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Proverbs 23:15-16: “My child, if your heart is wise, my own heart will rejoice! Everything in me will celebrate when you speak what is right.”

Life is energy! That’s what hit me as I watched The Buddy Holly Story on TV…again. “There’s a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on!” That song, written by Jerry Lee Lewis, set the theme for Holly’s work and short life.

Buddy Holly 1936 - 1959

Energy—enthusiasm—excitement. Just three guys, Buddy Holly and The Crickets, produced so much excitement that the music world would never be the same. And they did it without all the pyrotechnics and sound equipment that today’s rock groups use. They were at the beginning of a major movement in music that is still going on—forty years later.

What do we need to get some of that kind of “shaking”? Some of today’s biggest successes started with just a an idea and wisdom. And energy—“a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on.” But it was more than senseless enthusiasm. That shaking had rhythm, harmony, purpose, a message. All that working together produced “celebration.”

We have everything we need to cause a whole lot of shaking or celebration. Like the Energizer Bunny, we have charged-up batteries. We have opportunities to shake up our attitudes and rearrange them so we can be real movers in today’s world. We can shake up our ideas of living and produce new sounds that shake up and rearrange our attitudes for the better.

We can shake up the old ways of looking at health and illness, ways that have proven to be so deficient in the past centuries. We can help to shake the old ways into a rhythm and harmony that produce healing and vitality.

Such energy comes from having highest values in our purpose, mission and method. We can’t “fake it ‘til we make it.” We can make it because, as Solomon counsels, it is true right from the start.

Buddy Holly did not look like a music star—he was scrawny, with buckteeth, thick glasses, shy demeanor. But his love of music, his inventive style and willingness to take risks made him a star. Was he a great guitarist? He said, “All you need to know is three chords!” Was he a great singer? Not a Caruso or Elvis Presley, but rather tinny in voice. But he had—you guessed it! ENERGY!

That’s why I’m so thankful for each of you who shares a better way with people in need of wholeness and a life-enhancing purpose in life.

Let’s keep our enthusiasm (“God in us”) heading toward “a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on.”

“Life engenders life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.” – Sarah Bernhardt (1844 – 1923).

Proverbs 3:7-8: “Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones.”

Since Erma Bombeck died, I haven’t yet found any advice columnist worth reading. She is the Solomon for today’s world. Here’s her “Ten Rules to Live By.”

1. Never have more children than you have car windows!
2. Gravity always wins. [Your bathroom mirror tells you that when the sags appear.] Accept that.
3. Never loan your car to someone to whom you have given birth.
4. Pick your friends carefully. A “friend” never goes on a diet when you’re fat.
5. Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart.
6. Given a choice between the man of your dreams and a plumber, choose the latter. Men who can fix your toilet on Sundays are hard to come by!
7. Know the difference between success and fame. Success is Mother Teresa. Fame is Madonna!
8. Never be in a hurry to terminate a marriage. Remember, you may need this man or woman someday to complete a sentence for you.
9. There are no guarantees in marriage. If that’s what you’re looking for, go live with a Sears battery.
10. Never go to your class reunion pregnant. If you do, they’ll think that’s all you’ve been doing since you graduated!

That tenth one doesn’t apply to me. So I’ll redesign it.

Never go to a class reunion wearing a toupee. If you do, they’ll think you’re a trapper!

“All of us have moments in out lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with a white carpet is one of them.” – Erma Bombeck (1927 – 1996).

Proverbs 4:16-17: “For evil people can’t sleep until they’ve done their evil deed for the day. They can’t rest until they’ve caused someone to stumble. They eat the food of wickedness and drink the wine of violence!”

“We reap what we sow,” said St. Paul (see Galatians 2:7). But Jesus told a parable of an enemy coming at night and sowing the honest farmer’s field with weed seeds. See Matthew 13:25-29. So it’s true that we attract what we plant—unless others interfere. Then we have problems to deal with in the harvest.

