Messages from Self

I've written before about listening for God's whispers, those messages from the universe that lead to great discoveries. There's another kind of message that we receive daily, messages from self. Sometimes the messages are helpful and some times not so much. Let's examine the different types of messages that might flow into your life.

Some times the messages are like drops of rain. They slowly descend into our minds like little pings of rain. They can be gentle and soothing or they can hit hard and sting. These drops occur off and on over time. Pay attention to them or they can become a thunderstorm. These are little subconscious messages, at times they are warnings that if ignored create problems. People often refer to the raindrops as intuition, gut feelings that are best listened to.  

Other messages are like the gentle ebb and flow of the seasons, creating a cycle in our lives. Some cycles, like the seasons are useful and fill a need within us of a pattern of existence. However other cycles are less useful and become a vicious repetition that we long to break but feel trapped or defined by. These cycles send messages that make us doubt ourselves, that diminish who we are, and rob us of the joy we are suppose to experience in life.

The important thing to remember about self messages is that we do have control over them. We can filter our messages into a gentle flow that doesn't overwhelm us but rather supports us. Yet the very most important thing about our messages is that what we seek is what we find. We are influenced by the messages both from self and others that we let into our lives. It always reminds me of this quote:

Guard carefully the things you embrace, the seeds that you plant and the path you follow. What you seek is also seeking you. It is a dual relationship that you can bring into being. Take care that your messages move you closer to the things you want. 

Hugs and may your week be filled with messages that you can embrace and bring into being.

Goodness and Senseless Acts

Waking up on a beautiful June morning to hear about another senseless act of violence started me thinking about goodness....that allusive quality that is one of the fruits of the spirit, a kernel of it contained inside us, protect that kernel, cultivate it so that it is not distorted and used for the exact opposite.

God gave us a present, a soul, a tiny sliver of himself, that is part of our journey toward our spiritual reunion with Him. So often that little part of ourselves is ignored. Why? Is it so hard to find, lost in the tangled maze of life?  Is it easier to choose a different path? Are we so easily led astray by worldly beliefs?  We so often despair that as individuals we can do little to "right" the wrongs of this world. But if each of us, individually lived with "all" our soul than wouldn't life fit together a little easier.

God calls us to love. Hate is not love, killing people is not love, making people suffer is not love. God knows his stuff! He knows what it takes to survive life here in the human domain. He gave us the directions to put together a meaningful, fulfilling life. Please pray for Orlando, Paris, Aurora, Belgium, (I won't continue as you get the point). Pray to whatever higher spirit you seek. Pray if you don't even believe. (I mean seriously it can't hurt, right?)

Hugs to each and everyone who reads this post. May the goodness of the gift God has given you shine forth in this world of darkness. May His hope bring hope into your life, piece by piece, bit by bit, we can make a difference.

Jesus and Love

Even though love was the word for January, one can never reflect too much on it, especially since Jesus gave it as the greatest commandment,

This years political fiasco has me up thinking about Jesus and love. It's like he woke me up and said...."Get out of the boat".  I've written before about how hard it is to get out of the boat, to have that faith, and to speak from the heart. This morning I feel moved to muse about what love was for Jesus. How did he let the healing love of God play a center role in his life?

So often we attempt to see love in a narrow view, being nice to others, accepting them when we don't agree with them, making sure we do not speak ill of them . And that is definitely a start but is that really the deep love that Jesus asks us to have for others. Don't our actions speak louder than words? Even while accepting others do we practice inclusion or exclusion? Do we divide or do we bring together?

"How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?" Matthew 7:4
 
We all are sinners and yet we tend to forget that. We tend to somehow think our sins are lesser or less offensive and focus on the sins of others. Sometimes to the extent that we avoid them, refuse to be around them or wish that they were not part of "our world". We might hope to change them. Is that what Jesus did? I have written before how Jesus was a rebel and usually hung out with people others did not associate with. And he didn't do so for the purpose of changing them, he did it simply out of his great love.

