Page 15 - Built For Greatness - The Christian Edition of the Tao Te Ching

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My own personal journey has brought me to a place where
I see the Bible and the Tao Te Ching do have much in common. In
fact, as I see it, God’s truth as revealed in the Bible also flows
through the Tao Te Ching in the form of principles—some might
even say spiritual principles—that, when put into practice, can help
you achieve your goals without wasted effort, experience serenity
whatever your circumstances, and otherwise improve your life,
sometimes dramatically.
Just what are these principles? To my mind, one of the
most powerful is what the Bible might call “living in the Spirit”—that
is, praying to understand God’s will, putting forth effort to
accomplish it and (this is crucial) trusting that as you cooperate with
the Spirit, the Spirit will add God’s energy to your endeavors, so
you can actually accomplish more with less work. The Tao Te
Ching has a similar, paradoxical teaching called wei wu wei, which
can be described as “action without action.” It refers to the idea that
when you cooperate with the Tao, or the Way of the universe, your
efforts are magnified, and you achieve results better than those you
could ever achieve solely through your own initiative.
Another principle found in both the Bible and the Tao Te
Ching is learning to live in the moment without undue concern
about what the future might bring. This goes against our nature in
this day and age. We always seem to be planning, striving, trying to
attain possessions, security, and peace of mind. Learning to be
content in the present moment with whatever we may or may not
have seems … unproductive. And yet, as both of these wise books
affirm, staying grounded in the moment isn’t necessarily mere
passivity; instead, if done mindfully, it can be an abiding trust that
God is working for our good and will give us all we need (as a
student of the Bible might put it), or that we are living in harmony