Energy is beauty—a Ferrari with an empty tank does not run. Most people find it comforting to follow set routines when they carry out every day activities, and, in fact, 40 percent become irritated if they are forced to depart from their routines. Obsessions are not the same as pervasive worries about real problems, and compulsions are not repetitive actions that feel voluntary and seem harmless to the people who perform them. Obsessions are thoughts that feel both intrusive (“ego dystonic”) and foreign (“ego alien”) to the people who experience them. Attempts to ignore or resist these thoughts may arouse even more anxiety, and before long they come back more strongly than ever. People with obsessions are quite aware that their thoughts are excessive and inappropriate. Many experience them as repugnant and painful. Obsessions often take the form of obsessive wishes (for example, repeated wishes that one’s spouse would die), impulses (repeated urges to yell out obscenities at work or in church), images (fleeting visions of forbidden scenes involving pleasures of the flesh), ideas (notions that germs are lurking everywhere), or doubts (concerns that one had made or will make a wrong decisions). Certain basic themes run through the thoughts of most people troubled by obsessive thinking. According to surveys, almost half of adults double back after leaving home to make sure they have turned off an appliance. Other common ones are violence and aggression, orderliness, religion, and pleasures of the flesh. Although compulsive behaviours are technically under voluntary control, the people who feel they must do them have little sense of choice in the matter. #RandolphHarris 1 of 17

Most of these individuals recognize that their behaviour is unreasonable, but they believe at the same time something terrible will happen if they do not perform the compulsions. Beethoven is said to have habitually dipped his head in cold water before trying to compose music. After performing a compulsive act, people usually feel less anxious for a short while. Some people develop the act into a detailed and often elaborate compulsive ritual. They must go through the ritual in exactly the same way every time, according to certain rules. Like obsessions, compulsions take various forms. Cleaning compulsions are very common. People with these compulsions feel compelled to keep cleaning themselves, their clothing, or their homes. The cleaning may follow ritualist rules and be repeated dozens or hundreds of times a day. People with checking compulsions check the same items over and over—doors lock, gaps taps, ashtrays, important papers—to make sure that all is as it should be. Another common compulsion is the constant striving for symmetry, order, or balance in one’s actions and surroundings. People with this compulsion must place certain items (clothing, books, food) in perfect order in accordance with strict rules. Ted is a 13-year-old referred to a Midwestern inpatient psychiatric research ward because of senseless rituals and attention to minutiae.” He can spend 3 hours centering the toilet paper roll on its holder or rearranging his bed and other objects in his room. When placing objects down, such as books or shoelaces after trying them, he picks them up and replaces them several times until they seem “straight.” #RandolphHarris 2 of 17

Although usually placid, Ted becomes abusive with family members who try to enter his room for fear they will move or break his objects. When he is at school, he worries that people may disturb his room. Ted sometimes has to be forced to interrupt his routine to attend meals. Last year he hid pieces of his clothing around the house because they would not lie straight in his draws. Moreover, Ted often repeats to himself, “This is perfect; you are perfect.” Touching, verbal, and counting compulsions are also common. People with touching compulsions repeatedly touch or avoid touching certain items whenever they see them. Individuals with verbal rituals feel compelled to repeat expressions, phrases, or chants. And those with counting compulsions constantly count things. Although some people with obsessive-compulsive disorder experience obsession only or compulsions only, most of them experience both. In fact, compulsive acts are often a response to obsessive thoughts. One investigation found that in most cases, compulsions seemed to represent a yielding to obsessive doubts, ideas, or urges. A woman who keeps doubting that her house is secure may yield to that obsessive doubt by repeatedly checking locks and gas jets. Or a man who obsessively fears contamination may yield to that fear by performing cleaning rituals. The investigation also found that compulsions sometimes serve to help control obsessions. However, and obsession changed the World. The experiments that led Louis Pasteur to the pasteurization process may have been driven in part by his obsession with contamination and infection. Apparently he would not shake hands and regularly wiped his glass and plate before dining. #RandolphHarris 3 of 17