"While Jesus was at Matthews house many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Him and His disciples."  Matthew 9:10 (He was criticized for this by the way.)

Jesus was anointed by a sinful woman and he didn't say "I can't be seen with you." He felt her love for him and her love was enough. He didn't ask her to change before he loved her. He didn't even preach to her or suggest she do so. He loved her regardless of what she did or what others thought of her.

³⁶ When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. ³⁷ A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. ³⁸ As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
³⁹ When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” Luke 7:36-50

In an earlier post we mused about the Samaritan woman at the well. when asked for a drink she wondered, "how can you be talking to me." because at that time Jews did not speak to Samaritans. Yet that didn't stop Jesus from doing so.  

⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.^)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” John 4: 9-10

 There are many examples of Jesus's acceptance and love evident in the Bible. While many will argue that he wants us to bring others to God and that "changing" these sinners is important. I'd suggest that ...that is NOT what Jesus did. He accepted them and loved them unconditionally. God knows what is in our hearts and we are very specifically told not to judge others. That is not our role here on earth.

I've written before about the nature of good and evil; how one could be seen as "becoming" and the other as "unbecoming." I'm worried that our current political arena is quickly "unbecoming", dissolving into something dark, as political figures on both sides frequently throw around God's name without living God's ways. (Some obviously more than others) Isn't that indicative of false prophets? 

"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves." Matthew 7:15

I'd rather have someone not speak of God at all than one who tries to distort God's messages. The whole purpose of my soul musings is to "become", to increase my understanding of God as it plays out in my life and to seek a higher connection to Him through His conversations with me. Sometimes he whispers and other times he pretty much knocks me in the head with something, Each of us experiences God's love and his messages in different ways. The key is to be open to his voice. God's plan is not for us all to be the same but for each of us to bring our unique gifts into this world. He weaves a tapestry with all of the threads of our lives and it is breathtakingly beautiful. It's freeing....He knows my heart and in the end only He will judge.

HUGS....I'm ending with a great video from Casting Crowns, I hope you will take a minute to listen to it.

Violence, Hate and God's Promises

I watched CNN most of the afternoon yesterday. I know it's not really a healthy thing to do. Yet another mass shooting unfolding just mere days after the last one couldn't simply be ignored. We cannot hide our heads in the sand. Paris, Mali, Colorado and now California. Has the whole world gone mad?

Things are troubling in today's world. This emptiness inside of people grows. We can talk gun control, mental health and terrorism all we want but the plain hard fact is that none of those truly tell the whole story.  They are but simple human terms to try to describe something that we struggle to understand. It reminds me of an earlier post about the nature of good and evil. While good strives to "become" to move higher and higher in a spiritual swirl toward God, evil is the emptiness of the soul, a lack of meaning, the "unbecoming" until only the darkness exists.

We can enact laws, we can limit guns, we can increase mental health availability, we can bomb terrorist strongholds but none of those truly combat the emptiness. I'm a Methodist, but I'm pretty eclectic, the God or higher spirit that you chose to worship does not have to fit into my belief system but it has to exist. And it has to exist in harmony with others beliefs.  This isn't a competition between my God and your God. Without the existence of God, The Great Spirit, there is only the darkness. I agree with the headline that reads  "God isn't fixing this"

I'll be honest....I didn't read the article but I stand behind the headline. Here's why. God does promise to make something good out of the storms that devastate your life but that assumes you are going to be an active participant. You can't be passive, you can't ignore God and good and love and then assume that God is stepping in to clean up your mess. Not going to happen!

Cleaning up the mess doesn't require pointing fingers, endless debates and rhetoric. It requires two things. One that we live our lives filled with love rather than hate. Two that we recognize the emptiness created by a lack of some kind of faith in God or a higher being. When we recognize number two then we are open to achieve number one.

By now, most of you are shaking your heads saying..."it's not gonna happen." and you could very well be right. But without an end to hate in this world, there will be no end to violence. Truly moving in that direction would allow God to create something great out of the storms.

