Yes... I'm moving again. It's a pain in the neck for me too. Every time I move my old blogs to a new site I have to go through each one line by line and remove the silly errors that are created by the import program. Things like missingspacesbetweenwords.
Anyways, I've been doing a lot of work on making sure I won't have to do this again, and incorporating a lot of ideas from people like you. I can't promise there won't be any more changes. But I am putting all the blogs and all the other stuff I'm doing under one heading: Free in Babylon.
You can follow all that's going on at:
http://beingfreeinbabylon.wordpress.com/
or on twitter:
Follow @freeinbabylon
or:
Follow @beinglostinla
If you want to find this blog you can find the next post at:
http://actionbeliefcourage.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/blame-and-judging/
It took me awhile to get all this stuff connected and working together... and I had a lot of loving people kindly "pushing" for me to do this. So please share it with someone....
Finding God
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Friday, December 9, 2011
Humility and God
So I have an experiment for you. Its pretty simple and it'll really help us get to the next step of this humility thing. Sort of a demonstration.
Go somewhere where there are people.
Like a street bench or mall... or arrive to work early before anyone
else gets there and sit by the front door. Anywhere that you could
see a bunch of people walk by for an half hour or so.
And then say something positive to
every single person that walks by.
Keep it about yourself. Statements like
“I really like those boots.” or “I want you to know that you
make me smile everyday.” or something like that. Avoid saying
“You...” this or “you ...” that.
You will quickly learn several things.
The first thing you will learn is that people think you are crazy.
This is a sad symptom of a very serious disease common to our
society.
But you will also notice that the ones
that don't like your comments are generally the people who let their
pride respond. Remember how I said that pride is enmity? It responds
to images of itself? This is the reality.
But if you're getting the hang of these
kind of self-less positive compliments, then people will start to
either respond with confusion or with a similar positivity. This is
because you are sidestepping their defenses an pride and actually
connecting with them. You're actually teaching some people that its
okay to have a connection with another human being.
No one gets treated like a human being
enough nowadays
You'll also start to feel better about
yourself. You might actually start having a good rest of the day
because of this little exercise. Its a funny kind of thing. I know
its just baby steps at this point, but that selfless serving of
others is like a special medicine. What happens is that we get it
confused with trying to “save” people.
In order to see what's happening here,
I'm going to have to dispel another part of this “box” that keeps
us slaves. It concerns how we perceive God. Generally people see God
in one of two ways. Christians and most atheists or agnostics see God
as a personal “being”, much like we are beings since we're made
in his image, that is separate from the universe. He existed, then He
made the universe, then from time to time He “intervenes” in the
universe in the form of miracles.
The other view of God actually predates
this view, and is the actual historical and traditional view of God
for Judaism, Christianity and Islam as well as several other world
religions. But it has been lost in the churchianity. This is the view
that God is reality. God is the universe. Here's a couple scriptures
for you:
Acts 17:28
For in Him we live and move and have
our being:...
Psalms 139: 7-10
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or
whither shall I flee from they presence?
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art
there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there.
If I take the wings of the wings of the
morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
Even there shall thy hand lead me, and
thy right hand shall hold me.
There are others. The concept of the
omnipresence of God supersedes the concept of the personal being
apart from the universe. In fact the whole concept of “intervention”
doesn't even make sense anymore. God is the universe, the reality,
“is”. We exist in him.
This is important in how we view
creation. God didn't create an “event” where the universe was set
in motion. He keeps it being by His being.
Its also important in how we worship
Him. We can choose to be a part of His process, but the process is
going to go on without us. God IS the process.
Once again, this is the actual original
view of God by the very people who wrote the bible. Don't take my
word for it, go look it up for yourself.
Its called immanent panentheism. Which
is a fancy word for saying “All is in God”.
This brings us back to our Humility
experiment. Since we all exist within God, each of us equally flawed
and short of God, each of us equally unique and beautiful in God,
then how we treat each other is how we treat God. And if God is the
great unifying force, and He is, then the nature of pride to compete
and create enmity is the anti-God. We got to smash it in ourselves
wherever we find it.
But there's one last step to this
Humility puzzle....
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Subjective Humility
Warning: The following may cause an expansion of the mind.
I often get accused of going too deep or thinking too much. Its a problem. Its not MY problem, but its a problem. But that whole “Keep it Simple” thing is for another chapter.