People who try to avoid all contamination and rid themselves and their World of all germs are fighting a losing battle. While talking, the average person sprays 300 microscopic saliva droplets per minute, or 2.5 per word. Many people with obsessive-compulsive disorder worry that they will act out their obsessions. A man with obsessive images of wounded loved ones may worry that he is but a step away from committing a heinous crime; or a woman with obsessive urges to yell out in church may worry that she will one day give in to them and embarrass herself. Most such concerns are unfounded. Although many obsessions lead to compulsive acts—particularly to cleaning and checking compulsions—they do not usually lead to violence or immoral conduct. Obsessive-compulsive disorder was once among the least understood of the psychological disorders. In recent years, however, researchers have begun to learn more about it. That most influential explanations and treatments come from the psychodynamic, behavioural, cognitive, and biological modes. There is a tendency to think of young people who are involved in drug and alcohol use as poorly socialized, interpersonally disconnected, and behaviourally lethargic. Is this an accurate characterization? The answer is not entirely straightforward. The multiple interpersonal factors that lead to and maintain substance use/misuse per se may also affect the social/interpersonal development of the individual. Among adolescents, substance use is associated with aggressiveness, low assertiveness, and poor social skills. Deficits in social skills create a sense of low self-efficacy, which in turn promotes involvement in substance use. When the social skills for coping with stress are not available, substance use is more likely to occur as a means of reducing stress. #RandolphHarris 4 of 17

In addition, people with poor social skills do not have a strong sense of self-efficacy for the ability to control or resist drug and alcohol use. Therefore, social skills deficits may be said to have an indirect effect on adolescent substance use, through diminished self-efficacy. Although adolescents who use drugs may present some interpersonal problems, the extent to which these substances are causal agents deserves careful attention and consideration. Substance use can cause a deterioration of social skills and competence over time. At least some of the interpersonal problems that may be evident among adolescents experienced in drug use may be the result of drug use. At the same time, social maladjustment generally predates drug use in young people. In a 15-year longitudinal study, index cases of heavy drug use can at age 18 could be traced back to a profile alienation, emotional distress, failure to develop close relationships, and an inability to get along with friends as early as age 7. Consequently, it was concluded that problem drug use is a symptom, not a cause, of personal and social maladjustment. The relationship between interpersonal deficiencies and drug use is complex: Such deficiencies predispose young people to get involved with drugs, but at the same time, heavy drug use has deleterious effects on interpersonal competencies. As if to complicate matters further, the relationship between social maladjustment and drug use is not linear. In the longitudinal study, compared were three groups referred to as “abstainers,” “experimenters,” and “frequent users.” In terms of the quality of the interpersonal relations, experimenters scored highest, followed by abstainers and then frequent users. #RandolphHarris 5 of 17

Visually, the pattern of association between drug use and quality of interpersonal relations in this sample as a whole took the form on an inverted U. Looking back to their childhood, eventual abstainers appeared unresponsive to humour, shy, reserved, obedient and compliant, nontalkative, and dependent on adults for direction. Many of these interpersonal qualities preserved through their late teens. This study shows that while the frequent use of drugs in adolescence is associated with poor social competence, so too is complete abstinence from drugs, although to a lesser extent. Why do those who abstain from drugs have lower-quality interpersonal relations than those who experiment with them? First, those in the former group may be globally overcautious. The same anxious cognitions and emotions that may keep an adolescent from every trying drugs may also prevent one from approaching classmates who are relative strangers and attempting to develop interpersonal relationships with them, or from asking people out on dates. These interpersonal processes require a certain degree of adventurousness and risk taking; the adolescent who abstains from drugs is ordinarily a social phenomenon; adolescent will often engage in the behaviour at the urging of, or with the assistance of demonstrations by, peers. People with interpersonal skill deficits may simply be less likely to find themselves in such contexts, and therefore may be less likely to experiment with drugs, since the social facilitation is generally lacking in their lives. Interpersonal problems are widely recognized as risk factors for initiation of adolescent substance use. It is equally well accepted that once a pattern of drug use/misuse is underway, the biological and psychological characteristics of addition may be largely responsible for its maintenance. #RandolphHarris 6 of 17

