Not bad, but suffering

I have a firm belief that we all contain goodness in us and are inherently good.

copied from a google search… please ignore the bit about pie!

Each of us is good and we are born that way. That applies to aetheists, agnostics, Catholics, Muslims, Aboriginal folk healers, desert shamans, and the list goes on to include every human ever. That is radical love. That is God’s love. To God, each of us is a beloved child and God lives in us.

So when we sin (when we knowingly do something harmful to others, where people get hurt or could in the future get hurt) we know internally that God in us does not like what we did and it torments us. And that torment can be removed when we turn to God again and begin doing God’s will again. We have that choice, to turn toward God or away, to follow God’s will or to revolt against it. The snag is that revolting against it hurts us ourselves more than anyone else because our inner connection with God is damaged by that revolt, and that is painful for us whether we acknowledge it or not. Everyone has this, regardless of what they were taught growing up or choose to believe as adults. We all suffer from our negative choices.

Whether a person embraces God in their life (quietly or visibly) is a cause of either suffering for them or joy and peace. There are not bad people, just suffering ones.

“Come to Me, all who are weary, and I will give you rest.”

What does the future hold?

I don’t know what I’m blogging about today. I don’t know what the future holds. I used to want to.

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Today, however, I put my trust in God. I pray, and let the results be up to God. I put in the work, of course. If a form requires filling-in, I read the instructions carefully and fill it in. I put in my best work because I know God always does the same for me.

My husband and I just yesterday completed part of an important process. I can’t tell you what just yet, but we are moving forward with our lives and are overjoyed to have this part completed. It was several months in the making, super stressful, and caused a lot of tension between us. I put more effort into my spiritual life during the process, praying and also taking time to listen to God. Spending time getting quiet. It has all helped.

I feel confident in God’s goodness toward me, God’s love for me, and I put all my trust in God.

 

Many Good Paths to God

I believe there are many good paths to God.

I believe that God wants to speak to us through Everything. To be in a continuous communion and communication with us all, God’s beloved children.

We are so loved by God. “God so loved the world that He gave His only son.”

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Let God Speak to You

During my meditation today, I sat down, got quiet and still, and made an effort to open my mind to God. That is what I understand meditation to be: listening for God to speak to me. Prayer is talking to God, meditation is listening.

I have a lot of ‘mental noise’ going on right now. There is a big important task my husband and I have been working on and we’re reaching the stage where the success of the task depends on people saying yes! And there are the day to day tasks available, dishes and laundry and vacuuming. And tending to my health which has been suffering from chronic illness. Trust me, there is a lot of mental ‘chatter’ when I sit still. Most people have that, if they sit still and silent long enough to hear it.

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But there is something important about what I did. You know the Bible passage that says (roughly) “Ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will open to you”? That describes the search for God perfectly. When we open ourselves to God (our individual understanding of a loving God/Goddess/Source), God responds. Learning to listen is part of that search. We seek, and then we aim to become open to hear God’s words to us. One way I have of knowing what God’s message to me is: the thought that floats through my mind during meditation and I think ‘Huh… where did That come from?!?’ The thing that didn’t seem to come from my own whirlwind of thought-processing. The thought that seems like stillness, rather than distraction.

Today it is really powerful, it is this song: Count on Me

“Count On Me”

Count on me through thick and thin
A friendship that will never end
When you are weak I will be strong
Helping you to carry on
Call on me, I will be there
Don’t be afraid
Please believe me when I say
Count on me

“Help my Unbelief”

Have you ever wanted to believe in Jesus, in God, in the Holy Spirit, but you doubted?

If so, you are in good company. Even the disciples felt doubt when Jesus had died and risen, until the Holy Spirit came upon them and inspired them to go out spreading the good news that Jesus had risen. The quote in the title of this post is from Mark 9:24 when a boy believed to be possessed was brought by his father to the disciples for healing. They were not able to heal him because they were not relying totally on God.

Have you ever done that? You prayed but then you felt like maybe you were the one making the prayer happen? And you quit relying on God for a moment, without meaning to? From this scripture passage, it certainly sounds like it’s completely normal. We all do that.

As mindfulness meditation teaches, all we can do in those moments is return to the path. The path in this case is to focus on God.

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But who said the quote? It wasn’t one of the disciples, it was the boy’s father. Jesus said to him “Everything is possible to one who has faith.”

And the boy’s father replied, “I do believe, help my unbelief!”

Have you ever wanted so badly to believe in Jesus, and felt like you just weren’t sure, or maybe that you just didn’t? I think that’s really normal, too. After all, if it was hard for some of the people of his time who saw his miracles and healings right in front of their eyes, it might be hard for us, too. We have not seen or heard, but that is not what faith is about.

Faith is believing despite an absence of proof. “We walk by faith and not by sight.”

If you are open and willing to believe, then in some way you already do believe. Don’t be so hard on yourself, don’t require yourself to feel perfect faith all the time. Just keep walking forward. God can do the rest. That’s the true way to have faith.