I just want to take this opportunity to
say that for the rest of this paper, if you are not interested in me
getting un-simple... just go to the next one. This next discussion
may not be for everyone. If you're following the humility thing so
far just fine and are happy with it, that's fine.
OK, here goes. The concepts of truth
and humility and acceptance I have already discussed can be pulled
together with the concepts of subjectivity and objectivity.
Subjectivity refers to the subject and
all your perspectives, experiences, feelings and desires... and pain
of course.... It is contrasted with objectivity.
To understand why its important, we
have to think about this thing called Qualia. This refers to the
nature of a thing that has to be experienced to be understood and
cannot be communicated. A simple example would be the color red, and
trying to explain it to someone who had been born blind and had no
“experience” of colors at all. You could say that red “looks
hot” or say that 'red' is “what one sees when refractive light with a
wavelength of 700nm is pointed at you” but its not quite the same
thing.
So something like smelling the sea,
feeling a rain storm approaching, hunger, pain, a broken heart, fear,
and how we think of God are all subjective Qualia.
All spiritual experience is Qualia.
They cannot be communicated in a way that is meaningful. You have to
have one.
To take it further, think a little bit
about what communication is. Communication is basically taking an
idea or concept in your mind, and creating the same (or as close as
possible) in someone else's mind. In Psychology class I was taught
that this is the definition of “intelligence”. The ability to
communicate.
Qualia is ineffable, which means it
cannot be communicated or understood in any way other than direct
experience; its intrinsic, meaning its non-relational or does not
change depending on the experience's relation to other things; its
private, or all interpersonal comparisons of qualia are impossible;
as Clarence Irving Lewis, in his book Mind and the World Order (1929) wrote: “Qualia are directly intuited, given, and not
subject to any possibility of error because they are completely
subjective.”
Think about that for a minute. He is
not saying that subjectivity has to be true because we experience it,
what he's saying is that our minds can't tell the difference. This is
the white swan thing again.
If we have only seen white swans, but
then we see other birds, like say doves, that are white but also come
in other colors, then there just might be the possibility of other
colored swans in our mind BEFORE we see the black one. Simply based
on the fact that swans are birds and doves are birds.
This is not universal, some people will
have the potential for this possibility and some wont. Its the “box”.
In a very weird way peoples subjectivity can create a rigid “box” or pretty much destroy another person's “box.”
This is the structure of subjectivity.
Every single experience and feeling and perception and learned
behavior and whatever you have ever had in your entire life, whether
you remember it or not, creates a “world” that you live in. A
subjective world.
The amazing part is that I can have a
wonderful conversation with another human being who exists in a
completely different and separate subjective world then the one I'm
living in. There are enough similarities for us to communicate.
For example, if I say “the beach”
to someone who has never been there, but lived on a mountain
somewhere their entire life, we are not really going to be able to
communicate the concept to each other completely. For me the beach is
the smell of the salt and the sound of the waves and the feel of the
sand and so much more. To them its a paragraph or two and maybe a
picture on Wikipedia. But... it might be enough in common to
communicate something....
So back in the mid 70's a couple of
guys at Santa Cruz University figured out how language
(communication) relates to the structure of subjective experience.
They used a quote from Noam Chomsky “The map is not the territory”
to explain how a “deeper” meaning to the individual speaking
could be found by the person listening and developed several
techniques to do just that. Basically, what you say and how you say
it can reveal what you're thinking.
Now unfortunately mainstream science
has worked very hard to discredit this revolutionary science. But if
you look around closely you will see that this principle has been
applied to many different areas in a very real way. It has
infiltrated and been adopted by law enforcement, salespeople, idiots
that want to pick up girls easier, and the very “scientists” that
discredit the concept. In fact, the concept that subjective
experience is very powerful to us humans is discredited by saying its
too subjective. Huh.
If everything you know or can possibly
know is a result of your subjectivity, and most of it is so
unconscious that you can't even do anything about it until after the
fact....
...and everyone else is operating under
the same principle, the same subjectivity... then this is an
excellent foundation for humility.
Its not that “I know, I've been
there.” and the other person says “I've been there and I know”
is the place to end up... its more like “I only know what my
subjective world has in it, and everything I am tells me its true...
but you are struggling in the same boat” is the place to start. We
need to stop INSISTING that what we KNOW to be true is the only
truth. That's the beginning of fellowship and actually finding some
truth. We have to share our subjectivities.