For this reason there has been very little research attention paid to interpersonal mechanisms that might perpetuate substance misuse, despite the fact that systems oriented therapists who teat alcohol and drug dependence routinely address the interpersonal milieu surrounding the problem behaviour. Recently, a theory was developed and tested for substance misuse and maintenance, based on the notion of inconsistent nurturing. In short, the inconsistent-nurturing-as-control theory predicts that the significant others of those who misuse substance may actually play a role in maintaining the substance abusing behaviour. Significant others tend to oscillate between punishing their partners for drug-related behaviour (exempli gratia, conflict, fights, withdrawal), and rewarding them for it (exempli gratia, cleaning up after them, taking care of them). The rewarding behaviour allows a significant other to feel needed and included in such a relationship. However, this same behaviour is what perpetuates the substance misuse of the partner. According to this theory, the competing goals of nurturing the partner and controlling the drug-misusing behaviour result in a schedule of intermittent reward and punishment, which has the paradoxical effect of strengthening the drug abusing behaviour. Empirical tests of inconsistent-nurturing-as-control theory have yielded generally supportive results. Research indicates that the course of substance misuse may be influenced by the nature of interactions with significant others. Individuals who misuse substances, and who find themselves in relationships with partners who have the codependent tendency to nurture and control them, may inadvertently and paradoxically be reinforced for their drug-misusing behaviour. #RandolphHarris 7 of 17

This theory is a departure from traditional models of substance misuse maintenance, which are sharply focused on biological and psychological factors. Our circumstances in life may occasionally knock us down or force us to sit down for a while, but we must not stay down. Even when we are down on the outside, we must see ourselves as getting up on the inside. One may have received a bad report from the doctor. Maybe one lost one’s largest client at work. Perhaps one just found out that one’s child is in trouble. One may be facing some other serious setback, and one feels as though life have caved in on top of one, knocking one off one’s feet and pushing one into the pits. However, the good news is, one does not have to stay down. Even if one cannot get up on the outside, get up on the inside! In other words, have that successful attitude and mentality. Stay in an attitude of faith. Do not allow oneself to lapse into negative thinking, complaining, or blaming God. Say, “Dear Lord in Heave, I may not understand this, but I know You are still in control. And You said all things would work together for my good. You said You would take this evil and turn it around and use it to my advantage. So Father, I thank You that You are going to bring me through this!” No matter what one is facing in life, if one knows how to get up on the inside, no adversity can keep one down. The Scripture says, “When one has done everything one knows how to do, just keep on standing firm,” reports Ephesians 6.13. One may be in a situation today where one has done one’s best. One has prayed and believed. One has placed one’s faith firmly on the truth of God’s Word. However, it just does not look like anything good is happening. Now one is tempted to say, “What is the use? It is never going to change.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 17

However, do not give up! Keep standing. Keep praying; keep believing; keep hoping in faith. “Do not cast away your confidence,” the Bible teaches, “for payday is coming,” reports Hebrews 10.35. Devout, if one will keep standing up on the inside, God will reward one. One may be in the hospital or lying flat on one’s back at home. However, even if one cannot stand up physically, nothing can keep one from standing up on the inside. That sickness may have one down physically, but one does not have to be down spiritually or emotionally. One can keep on getting up in one’s heart, mind, and will. Maybe one works or lives around people who are always putting one down, mistreating one, trying to make one feel badly about oneself. Let that trash go in one ear and out the other. They may try to knock one down on the outside, but they cannot knock one down on the inside. Do not let those people steal one’s joy. Do not let that problem or adversity cause one to become discouraged or depressed. Just keep standing up on the inside. I talked to a man who had recently lost his job. He had been making a good salary working in a prestigious position, but then was suddenly let go. When he first told me what had happened, I was certain that he was going to be distraught. However, when he came to see me, he had a big smile on his face and said, “I just lost my job, but I cannot wait to see what God has in store for me next!” He had been knocked down by circumstances outside of his control, but he was still standing up on the inside. He had a successful mentality. His attitude was: “This thing is not going to defeat me. This thing is not going to steal my joy. I know I am successful and not the victim. I know when one door closes, God will open up a larger and better door.” #RandolphHarris 9 of 17

