I used to ponder over and over a statement that Jesus often made when talking with those he healed: He said, “As thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.” After a long time I began to realize the flip side of that statement, a statement that had to be true if that one was true. What I found was, “It isn’t done unto you as it is.”

When we put the two statements together, we see the wisdom of Jesus’ statement: “It isn’t done unto you as it is. It’s done unto you as you believe.” We’re always in the driver’s seat when it comes to what happens to us in life, whether or not we know that and whether or not we believe that. That’s simply how it’s been set up. We’ve been given free will and the power to make our own choices.

That’s why we have a placebo effect. People often believe that a product is going to help them, even when it’s a placebo that they think is a medicine. And the placebo effect works just as well in reverse. If we believe that nothing is going to improve our situation, nothing will, even if it does for others, because it’s done unto us, or not done unto us, as we believe, not as it is. Neither God nor nature can nor will interfere with our own free will. We get to choose how it’s done unto us, regardless of how it might be done or not done unto anyone else. It’s our belief that makes it so.

What we believe colors everything we see, hear, or experience because our interpretation of it will force it to seem like our patterns of belief, just like sunglasses color everything we see, regardless of an object’s original color. But we get to choose the color of our sunglasses, if we only will!

Just trying to be helpful.

Charles Heineke