The Law of Attraction

When I first read about the Law of Attraction, in Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich, I have to admit that I was skeptical. Not deeply so, but I was not completely sold on it from one book. Then I began to read and hear more about it. Every modern self-help guru and motivational speaker mentions this law in one form or another. My big question was whether this was true and after some time, I have become a true believer.
Most of the self-help crowd talks about it in terms of money and wealth. Just go back to the title of Hill’s book. Of course, he wrote the book during the depths of the depression, and explains that his reason for doing so was to give encouragement to those who were suffering under the dire consequences of the then-current economic circumstances. His intention was not as base as the title may seem to some, and he uses examples from other areas of life to make his more profound point, that our thoughts, combined with powerful emotions, are creative and bring into our life what we focus on. From a theological point of view, some of Hill’s observations are questionable, but there is much there that rings quite true. The Law of Attraction as he and others describe it is one of those things.

As I’ve read and studied about how best to make a life worth living, my self-reflection has indicated that I have very much been living under this law, and that it is found in the Gospel in a multitude of ways. “The measure you give will be the measure you get.” “Do not judge, lest you be judged.” “As you sow, so shall you reap.” There are many other examples. The point is that we get back what we give, in one way or another. The corollary is also true: If we give nothing, we get nothing. Think of the man who refused to invest his one talent. To get personal, my own life has come to its present point very much because of the way I had been thinking and I literally created my state from attitudes and beliefs that have been a combination of both constructive and destructive. But there is a way to make things better.

Saint Paul makes thought the basis of a sound spiritual life as he encourages the Philippians: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” The very word for “conversion” or “repent” that Jesus uses in the Greek, metanoia, literally means to change one’s mind. Jesus taught because He knows that our minds and thoughts are the key to authentic living in God’s truth. He used parables precisely to elicit an emotional response to accompany our thinking about what He taught. The story of the prodigal son is a brilliant example, if we return to it as if we were hearing it for the first time. A father’s compassion for wayward or stubborn sons is a theme that never loses its power to move one’s heart.

Many of the current gurus go off on some esoteric if not downright bizarre theories about the Law of Attraction, some of them not even remotely Christian. The fundamental truth is that it works, whether we want it to or not. What we can do is change what we focus on. On this, we all can agree. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”