Today, one can say, “Even if the enemy hits me with one’s best shot, one’s best will never be good enough. One may knock me down, but one cannot knock me out. When it is all said and done, when the smoke clears and the dust settles, I am still going to be standing strong.” The Bible says no human can take your joy. That means no person can make one live with a negative attitude. No circumstance, no adversity can force one to live in despair. No matter what one is going through or how difficult it may seem, you can stay standing up on the inside. It will take courage; it will definitely take determination, but one can do it as long as one sets one’s heart and mind to it. Dear Lord in Heaven, I will refuse to stay down for long. I may get knocked down, or I may fall down, but I will get back up and keep trusting You for a great future. “The LORD sustains all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down,” reports Psalm 145.14. The Author of Purity has passed through this way so many times already that many have learned how clean their hands ought to be, how pure their moths, how holy their bodies, and how immaculate their hearts! From the mouth of so many is nothing but the Holy Word, nothing but the honest and useful word, and it comes forth because that very mouth has so often itself received the Sacramento of Life. One’s eyes should be simple and modest, for they are accustomed to loo into the Eyes of Christ. One’s hands should be pure and raised in prayer—that was First Timothy’s prescription (2.8)—for they are accustomed to handle the Creator of Heaven and Earth. There is this saying about self-actualized Christians in Leviticus (19.2), “By holy because I am holy; I, Your Lord and God.” #RandolphHarris 10 of 17

A priestly prayer. Omnipotent God, may Your grace help us to undertake the sacerdotal office, and may we serve You worthily and devotedly in all purity and in good conscience; First Timothy again (1.5). And if we cannot carry on in such innocence of life as we ought, then grant that we may weep worthily over the bad deeds we have done, and in the spirit of humility and with the resolve to do good, serve You more fervently in the future. There are many in the Church as well as out of it who need to learn that Christianity is neither a creed nor a ceremonial, but a life vitally connected with a loving Christ. We believe that the primary teaching of Jesus Christ was not a fear-motivated message. Rather, Jesus moved people when He spoke of love, gentleness, and blessedness. We feel that the alternative to fear-oriented religion is a religion based on free will and love. Emphasis on love stresses that Christ must be freely chosen. Too often, Christ is presented in the context of damnation and hell, and the convert becomes the object of fearful coercion. Psychology has shown time and again that fear is not a permanent motivator. The example of Adolph Hitler and of other dictators has shown that people are temporarily motivated by fear, but in the long run, motivation based on love is much more trustworthy and permanent. Furthermore, the constriction that fear causes keeps us from living freely in the here and now. All expression of the polarities is reduced and constricted when one stays in fear at the center of one’s being. When fear is diminished or absent, one can contact a pure place within, where one can truly experience the love of Christ. #RandolphHarris 11 of 17

As Paul wrote, “There is therefore now on condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” reports Romans 8.1. We described this pure place as the core, and this our emphasis on the importance of learning to contact it. One who seeks entry into the divine presence may possibly succeed in doing so. For a while one’s state is completely changed, transcended, heightened. However, after all one is not God; one is human still and one falls back to the old awareness. The glimpse goes: one is once again what one was, yet with a difference. The experience can be, is, remembered, and may even possibly return. Moreover some kind of residue is left behind, subtle, not easy to measure or describe, yet appearing in briefly felt and beautifully scented moments. Is this glimpse the highest anyone may dare to hope for? Let it be said that frankly in one’s present condition and situation a greater attainment for the human being is uncommon—yet it happens. Neither deep meditation nor the experience can give more than a temporary glimpse. The full and permanent enlightenment, which is to stay with a human and never leave one, can only come after one has clear insight into the nature of Overself. It is not only possible to attain these brief glimpses of the Overself, but also to attain a durable lasting consciousness of it. No change of this state can then happen. The adept discovers that its future is no different from but quite the same as its past. This is the sacred Eternal Now. Only by this abiding light is it possible to see how mixed and imperfect are all earlier and transient experiences. These flashes of light, peace, bliss, and understanding are brief but they have the intended effect. #RandolphHarris 12 of 17