Hundreds of millions of people suffered severely and tens of thousands died horrible deaths during the awful wars of the last century. Why? Our proverb above points out why. Not because of good people’s wrong thoughts—but because of evil people deeds. The Law of Destruction interferes with the so-called Law of Attraction.

As I consider the meaning of Memorial Day, I’m led to the thought that all wars, and many competitive sporting events (types of war) give clear evidence that the Law of Attraction, particularly as propounded in THE SECRET, is a lie. In wars and competitive sports we generally have two opposing sides, both considering theirs to be right and that they will win.

Even in the last few days before his suicide, Hitler still envisioned victory! And when he didn’t achieve it, he blamed the German people for their weakness and Germany’s loss.

We have the NBA finals going on now. With thousands of others, I cheered for the Blazers. A lot of energy flowed to “The Universe” for their victory. Blazer players had confidence that they would win. What happened? Did the Houston Rockets’ fans and players have MORE confidence, send more energy to wherever? Or did they just play a little better with more experienced and talented players? Or did the referees favor the Rockets? [This last explanation isn't supposed to count in the Law of Attraction, according to THE SECRET, because no outside forces can affect the outcome of the energy you send out into the Universe ."]

In THE SECRET, there’s enough truth to trick even discerning readers to believe the whole package. If there’s enough honey on the stale donut, the first few bites might taste good. But when you start to masticate and notice the inner taste, you realize that it’s stale and unappetizing. And the best part of that kind of donut is the hole!

The best part of THE SECRET is what’s been left out—realistic truth.

For your comments on this series, thanks again. You’ve helped me sharpen my thinking.
My blogs from now on will be thoughts more on practical daily life, so I might not refer to the Law of Attraction much anymore. The more I read and re-read THE SECRET, the more upset I became with its errors. It was developing negative energy within me, and I don’t need that!

“I see America, not in the setting sun of a black night of despair ahead of us, I see America in the crimson light of a rising sun fresh from the burning, creative hand of God. I see great days ahead, great days possible to men and women of will and vision.” – Carl Sandburg (1878 – 1967).

Ecclesiastes 3:8: “A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.”

Solomon here makes an observation, not a prescription. Of all the times in Israel’s history, his reign was the most peaceful.

My first memory of war was when I was three or four years old. My dad came home from town with a newspaper in his overcoat pocket. He showed it to us, and it had headlines and photos of the war in Europe. Dad also listened to a battery-operated radio to get news about the war, the bombings in Britain, the losses and advances in Europe.

Outside, we played war. We repeated, “Hitler can’t take Canada, Hitler can’t take France, If Hitler comes to Canada, We’ll kick him in the pants!”

In our rare trips to Winnipeg, we sometimes ate at the New Moon Café. A man came around the tables selling cards, much like baseball cards, with ghastly pictures of soldiers killing soldiers with bayonets, depicting the Germans as being without mercy.

Robert E. Lee in 1862, at the Battle of Fredericksburg, said: “It is well that war is so terrible—otherwise we would grow too fond of it.” Often, during this Memorial Day weekend, those removed from war by a generation of two, celebrate the holiday with fondness and forget the purpose. Shopping and eating replace stopping and thanking.

During this weekend, we need to remember the fallen from all nations, the people who died and those wounded because of wars. We need to remember so that we will seek peace above all else.

The two world wars were appalling in just the deaths alone. WORLD WAR I – over 16,500,000 killed. United States lost 113,465 people in battle; Canada lost 66,944.

WORLD WAR II – over 73,700,000 killed, 3.71% of the population of the countries involved. Of that, the Third Reich countries of Austria, Germany and ethnic Germans in other countries lost 7,338,500 people – 8.7% of their population. Japan lost 2,700,000 or 3.78% of their population.

United States lost 418,500 people—0.32% of its population—and Canada lost 45,300—0.40% of its population. A very small percentage when compared with some other nations. Yet, a dear loss to families and friends. I remember the tears shed by families when news of their loss came to them.

