Troy’s Morning Coffee Reflections

Over the last twelve to eighteen months we’ve all heard a lot about the “Law of Attraction.”

Last year “The Secret” movie hit the Internet like a heat wave, and is selling like wildfire inside the network marketing community. Its main theme is to promote that the “Law of Attraction” (LOA) has been kept “Secret” from the average common folks throughout history.

Since it piggybacked on the #1 best seller “The De Vinci Code”, and much anticipated release of “The De Vinci Code” movie people ate it up.

I mean let’s be honest we all love a great conspiracy theory, and that is what both of these movies brought us.

But, like the De Vinci Code, there is a whole lot more fiction that fact in the concept of the “Law of Attraction.”

For some this might be seen just plain Politically Incorrect. Let me say in advance it’s cool if you disagree with me on this subject. If you do I challenge you to send me your responses or at the very least post a comment. Don’t just disagree and not be willing to stand up for what you do believe in!

“Law of Attraction”… what is it, and does it work? If we take a look we can see that the New Age community’s theory of “Law of Attrition” is similar to the Christian Community’s “Name It & Claim It” doctrine.

What I find most interesting is the fact the “Law of Attraction” trainers teach that LOA has been kept a secret from the common folks by the Church, Governments, Corporations, and Power Brokers throughout history. Yet, when we do a study on the “Name It & Claim It” crowd we see that they have been preaching this same message with a little different twist for about as long as the New Age community; making it available since the 19th century.

So what is it about the “Law of Attraction” that makes it so freaky and against what Jesus taught?

Why is it people seem to be looking for anything but the Bible for answers on living life, seeking their fortunes, and changing their lifestyles?

To find the answers to these questions we first need to understand a few things.

First we need to understand what the “New Age Movement” and “New Thought Philosophy” is all about. Both have their roots based here in the USA and started springing up in the 19th century. Although the New Age movement does make up a cross demographic group, we do know that 20% of Americans now hold to a New Age Belief. The basic thought behind this community is each of us has full and total control over our ultimate destiny. We just have to work with the powers or laws of the universe.

Ok, now let’s get into the main topic “Law of Attraction.”

The foundation of Law of Attraction is based in what some of us know as “Positive Thinking or in the words of the leaders of the teaching “This law states that you attractwhatever you put your attention to.” So does this hold up under scrutiny?

First let’s take a look at the Law of Attraction using Aristotle’s “First Principles.” In Aristotle’s essays called “Organon” he established the difference between valid and invalid forms of human reasoning. He showed how every science begins with certain obvious truths. In short “First Principles are the fundamental truths from which inferences are made and on which conclusions are based.

Using First Principles as our guide, and focusing on the First Principle known as Logic, we can see that the Law of Attraction does not come to a logical conclusion.

If the law of attraction were true, then the logical conclusion we would come to is that; “The entire human race has and does attract everything that happens to us, because we are putting our attention to what we are attracting from the time of conception until the time we decide to attract death to our doorstep” However in answering the questions below we can see that is not true.

So let’s ask the following questions:

Does the child who is being molested, attracting that type of negative behavior because they were focusing on being molested?
Does the person, who does not believe in war, attract the war in which they now find themselves fighting?
Does the mother who just miscarriages her baby do so because she attracted it to herself.
Does the baby born with a hole in their heart attract the hole because of some negative through they have?
Does a child born with Aids attract this horrible disease because while in the womb?
Does the person who is maimed or killed by a drunk driver attracting this type of event in their life because they are advocates for “Mothers Against Drunk Drivers?”
Does a person who teaches and preaches against the perils of drug abuse and promiscuous sex attracting his wife to have an affair, or his kids to die of a drug overdose?
Did all the people who lived on the Gulf of Mexico in 2005 attract the devastation of the hurricanes and floods that killed thousands, and uprooted millions?

Now, I could go on and on with situations that go beyond the ability of the person in which they are happening.

Do our thoughts, beliefs and actions affect the way we see our world? Yes!

However, for the most part those thoughts and beliefs have been programmed into us throughout our life based on our environment, upbringing, and our own chosen value system; and they can and do change based on our continual personal and spiritual growth. Yet, there are some things we just can’t change in our lives, and which the Law of Attraction can’t change.

Let’s say I was born without the ability to reason, there is nothing the Law of Attraction or any of the New Age “Universal Laws” can do to prevent or change the outcome of this event in my life.

So, in using the First Principle of Logic we can see that the Law of Attraction does not come to a logic conclusion. Not everything that happens to us is attracted to us because something we have done to attract it.

In the “Name It & Claim It” community we see the same thing. However, they tell us “it must be because we either have enough or not enough faith.” Yet we can see in the Bible in Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

Jesus taught us in Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you, Seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened.”

If we take the three words Ask, Seek, Knock, we can see real quick that Jesus is not telling us to sit around wishing for what we want to attract. Instead He is teaching us to put into action a daily pattern which will allow us to move towards the purpose He has for us. And in reading Matthew 7:12 we can see the “Secret” to getting what we ask, seek and knock for is given to us has been available for everyone who would search for it.

Matthew 7:12 - So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law of the Prophets.”

And yes, there will still be times in our lives where we don’t fully understand why something is happening to us. Yet we can rest assured that if we are living in and seeking the purpose in which God created us, then we will see the positive results somewhere in our future as long as we keep our attitude focused on the big picture and search for the answers.

So we must do what the Ancient Hebrews called “discovering our Chazown (KaZonw)!” We must find our purpose, our vision or revelation. When we do, then our life will start moving forward, and our whole being will change. It starts with changing our limiting beliefs, attitudes and most of all our actions. It has nothing to do with sitting around “wishing our way” into a change!

My pastor Eric Partin is teaching a wonderful study on this very subject. I challenge anyone reading this to listen closely to his teachings and see for yourself what a God Size Vision can do in your life.

Never Give Up,

Troy

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