The short glimpses encourage the aspirant to continue one’s quest and they implant in one a deep yearning to gain entry into the World to which they belong. They will be brief because the ordinary condition of thought and feeling is still far below the exalted condition revealed during these flashes. In other words, one has still to toil away at self-improvement so as to deserve the treasures which have been momentarily shown one. Between the seeker and the Overself, between one’s mind and Truth, there is a thick layer of desires, egoisms, passions, opinions, and imaginings. Until one cuts through it—which means until one denies and resists oneself in these matters—one mat not expect more than Glimpses which fade away. The belief that one can do nothing to hold this glimpse or keep this mood settles on one through repeated experience. However, it is not quite correct. Philosophy points out that one can thin down or remove altogether the causes of such evanescence. If it is to be a continuous light that stays with one and not a fitful flash, one will need first, to cast all negative tendencies, thoughts, and feelings entirely out of one’s character; second, to make good the insufficiencies in one’s development; third, to achieve a state of balance between one’s faculties. The glimpse comes spontaneously and outside of one’s control, but to the master it comes at will and by command. We Christians see the journey as marked by two phases: first, the initial decision, and then the long journey that lasts the rest of one’s life. The initial experience does not make one perfect. It is just the beginning. As someone has said, “We have to walk the walk, but simply talk the talk.” The rest of one’s life becomes a process by which one becomes more and more perfectly loving as Christ Himself is loving. #RandolphHarris 13 of 17

One becomes an actualizing Christian by living within the guidelines of Christ’s perfect love and not by fearfully trying to please God or others. The dove is one of the biblical symbols for the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit reveals His wisdom and love through gentleness like that of the dove. If we approach growth in a tense, legalistic, and tight-jawed way, it does not facilitate the quiet and gradual work of the Spirit in our lives. The psychological equivalent of this is introspectionism. When an integration of principles of psychology is attempted for a fuller understanding of religious life, the temptation is to make the psychology a new law, a new burden to be borne by the Christian. The point of the Christian life is to live fully and joyfully, not to dwell in a self-absorbed and overcritical way on our perceived faults or virtues. As Irenaeus said in the second century, “The Glory of God is a huma being who is fully alive!” The power of the gospel is that Christ has come and the kingdom of God had burst un upon us. The powers of the kingdom of God are being released from the core depths of our being. Even now, the Spirit is at work within our core, guiding us in daily transformation to ever greater approximations of Christlikeness. It remains a work of grace, not a reflection of strife and effort on our part. We are empty vessels to be filled by the Lord. To be filled with the life of Jesus in accordance with who we deeply are is the Christian definition of self-fulfillment. We will see in eternal gratefulness how the inner spring of grace made our deepest self similar to Jesus Christ. We will see how the spring inside us leaps with dazzling splendour for all eternity. The Bible calls the Presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives an earnest, or pledge or down payment, on the full unrestrained Presence of God that we will eventually know. #RandolphHarris 14 of 17

In Ephesians, Paul speaks of this earnest: “You…were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory,” 1.13-14. Substantial fruit will be born from our consistent rust in the Holy Spirit in this life. And in Galatians, Paul develops a description of the fruit of the Spirit that can be seen emerging from fertile union of the believer with Christ: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law,” 5.22-23. So the actualizing Christian is saved from the heavy burdens of both fear and self-conscious introspection by the large context in which one understands life. One feels grounded in God’s unshakeable and enduring love. We know that our faults, sins, and rigidities do not make us less acceptable to God, who only wants us to shed the things that would oppress us and take up the things that will bless us. Many people have lost contact with the spiritual core of their being. They no longer trust the inspired impulses from within. Instead, the take orders from their surroundings—from the media, from the authority figures, from peers, from economic pressures, from fads, or from gurus. There are instances, of course, when tradition, authority, society, or an enlightened teacher can assist the individual in beneficial ways. However, following the mentality of the crowd and the ways of the World often leads to spiritual deadness and deterioration of the personality. In coming home to the core, one gives up one’s defensive style of living, which has been based on fear, manipulation, and pretenses. #RandolphHarris 15 of 17