So we remember. We thank. We sing our national anthems. But let’s sing in a way that does not make us feel superior to other nations, but one with them in the sorrow of our common losses.

“There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory; but, boys, it is all hell.” — General William Tecumseh Sherman to the graduating class of Michigan Military Academy, April 11, 1880.

Proverbs 27:23: “Know the state of your flocks, and put your heart into caring for your herds.”

You might have to do some slanted thinking to tie in my title with today’s lesson of wisdom. I think you’ll get the connection, though. Even the most way-out Law of Attraction teachers would.

A story told often is of the devoted shepherd who cared for his sheep. Even if he had a flock of a hundred, if one sheep were missing, he’d go out in search for it no matter what dangers to himself. “There Were Ninety and Nine” is a gospel song that echoes that image.

So many of the teachers of The Law of Attraction, as found in the book and DVD THE SECRET, focus so much on achieving one’s own goals that they virtually ignore the lost sheep. In short, much selfishness rings through in their teachings.

For instance, in the DVD version, Lisa Nichols, one of the star teachers, says, “It’s not your job to make the world a better place.” What is your job? She says it’s to make yourself a more successful person, attracting the power of the Universe to deliver your wishes to you.

But let’s consider Irena Sendler. If it hadn’t been for her, at least 2,500 Jewish boys and girls would’ve been murdered in the Nazi death camps. Perhaps Irena didn’t think of “making the world a better place.” But she definitely thought about saving children ready to be tortured and killed. [Please see my previous post on this.]

Irena was a Polish Roman Catholic social worker in Nazi-controlled Warsaw in World War II. She and a colleague, dressed in nurses’ uniforms, went into the ghetto of over 500,000 Jews, herded there by the Germans. The two nurses brought food, clothes and a vaccine against typhoid, a great threat to thousands. But the greatest threat was the Nazi grand scheme—to herd most of these Jews to the Treblinka death camp.

Irena became part of the escape network. Some children were transported out of the ghetto in coffins, suitcases, sacks, and even a mechanic’s toolbox. Some escaped through the sewer system beneath the city.

Irena witnessed the heartbreak of parents trusting their children to others. She promised to do her best to reunite them after the war. So she kept a notebook with the children’s names—over 2,500 of them.

Eventually, the Nazis captured Irena, but she would not reveal her partners. For this she suffered beatings, broken limbs, and even a death sentence. Only through the help of a kind guard was she able to escape.

If Lisa Nichols and other self-sufficient gurus of THE SECRET were to counsel Irena, what would they say? “Irena, it is not your job to save these children. They attracted this upon themselves through their thinking. Don’t interfere.”

So, what is the THE SECRET’S secret of removing lint from one’s navel? “Send positive thoughts out into the Universe. The Universe will remove the lint. It is not your business to make your navel a better place.”

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.” – Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960.

In a lot of teaching about “The Law of Attraction,” as in THE SECRET, the writers use the phrase “The Universe.” But I’ve never seen it defined clearly: it’s just an allusion or an assumption that the reader will know what is meant, or at least get a warm, reassuring feeling. The exception is when they use “universe” in the way we normally understand it, which is all creation and not some esoteric power.

By “the Universe” do they mean the totality of created or existing things? Then is the Creator outside or inside this Universe? Do they mean God? Do they mean the spiritual world? I have no idea.

Many use “the Universe” in the same way we’d use “the Thing.” It can mean anything…or nothing. So in a selection of “universe” sentences in THE SECRET, I’m going to use “the thing” and see if we can get a clear grasp of what these writers mean. After all, if there’s no definition of a word, it can easily be THE THING.

“You are in that moment summoning what you want with the mightiest power in THE THING” (p. 14).

“As you think thoughts, they are sent out into THE THING, and they magnetically attract all like things that are on the same frequency” (p. 25).

“What if your feelings are actually communication from THE THING to let you know what you’re thinking?” (p. 33).

“So when you think a sustained thought it is immediately sent out into THE THING” (p. 33).