To simply pray for God to "fix" this is not what's required. Oh I'm all for prayer and it's powerful but we need to move past conversations with God and onto the path he has set forth for us in regard to living our spiritual lives. Now more than ever we must offer others the gift of a deep spiritual connection to God. For in the end, the whole world may be destroyed and even the stars may fall but God will fulfill his promises.

 

 

Hugs to each of you during these very trying times. May you reflect on words of love and seek ways to bring others into faith so they are not consumed by emptiness.

In the Garden of Good and Evil

A few posts back I mentioned evil and whether people think evil truly exists. I said that might be a topic for another post. Well today is the day for a bit of musing about evil and the nature of evil. Please be forewarned that this musing will go in multiple directions. I have no steadfast belief about "evil" at this time. One thing I do believe is that it exists. So this musing is more about exploring "ideas" about evil. I'm not a theologian and what I use here are just bits and pieces I have gleaned from reading not an in depth "knowledgeable" discussion of the topic.

First I want to muse a bit about the thoughts of Macquarrie, an Anglican philosophical theologian. He wrote both Principles of Christian Theology and Jesus Christ in Modern Thought; neither of which I have read.  Here, however, is what intrigues me about his thoughts about the nature of evil. He viewed evil as a reversal of the positive phenomenon of "becoming"  Though we are created and supported by God, we are in constant peril of "un-becoming". Good exists as the striving to "become." Which fits with my personal thoughts about connecting with your soul, being on the path that God has set for us, and "growing" closer in our spiritual relationship with God. In short, "becoming". While evil works for the exact opposite of "becoming" which is to un-become. Or perhaps think of it as de-evolving. Reaching a lower level with less and less spiritual awareness until only base desires and nothingness exists. I can "see' this in the "evil" present in serial killers and other depraved offenders.

Second, I read a short piece and I forget where; that we view evil as an external force and in doing so we allow people to put the "blame" elsewhere rather than examine the aspects of good and evil that exists in all of us. Now when I think about this idea, I agree with it to a point. Inside us, we all possess the inherent ability to be both good and evil. Yet I disagree that there is never an external "evil" in the world. I think there is, although it's shape and form I'm not sure of. When you think of the "internal" aspect of this viewpoint it actually fits with the idea of "becoming". You can either strive toward a higher spiritual self or you can stray so far from the source of good (God) that you run the risk of "un-becoming."  It reminds me that I must be diligent in my spiritual quest so that apathy doesn't invade my thoughts and the weariness of the world doesn't pull me too far from the path.

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Romans 12:21  

 

 

Then we have the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher, and author of Beyond Good and Evil.   While I do not agree with a lot of what I read associated with his thoughts I find myself musing this: 

 

“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”    

 

Gazing into the abyss, when you begin to know or understand something that is so fundamentally different from yourself, it affects you. Perhaps you even take a piece of it with you.

 

Think about it in the realm of criminal profilers if that is easier to process than the construct of evil. Profilers that research, study, talk with, examine, and "get inside the heads" of violent offenders are affected by it. Yes, there are ways to avoid it or counter it but as you "connect" with such individuals you cannot help but be drawn into a world that is fundamentally different than the world at large.  

 

Turn away from evil and do good; so shall you dwell forever.    Psalm 37:27

 

I think the same can be said to be true in a positive manner also. When you look "into the light" (for lack of better comparison) then the light gazes also into you. I've long said that as a "collector of stories" that I learn and grown and am transformed by the stories I hear and the people I encounter. It's the same concept, isn't it?  The same could be said of  "musings".  Musings are a way of looking into things and each one can spiral toward a deeper understanding.

 

I warned you that this was going to go in a bunch of different directions all at once. I've even more thoughts I could muse about but I'll save that for another day.

 

Until then, hugs and hope and faith to you. I hope my writing might help you in some small way on your journey.