One adopts instead a growth-oriented life style based on love, trust, and genuineness. Perfect love replaces fear as the motivating dynamic of one’s life. As we have already pointed out, this process is often slow and gradual, for fear is a tenacious gust who is reluctant to be ousted. However, given time, even in harsh conditions, the God-inspired personality will still bring forth its blood in due season. This is a tribute to both the resourcefulness of God and the openness of the person. The challenge of genuine religious commitment in the Hebrew-Christian sense is to be transformed to be made whole, to “tase and see that the Lord is good,” reports Psalm 34.8. The process of being moved toward wholeness and authenticity by the inner power of the Holy Spirit is a lifelong adventure. Actualizing, for both the devoted Christian and the modern secular person, involves learning to rediscover, affirm, and trust the sacred ground of Being within. It is a coming home to one’s Origin. It is slipping into the tailor-made clothing of one’s original spiritual calling. In our words, it is accepting God’s gracious invitation to actualize one’s full potential. Praise the Lord in your infinite variety all creatures, minute and enormous in your verity whose particular and unique features are the context of His glory and His fecundity Praise the Lord nebulae like grains of dust silhouetted and fixed on photographic plates. Sirius, that dog star and his confederates Arcturus, Antares, Aldebaran, the red bull God’s cup brimming over and ever full, thank the Lord. Praise the Lord you His meteorites and comets in your elliptical orbits and made planets. Praise the Lord atoms and molecules, protons and electrons, and all the stars the minute protozoa, in their liquid, the Radiolaria. #RandolphHarris 16 of 17

Praise the Lord cetaceans and atomic submarines for you are of God’s mind in your particulars. Birds, the eagle and wren, the aeroplanes and prisms in emerald copper sulphate in the electronic microscope infinite; coloured flowers blooming at the bottom of the sea, diatoms and the diadems of the Antilles like a rose of diamonds, let all these and the unended maritime fauna praise the Lord. And the Tropic of Cancer, storms of the North Atlantic and the Humboldt current, the dark, sweating forests of the Amazon, the shining island jewels of the South Ocean, volcanoes and lagoons, and the Caribbean behind the silhouettes of the infinite palm, democratic republics, the United Nations, praise the Lord as even for police is appropriate. The students, the young, the beautiful, His glory surpasses the Heavens, it is bountiful. Telescope and microscope seeing nearing and far, it is He who has made the people plentiful, who would not yield to the Lord the word hosanna? Blessed be the Lord who is to be praised. Praised be the Lord who is blessed for all eternity. Praised be Thou, O Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who with Thy word bringest on the evening twilight, and with Thy wisdom openest the gates of the Heavens. With understanding Thou does order the cycles of time and variest the seasons, setting the stars in their courses in the sky, according to Thy will. Thou creates day and night, rolling away the light before the darkness and the darkness before the light. By Thy will the day passes into night; the Lord of Heavenly hosts is Thy name. O ever living God, mayest Thou rule over us forever. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who bringest on ethe evening twilight. With everlasting love hast Thou loved the house of America, teaching us Thy Torah and commandments, Thy statutes and judgments. Therefore, O Lord our God, when we lie down and when we rise up, we will meditate on Thy teachings and rejoice forever in the words of Thy Torah and in its commandments, for they are our life and the length of our days. Day and night will mediate upon them. O may Thy love never depart from us. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who lovest Thy people America. #RandolphHarris 17 of 17

CRESLEIGH HAVENWOOD

Lincoln, CA | from the mid $600s

Now Selling!

No appointment needed! Cresleigh Havenwood features four distinct floor plans ranging from 2,293 – 3,489 square feet and offering up to five bedrooms. 

Each plan has been thoughtfully designed and includes great features such as single story homes, guest suites, optional offices, garage workshops, and more!

Get the most out of your new home with Cresleigh’s All Ready smart home featuring all the connectivity needed to keep your house running. Best of all, each Cresleigh home comes with owned solar included! 

Located off of Virginiatown Road and McCourtney Road, residents of the 83 homesites of Cresleigh Havenwood will benefit from a brand new neighborhood in the charming City of Lincoln. 

Palo Verde Park, is  just down the street and there’s plenty of recreation to take part in all around town.  https://cresleigh.com/havenwood/