“So when you are feeling bad it is communication from THE THING” (p. 33).

“Some great teachers created stories to demonstrate how THE THING works” (p. 45).

“You are the Master of THE THING, and the Genie is there to serve you” (p. 46).

“When you are acting to receive from THE THING, you will feel as if you are flowing with the current of the river” (p. 55).

‘It’s like having THE THING as your catalogue….It is You placing your order with THE THING. It’s really that easy” (p. 48).

“THE THING will start to rearrange itself to make it happen for you” (p. 51).

“It takes no time for THE THING to manifest what you want” (p. 68).

“Size is nothing to THE THING” (p. 63).

“THE THING is bringing all good things to me. THE THING is conspiring for me in all things. THE THING is supporting me in everything I do. THE THING meets all my needs immediately” (page 40).

So, “Trust THE THING” (p. 57). It’s even more powerful than THE FORCE.

“The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.” Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 – 1882).

“The worst moment for a law-of-attraction teacher is when he is really thankful and has only THE THING to thank.” Paraphrase by Robert Natiuk.

Proverbs 1:10-11: “My child, if sinners entice you, turn your back on them! They may say, ‘Come and join us. Let’s hide and kill someone! Just for fun let‘s ambush the innocent!’”

The book and DVD titled THE SECRET makes much of the so-called Law of Attraction. Do I believe in the power of attraction? Yes—when certain principles are met. Do I believe that it’s some powerful magnet of the Universe, as the people in this book and DVD maintain?

Let’s see. “Through this most powerful law, your thoughts become the things in your life” (p. 9). Dr. Joe Vitale says: “Thoughts are sending out that magnetic signal that is drawing the parallel back to you” (p. 10). These thoughts have a frequency, they maintain—and which is likely true. But how strong is that frequency? Strong enough to reach “the Universe?” Strong enough to attract “all things that are on the same frequency?” (p. 10).

I think about the experience I spoke about in my last post, my visit to Options 360 Pregnancy Clinic, right next door to an abortion clinic. And I ask myself: “Were those babies, some in their last trimester, attracting death to themselves by the frequency that their well-formed brains sent out? How about those babies going through partial-birth abortions? Or even those few who survived the abortion procedure yet were neglected to death by order of the doctor?

When does the “law of attraction” go into effect? How old do you have to be? How free do you have to be?

Joe Vitale maintains: “Everything that surrounds you right now in your life including the things you’re complaining about, you’ve attracted” (page 27). The book’s author, Rhonda Byrne, addresses the problem of events in history when masses of lives were lost. “By the law of attraction, they had to be on the same frequency as the event…those thoughts…can attract them to being in the wrong place at the wrong time” (p. 28).

So, if we carry to conclusion that type of teaching, then we have to reach other conclusions, as repulsive and untenable as they may be. Unborn or partially born babies, because of their thoughts, can be “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Slaves weren’t slaves because of others, but because of their thoughts. Victims of concentration camps…refugees and war victims of Darfur…car accident victims because of drunk and reckless drivers—all because of the victims’ thoughts.

THE SECRET unknowingly teaches: It’s not that we live in a world permeated with centuries of evil, but what we call evil is a negative force somehow in the thoughts of the victim. Thus the victim is the perpetrator.

Tell that to a parent who has lost a child to a predator. Tell it to bombing victims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan. Tell it to starving children all over the war. For people in North Korea: “You’re starving because of your thoughts, not because of Kim Jung Ill.”

So what is the truth behind THE SECRET? Mostly, there is very little true wisdom in it.

Yet, the little truth it may have I’ll examine in coming posts. In the meantime, let the good Lord attract you.

“I never cease being dumbfounded by the unbelievable things people believe.” – Treasury of Jewish Quotations, Leo Rosten (1908 – 1997).

Proverbs 21:2: “People may be right in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their heart.”

