Christmas is generally known as the festival of love, and we refer to it as the birth of Christ. But do we really live love at Christmas more than at other times of the year? What is Christmas really about ?
One thing is always at the forefront of our minds: retailers encourage us to shop diligently. If we don't have any presents, we feel guilty. More and more gift vouchers or money are being passed on, unimaginatively and lovelessly.
Jesus was not born to call for more material gifts. Anyone who reads the legend knows that he drove the merchants out of the Jerusalem temple with a whip. Jesus wanted a love of neighbor that was new for that time - and in parts still is for our time. Jesus preached a different social system. Jesus denounced and pointed out grievances. Jesus was a revolutionary!
Jesus was a revolutionary of the first order. I could also name other revolutionaries here - Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Elon Musk - but I'll stick with Jesus, as Christmas is closer to the hearts of many of us these days. I say "first kindness" because he recognized the signs of the times.
Because what would happen today if someone ran into the Christmas market on the church square with a whip? Would they knock the sausages and gingerbread and mulled wine out of the hands of the customers and shout "this is a place to pray, not a place for traders!" We all know the answer: take them away, charge them, punish them. And we would probably all say it is right. "How can an individual put himself so far above convention?" we would ask ourselves, shrugging our shoulders ... and drink more mulled wine.
Jesus could, and he did, and the revolution he co-founded was successful from the perspective of the time. Not only because Jesus had a special charisma, but because enough other people knew and sensed that change was in the air: First his disciples, and then ever larger sections of the population. Eventually, his R-evolution became an E-evolution.
So for me, Christmas is above all a celebration of revolution. A celebration to ask ourselves: what actually has to be different if we really want to have a constructive and better future? And how must I myself ... how must every person be different?
Scandals: motivation for revolution!
We certainly haven't had too few scandals to complain about in recent years. The "diesel gate" is just one of them. Who remembers every single scandal, e.g. all the "food gates"? We forget them, we accept them. It's just the way it is. We'd rather follow the advertising or the problems we create ourselves.
In Lieber die ganze Welt gegen mich als meine Seele (I'd rather have the whole world against me than my soul ), I said that at first it was fun to feed the little crocodile on the Alster ... and later there seemed to be no way out. Even with Diesel-Gate, people just wanted to get over a problem "quickly". And afterwards? They were pleased that no one had noticed the trick, so they carried on and the crocodile got bigger. And suddenly we are all trapped in the problem we created.
Scandals are actually welcome starting shots for revolutions. But everyone thinks that they could if only there were enough of "the others" to join in!
So for revolution, we need one thing above all: self-empowerment. That is the word of the hour, the word of revolution, the word of Christmas. Jesus, Gandhi, Einstein, Musk - they did not rely on "the others" to go along with them.
The Winspiration virus of self-empowerment
In 2018, the German main and award event of the Winspiration Association will take place in Hamburg, because that's where I caught the "Winspiration virus" over 20 years ago. At the time, I learned that 5 million euros had been budgeted for fines in Hamburg. Today it's over 20 million! Hamburg is just one of many examples of this practice. The problem has become bigger and bigger, similar to "Diesel-Gate", and we are on the wrong track with our eyes wide open.
But how is an individual politician supposed to get his act together when the press starts to beat him up as soon as he expresses a good idea? And how is social policy supposed to get its act together when the pension at 67 is being discussed and politicians are punished at the ballot box, even though we know that we will live at least 30 or even 50 years longer than when the pension was invented?
The revolution must be in each and every one of us. Everyone has to ask themselves: What do I really really really want in my life? really be different and how can I achieve it consistently? And what needs to change in terms of behavior in the community?
From victim to perpetrator
To answer this question, we first have to get out of the victim mentality. The others will sort it out? Everything will work out somehow? No, of course that's not enough.
Many years ago, I was at a lecture on healthcare reform and I asked the speaker: "How do you reform healthcare?" A lot of people looked at me strangely because they hadn't thought about the fact that they were trying to reform something that we need.
We often lull ourselves with words because it is so convenient. For example, in Germany there is the term "preventive medical check-up". But of course this does not mean preventive care. Precaution means prevention (avoidance), so that an illness cannot catch us in the first place. The screening examinations that are carried out today are simple early detection examinations. This is how we program ourselves into a false sense of security with false meanings. The real message behind the word screening is: "Live on, and we'll just try to find out a little earlier when we can start cancer treatment." This creates and reinforces the illusion that we are doing something good for ourselves. In reality, we are surrendering to a fate of our own making!
Reality = potential!
The topic of fate brings me to reality: What is reality? What we perceive right now? What the system allows? Or is the real reality what Dr. Karsten describes in his book Quintessence: No Limits! namely that we can create completely new, completely different realities at any time?
What was real at the time when, according to legend, Jesus was born? What is real in the world today? What will be real in the world tomorrow? Reality is never just what is, it is above all what can be can be. It is what we can create, a set of possibilities that we can choose!
And to achieve this, we need not just one, but many individual 180-degree turns.
- We don't want to ask people to live unhealthy lives so that we can treat them later with "chemicals".
- We don't want to say "make love" during sex, because love is something other than just sex.
- We don't want to see learning at school as repetition and collecting information, but as a way of becoming competent and applying knowledge.
These are all small examples. Invitations to think differently, to see the world from the other side and to learn again what the difference is between normal (what everyone does) and natural (what allows us to live healthily and powerfully).
If we dare to think more r-evolutionary, we can shape the e-evolution faster and more consistently than we ever thought possible.
Make Christmas what it should be for you once again: A celebration to remember that a revolutionary was born. Perhaps your (inner) revolution will begin this year. Dare to live your true life.
The best is yet to come. The future is open, and each - yes, each - of us has a say in deciding this future.
Merry Christmas - happy revolution!
Sincerely,
Wolfgang
winning for life