The Path of Humility
My journey to humility began simply
enough. All I had to do was sit down and shut up. And listen. In Mere
Christianity, CS Lewis writes “The first step for one that wishes
to acquire humility is to recognize that they have pride.” Well
that's true, the first step to change anything is to recognize one
has it. The first two words of the whole 12 step program is “We
admitted...” Its a very simple spiritual principle.
Of course, people are sometimes
clueless... I know I was. I had to begin by sitting down and shutting
up and listening to others. I mean really listen. Its harder to do
than one might think. I know this because once I started doing it I
found that EVERYBODY talks about themselves. Wow, is that what I was
doing.
Its a small step... but an important
one. Its kinda like looking in the mirror when you shave or put on
makeup. Kinda hard to do without the mirror. And it may take weeks
for some to realize that they are looking in a mirror, because its
the pride that keeps us focused on ourselves, and using our own
standard to measure others. So it takes a while of listening to
others before we realize that we are actually looking at ourselves.
The thing about pride is that its the
anti-God. There's a real easy trick to seeing if you have some. Just
ask how other people's pride makes you feel. If you're like most,
seeing other's pride infuriates you. That's how it works. Pride is
competition. Its me me me.... so anyone else displaying their pride
is going to make your pride jump up in animosity.
Pride separates.
God unites.?
Simple, huh?
That's why the “shutting up” part
is important in this first step. It does not good to argue pride
against pride. All it does is make the pride stronger in both of you.
That's how this stuff spreads.
Go to just about any community, online
or off, that argue about the bible. Does it make you feel warm and
fuzzy? Is there a weight and significance of God?
Or when its over do people go to their
isolation corners and lick their wounds? Alone? Even if they are
surrounded by people that say, “You were right,” they still feel
alone.
That's what pride does. It isolates us.
Because its very nature is enmity. It exalts itself at the expense of
others. And that's the real sin... the people that “win” those
kind of arguments feel just as hollow.
So how does this whole concept make you
feel? Seriously... Do you feel angry? Like you just want to stay away
from those “idiots”? You want them to leave you alone?
Or as they are railing at you and
spitting on you and trying to hurt you to get you to accept God and
the bible their way and jump through their hoops and calling it
God... do you want to hug them and cry with them?
In Matthew 9:36 it says that Jesus saw
the multitudes and felt compassion for them. In his guts, like a
punch in the solar plexus. These are the people that were going to
kill him for his “heresies”. And he knew it. But it changes
nothing, the compassion and tears is what it looks like when we
realize that these people are hurting themselves worshipping their
pride.
Eventually I found out what kind of
person I really was. A piece of crud. This is also an important step
in humility, but its just a step to something better. Some people do
confuse this step with the destination. Its easy to get stuck here,
especially if the people that are supposed to be helping you
encourage it.
Nowhere in the bible does Jesus teach
us to say “I am a sinner.” Its important to realize the exact
nature of our coming short, but we don't live there.
This also is an important concept about
Christianity that many followers of churchianity use to oppress. Its
actually very effective to keep people dependent on you if you want
them in your church on Sunday. Then you can give them feel good
messages that get them to focus on the feeling and call it God. And
if they feel down you can just tell them its their fault and they
have to pray more or read the bible more or be more holy.
We are already holy. The problem is
that we equate God with warm fuzzies.
This is something that we have been
warned against for centuries. The weight and significance of God is
not a feeling. We have to move beyond judging the effectiveness of
our prayer based upon our feelings. Do you really want a God that you
can't communicate with if you had a bad night's sleep?
But we measure things by the “message”,
meaning if the message or sermon or whatever makes us feel good then
its of God. I'm sure it is, but that's not the sum total of it. To
just treat it as though that is the goal or the result we seek makes
us junkies. We use God to run from pain.
The way God set things up is that the
Law creates sin. He wants us to know that there is no Law that will
save us, there is nothing that we can do better or less or in any
greater quantity for salvation.
I like the book of Romans. If all I had
was the book of Romans I could make it. The others are good too, but
Paul was really talking to the Gentile church (which I am a part) for
God when he wrote this one.
