“Control-Alt-Delete (often abbreviated to Ctrl+Alt+Del, also known as the “three-finger salute” or “Security Keys”) is a computer keyboard command on IBM PC compatible computers, invoked by pressing the Delete key while holding the Control and Alt keys: Ctrl+Alt+Delete. The function of the key combination differs depending on the context but it generally interrupts or facilitates interrupting a function.” (Wikipedia, emphasis added)

The hells run pretty rampant in my mind, sometimes – do they for you, too? Sometimes I feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle on them, but other times they’re on a roll, they catch me at every corner! They are incredibly cunning. They know where my weaknesses are, which is no surprise considering that’s their job – no, their passion. This is all part of regeneration, of course: gotta face those temptations over and over and over again, in finer and finer detail, until eventually we overcome them! And then we get to move on to another….

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could stop the hells short, halt them mid-temptation and just be done with that trial? Oooh, to have a Ctrl+Alt+Del on those hells…. I’d like to interrupt their function, that’s for sure.

Over the years I’ve thought of different ways to help make this happen. None of them’s really stuck, done the trick once-and-done -style – otherwise I’d be pretty darned regenerate by now, wouldn’t I? And, goodness knows, I am not…. But it did occur to me that if we could execute a ‘Ctrl+Alt+Del’ of sorts on our hells – maybe it would look something like this:

When comparing myself and seeing someone else do something better, for example, ‘Ctrl+Alt+ Del‘.

Control: Gain control of the situation in my mind and recognise that I’m doing it. See what’s going on.

Alt: Get an alternative perspective. In that moment it is usually hard to do, but there are things I can do – first of all, think about all the things I have to be thankful for. Gratitude is enormous.

Delete: Get rid of those negative thoughts and habits of unhealthy comparison.

Wow! Now if I can just remember that and call it up in the middle of every spiritual crisis…. I need to write this on a post-it note and stick it to my bathroom mirror, my kitchen cupboard, the visor in my car, maybe even tattoo it onto the back of my hand? I need to see this repeatedly and drill it into my thick skull, then maybe I’ll have a hope of recalling it in times of need – because I’ll need it repeatedly, every time those hells rear their ugly heads, until I manage to actually decide to not let them have any power, anymore.

Spiritual crises arise from the evil spirits who are with us; these spirits put barriers between us and the goodness we love and the truths we believe, and also stir up evil things that we have done and false things that we have thought. At such times evil spirits use extreme cunning and malice. When we are undergoing a spiritual crisis we are close to hell. There are two forces at work in spiritual crises, a force from the Lord from within and a force from hell from without, and we are in between. …Since a spiritual crisis is a battle between these two, what is at stake is control – namely, whether or not the spiritual self will gain control over the earthly, whether or not goodness within us will gain control over evil, and therefore whether the Lord or hell will have control over us. (The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Teachings #197, 199)