The way I see it #

THE WAY I SEE IT.

We are told that God is a Love, and it has taken me a long time to wrap my tiny little brain around the idea that God is a verb.

Generally speaking, our perception of “God” is some sort of a super human being that is someone we can talk to and pray to.

And so it has become clear to me that “God” is the personification of Love.

We are told to love Love, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. This presumes and requires that we love ourselves first, because we are first loved by Love.

We are also told to Love our enemies. (Another tall order).

 Love is the light of our souls, and just as darkness is the absence of light, so evil is the absence of love, and “Satan” is the personification of that darkness.

When we enter a dark room we search for the light switch, or turn on a lantern. Without the light, we stumble into obstacles, chairs, tables, boxes…, and get angry when we hurt ourselves.

When we read the Old Testament, without the light of the New Testament, again we stumble.

We are told that we cannot serve two masters. We must choose between greed for money, and love for others.

We are spiritual people, whether we know it or not; believe it or not, or we are very convinced that the spirit is a figment of our imagination.

Well, I know that I have a soul that can exist outside my body, and therefore I know that each of us has a soul. I also know that the pain that we feel is of this body, because outside this body I felt no pain.

Learning to love is like learning to swim. We have a great fear of water until we learn to swim. Taking lessons is not good enough. We must practice until we actually learn and develop faith in our buoyancy.

And so it is with learning to love. The more hateful a person is, the more that person needs to learn the art of loving, and the more faith we need to have in the almighty Love.

Passing On

Just yesterday , we  lost a very dear friend, Ted Shaw, a disabled veteran wounded in Vietnam. The first time I met him he told me he had been shot nine times, and while in the field hospital, he left his body and told me, “I met my Lord”. The Lord told him, “You are going back; I have more work for you”. The doctors were able to extract eight of the bullets; the ninth was lodged in his spine with which he suffered for nearly 40 years. He became a chaplain for both the military and the police in Lincoln.

Somewhere I read that grieving is a part of the healing process. It is good to share our thoughts and feelings and tears. It helps others to know they are not alone in their grief, it helps us to unload as well. It is not a strength to hold them in, but rather a weakness; a fear of what others will think. 

It requires courage to overcome our fears.

 So take courage my friends.

 Ted is in good hands,

 and in due time so will we.

A little understanding

It is my understanding that

“God” is the personification of Love.

Just as darkness is the absence of light,

So evil is the absence of Love,

And “Satan” is the personification of evil.

If we believe in the qualities of Love

such as goodness, mercy, compassion, forgiveness…,

then it doesn’t matter what names we give

to the personification. 

Temper is a strength; loss of temper is a weakness.

We temper iron to make steel.

When steel loses its temper

It loses its strength.

Our Spiritual Universe

Science is about our physical universe. Religion is about our spiritual universe. They are both valid; one does not invalidate the other.

I have some really great news for you! We are all spiritual. Whether we know it or not; whether we believe it or not; even the most devout atheist is spiritual, because it is in our nature; it is a part of our being. The fact that the atheist refuses to believe it does not make it any less true. It is inescapable; like our skin; we can hide our skin with our clothes; we can pretend it does not exist; we can remove our clothes, but we dare not remove our skin.