Friday morning with a small group of friends I spent two hours at the Options 360 Pregnancy Clinic in Orchards, Washington. Located both in Battle Ground and Orchards, these clinic gives pregnant women an option to abortion.

They are also involved with education and continuing support for mothers-to-be and new mothers. They worked with over 1600 clients last yer alone. Hundreds of babies had the chance to be born healthfully rather than being aborted.

The clinic in Orchards chose to be right next door to the much bigger Planned Parenthood facility.

The parking lot was filling up, mostly with clients for the Planned Parenthood center; it was the day set aside for abortions. At the end of our visit, my friends and I prayed by the wall separating us and them.

We prayed for the girls struggling with a tough decision, for the workers there, and for us to be ready to lend a caring hand where we could. There were no judgmental prayers–just hearts filled with love for the unborn and the born.

I remembered a poem I had written some years ago. The form is called a villanelle. May I share it with you now?

LIFE, UNLIVED

Life, unlived, feel that frightful day
When you’re suctioned into separated pieces
Thought by some as lifeless blightful clay.

”But you’re not you,” that’s their rightful say,
An unbeing that, by intervention, deceases
Life, unlived, feel that frightful day.

There won’t be any light-full ray
Before your eyes drain dry the vitreous,
Thought by some as lifeless blightful clay.

With just a blink, your sight falls away
Just when your thumb-sized brain teases
Life, unlived, feel that frightful day.

The voided mother bent to the mightful sway
Of present necessity. A beating heart, ceases–
Thought by some as lifeless blightful clay.

Flesh and serum–upon a quite full tray,
”Waste not, want not,” harvest the fetus.
Life, unlived, feel that frightful day,
Thought by some as lifeless blightful clay.

# # # # #

“There’s no question the fetus feels pain…when we would put the needle into the uterus to withdraw the amniotic fluid and insert the corrosive saline, invariably the unborn child would be seen to move. It was not always in response to being directly struck by the needle. It seemed to have some inchoate sense of invasion of its territory, an unwelcome intrusion to its environment.” — Former abortionist Dr. Bernard Nathanson

Ref.: Nathanson, Bernard, M.D. Borowski v. The Attorney General of Canada, Transcript of Evidence and Proceedings at Trial, Page 339. Regina, Saskatchewan, May 1983. Also quoted in “Abortion: A Briefing for Canadian Legislators”

Proverbs 7:1-3: “Follow my advice, my son; always treasure my commands. Obey my commands and live! Guard my instructions as you guard your own eyes. Tie them on your fingers as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart.”

“This is not a chain letter. As seen on Oprah and 20/20. Totally legal.”

You’ve likely seen letters like that, promising you tens of thousands of dollars for mailing out 50, 100 or more letters. These appeal to our need to grow rich without long-term effort.

People who participate in this kind of plan do so with a dream—they send out their thoughts of riches to “the Universe.” Does “The Law of Attraction” work for them? Why…or why not?

For many of us the present economy is really hurting. When we have financial pressures, other cracks in our life seem to get wider. Family members might become tenser, less understanding, more self-centered. We might feel growing unworthiness as we have to cut back on providing well for our families, or by cutting back on our donations to causes we love. And we can become desperate—buy more lotto tickets, get in on more schemes. Of course, things get worse.

So, where do we find strength to keep doing the right thing? There are teachers and writers who will tell you to have faith and confidence in yourself. You try to do that—and you find more brokenness.

Today’s big deal in seeking success is called “The Law of Attraction.” The book and DVD, THE SECRET, have been a worldwide bestseller for several years now.

Does THE SECRET basically agree with the Wisdom of Solomon and the rest of the Bible? That’s a big topic that I’ll explore in the coming days.

So many people seek the kind of “secrets to success” that avoid hard work, daily discipline, long-term plans, and setbacks. Also, many people want “secrets” that skirt God’s principles of total success.

The Proverbs tell us over and over again that “good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty” (Proverbs 21:5).

“The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance—and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.” – Oprah, O Magazine, Sept. 2002.