Evolving with God

When evolution is paired with scripture, the good news gets even better. The Israelites are often referred to in the Bible as God’s ‘chosen people’. I read in a very popular book called ‘Guns, Germs, and Steel’ by Jared Diamond that scientific evidence points to humans evolving from primates in northern Africa, more specifically in the ‘Fertile Crescent’. Another source for this post is Michael Pollan’s documentary ‘Fire.’

Map of The Fertile Crescent

Look over to the left of the image… right under the C in Canaan.

Science has come a long way; they are able to show by looking at skulls what a creature’s brain size and activity were during its lifetime. And through additional evidence, they can also figure out what that creature ate. Skulls and other evidence have been found showing that primates began cooking and eating cooked meat (probably initially by the accident of lightning creating fire that killed animals which smelled really good cooking). Before that primates were all vegetarian: eating fruit, insects, and leaves. Leaves and plant matter like stems often needed to be chewed for long periods of time because they could be really tough and woody. So regardless of what else a primate did in a given day, it did a lot of chewing, stayed within easy reach of food sources, and with changing seasons it traveled in order to follow the availability of food.

When some primates began eating cooked meat, the protein available in that meat helped that primate have more energy to do things other than chewing and staying near leafy plants all day. Over thousands of years the primates began to get smarter, evolving to have larger brains with a much higher capacity: they now could think in more complex ways than just ‘find food and avoid danger.’

Another turning point was when these evolving primates moved around to the fertile crescent where lots of plants were growing, including lots of ‘cereal’ grasses with large seeds (think of wheat: it’s a grass but the kernel is so large we grind them and use them for flour). So now the evolving primates with bigger smarter brains had access to an abundance of a variety of types of grasses that produce large seeds that can be eaten. Through various ways they began to notice they could plant seeds themselves and intentionally grow these grasses, which gave them freedom to live anywhere. Agriculture began when these humans who evolved from primates began to cultivate cereal grasses, sewing and reaping them and collecting the harvest. These humans continued to evolve and eventually spread out all over the world. Everyone who exists came from these first humans. And it all began in this area of the world around and including Jerusalem, which is the capital of Israel.

In the Bible, God saying to the people of Israel ‘you are My chosen people’ can be seen as a way of saying to all people then and today: ‘I have been with you humans from the beginning of your existence. I choose you, I love you, you are Mine.’

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Jesus Always Healed the Sick

I have found it written many times in the Gospels that when people came to Jesus requesting healing for themselves or their sick loved ones or servants, Jesus always healed them.

They came to him believing that he could heal them; which seems to be the common thread and a factor of great importance. A Roman centurion had such a great faith that he said “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.” (Matthew 8: 8) And Jesus replied “As you have believed, let it be done for you.” (Matthew 8: 13)

I believe that even today Jesus heals the sick this way. If you are sick, you could read in the Gospels stories of Jesus healing and ask that it be done for you the same way, that you believe Jesus can heal you without ever ‘walking over to your house’.

He also asked many of them not to tell anyone what he had done for them. I understand this as requiring a certain humility of those who believe.

The Good News

I read in ‘Rediscover Jesus’ by Matthew Kelly that he advocates reading the Gospel as one of the best ways to connect with Jesus (maybe he even said ‘the’ best way). He recommends 15 minutes per day. Initially I did not know whether I would do this or not, and I definitely did not know if it would work.

Good news! (which incidentally is what ‘Gospel’ means!) I have instead of 15 minutes been reading a chapter per day, and I definitely feel a closer connection with God. I feel more accepting of God’s love, more trusting in God, and more hopeful.

That is definitely good news.

Here is the version I use: The Bible

An Undivided Love

What kind of a god would want people to be divided and fighting one another?

I don’t believe that is what Jesus or God wants for us as humans. I don’t believe that sects dividing off of any faith please our Creator. From what I can tell about Love, Love wishes for us all to be deeply spiritually connected to Love and to each other.

Otherwise why do we seek connection in so many different ways? Social media, texting, inviting friends over, hosting events and gatherings, joining clubs and faith-based organizations. Of course there are as many more ways as there are people, probably.

We seek connection. We seek Love. Some of us seek God/Goddess/Spirit. And really it’s all one; connection is Love and God is Love.

Spiritual Healing: Rediscovering

I am reading a book called Rediscover Jesus. It is by Matthew Kelly and it is a very helpful book. I found it in the Little Free Library in my neighborhood, missing the first 30 pages but wonderful anyway. It showed up there just exactly when I needed it, exactly when I was yearning to connect with my deep faith remembered from my childhood again and wishing for a teacher in that.

On the way down the street driving to the airport I began to regret leaving it in my room and mentioned that to my Dad who was driving the car. He asked if I wanted to go back to get it. He turned the car around and I am so glad we went back, because the book helped me have faith through my flight and let go of the awful stress I generally feel about flying. I took the trip one moment at a time and trusted both in God and that I had prepared well for it.

That trip was so blessed and is the easiest transatlantic flight I have ever taken.

Anyway, I have begun doing the ‘prayer process’ outlined in the book. It is short and simple and yet so powerful. Each day I noticed that my interactions with others have improved and I am receiving a measure of grace with which to deal with life.

This is my short post for today.

May you be blessed.