A friend once told me about an important lesson they learned from their teacher, Paul Stark Seeley (whose article was recently published in the “Love is the Liberator” November 2017 publication) in regards to this topic, specifically having to do with harboring hatred for someone. What he told her was that if you hate someone, you are just as consumed with that hatred as if you worshiped the ground they walk on….hence making them your false God.

This topic was also covered in an article I once read where the question was posed: Who do you love? God? Or some faulty view of some person? The point was that the writer of the article realized they were in fact breaking the first commandment. The writer recognized they had to redirect their affections towards God and away from some person, and this led to their healing.

This question can be asked of any problem we seem to face. Are we consumed with the problem? Is is occupying most, if not all, of our thought? Are we worshiping a problem we face? Then it’s time to revisit the first commandment and do our best to obey it.