all that and more if you’ll let the course, Finding Personal Peace, show you how.

Why not give up emotional pain for Lent?

Why not give up negative thinking for Lent?

Why not give up old habits for Lent? Forty days later, you might not recognize yourself.

God bless,

www.findingpersonalpeace.com

Thanks for reading our blog today. I invite you to respond in several ways: (1) Comment in the space below if you agree or disagree with what I've said. A dialogue could be interesting for all; (2) Share the post with your friends using the buttons below; and (3) sign up to get an email with each new post. There’s a place to do that on the right. Then you won’t have to remember to look for our subsequent posts. Thanks again!

Oh, For Just a Little Light

When one is in darkness, even a spark is blinding

Which Light is Yours?

Do you know about darkness?

Lately, I’m into reading about the World War II battles in the Pacific. One prohibition that every sailor carried with him was no smoking on deck at night. The glow from the business end of a cigarette could be seen for miles and could reveal the position of his ship to the enemy. It happened.

Have you ever been in total darkness? Like on a cave tour when they turn the lights out? When you literally can’t see your hand in front of your face?

Lots of people are like that emotionally. Their life is so dark that they can’t see what their next step should be. They are so hungry for a respite from the darkness and pain that they grope through the darkness for any relief including drugs, alcohol, and ultimately . . .

What they would give for just a spark of hope; for a moment of understanding; for a glimmer of understanding in an otherwise dismal situation.

Just a little light

I used the graphic of penlights to make this point. Every person’s light may be different – different shape, different duration, different intensity. But the common thread is that for the time that the light shines, there is hope – hope of an answer, hope of understanding, a hope of peace.

What’s the source of this little light?

It has to come from within. Sure, someone could shine a light on you and reveal important things in its beam. But that light is temporary. When the hand holding the light goes away, so does the light.

Coming from within means that you control the light. You can turn it on at will. You can turn it on as often as you like. You can shine the light here and you can shine it there across your emotional darkness.

Such power

When one is in darkness, even a spark is blinding. You can have the power to light that spark anytime you choose.

You can simply rest in the little spotlight for a time to relieve the pain.

You can use the illumination to make a reasoned decision affecting your future.

You can begin to see answers.

And when that light goes out, you can light it again; or you can light another light. It’s your choice – you have the power.

Somebody said, “Yeah, like I believe that!”

For several years, I walked in some darkness caused by an anger problem. I learned that I didn't have to give in to my angry thoughts. I didn't have to let them rule me; I could rule them.

Just like I did, you can learn how to rule over your dark emotional thoughts, regardless of what they are.

And when you shut down just one thought, for the moment it’s shut down, you have a moment of light; a moment of peace.

And that thought comes back; and you shut it down again.

What I learned, and what I've put into Finding Personal Peace, is that you develop a habit of shutting down that thought. And another thought. And even another thought. Any negative thought!

As you shut down more and more dark thoughts, you have more and more pen lights shining in your soul. Every day you can walk more and more in light rather than darkness.

You can make decisions from within the light that are better decisions than the ones you made from the darkness.

I can’t shine the light for you; and I wouldn't if I could. The light that I might shine is temporary for as long as I’m there.

What you want is to have your hand on the light switch in your life. You want to break the habit of letting the darkness rule. You want to make the habit of walking in the light of your own peace.

If you need more light, more peace, or if you know someone who does, visit Finding Personal Peace to learn how you can have what you need.

God bless,

www.findingpersonalpeace.com

Thanks for reading our blog today. I invite you to respond in several ways: (1) Comment in the space below if you agree or disagree with what I’ve said. A dialogue could be interesting for all; (2) Share the post with your friends using the buttons below; and (3) sign up to get an email with each new post. There’s a place to do that on the right. Then you won’t have to remember to look for our subsequent posts. Thanks again!