Romans 1:16- ...For it is the power of
God unto salvation to every one that beloved...
This theme is repeated again and again.
It means that God alone gives us salvation. He gave us Jesus.
The law doesn't give us salvation,
following the laws do not give us salvation, following doctrines or
churches or pastors or events or food drives or planting churches or
nothing... God alone.
And he's already done it.
Keep reading the beginning of Romans
and you get to several parts where Paul says exactly this... Down
around 1:21 he starts talking about how the Law was made to have
weight and significance instead of God, and it was foolish and sin.
He spends the next few chapters driving the point home. The Law
creates sin...
We need someone to fulfill the law for
us. Someone that would do it in such a way that every single person
on the planet would have the Law that gives eternal life fulfilled
once and for all.
Everyone.
So... he goes on about how we are no
better than they, that no one is righteous.... churchianity has been
using this stuff for years to make people slaves to their doctrine
with fear and guilt. Give them laws no one can keep then when they
feel guilty, tell them to be churchimaniacs more, which will make it
even worse as they keep trying to hold onto some standard that's
impossible... this is the story of the Old testament in real life...
In our churches every day.
Don't believe me. Read it yourself,
investigate, be honest.
Jesus came to free us from this stuff.
So it is important to realize that we
fall short, but not to stay there. Its part of the plan, why we need
Jesus, but its just a way-station. Its there for us to realize that
we are not better than anyone else... humility, remember?
The trick then is to come to the point
where we can honestly not think of ourselves first....
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Humility and Pride
So let's get deep...
I tried to change my life for the
better many times. Each time I tried to follow this program or that
one. It was very difficult to just dig through the crud and simply
start. This last time something different happened. God put someone
in my life that had a different starting point. It was humility. This
guy simply asked me to write a paper on what humility meant to me.
I must have started that paper a half a
dozen times, only to crumble them up and throw them away. Finally I
just decided to be completely honest about it. I wrote “I am not
God....”
And that's really where it begins.
Where it all went wrong.
Then another funny thing happened. I
started hearing people left and right say something like “the drugs
and alcohol is just a symptom” or “the sex is just a symptom”
and other similar statements.
Now I'm a weird person. When I hear
things like that the first thing that pops into my mind is: “Then
why are we treating the symptom? What is the disease?”
So I turned my inhuman focus on the
answer to that simple question. And no one could answer me. Least of
all the very ones that were going around saying that it was just the
symptom. So I went broader with it. I started asking people in the
religious business, and teachers, and doctors, and tinkers and
tailors and soldiers and spies. I researched it in books on
philosophy and a dozen different religions.
And I figured out what I think the
answer is. What is the disease?
Pride.
Now let's not get hung up on the
word(s) here. Remember we're talking about a real concept, not
defining words. We are not talking about pride as in taking pride in
one's work or one's family; being proud of something that you love;
or even feeling good and getting satisfaction from praise. These are
good things. What I am talking about here is sometimes called
“hubris”. But even that falls short of giving the whole picture.
This is an immensely huge concept.
In the 12 step programs they call it
the selfish, self-centered thing. It is definitely rooted in the
self... self-will.
Christianity is the only religion that
considers pride a sin. Sure other religions like Buddhism (which is
not a real religion... no higher power) may consider it
un-enlightened, or an abomination, or something like that. But in a
very real way the sin of pride is woven throughout the entire concept
of Christianity. From the first sin ever, when Lucifer wanted to
exalt himself above God; to the first human sin, when he told Eve
that if she ate of the “apple” she would know she was “as God”;
the first murder, over and over.
Sin is more about doing things without
God then it is doing things against God. And that's pride. Pride is
all about thinking we are “God” in ways big and small.
God gets to decide how the world is.
Its His world. When the world doesn't go the way we want it, the pain
and suffering and depression and expectations and anger and all the
stuff we go through is from holding the world to our standard, rather
than the creator of the universe's standard.
See whenever we are measuring
something, we need something to measure it against. Some standard.
And the way the brain works, if there is no standard then we use our
own. So built into our vary brains and how they work is a subtle form
of pride. That's the slavery of sin.
We do it with God. We use something
that is supposed to be a mere vehicle to understanding God, the
bible, and very subtly begin to measure God by the standard. He is
much bigger. Don't get me wrong, I completely agree that the bible is
the Word of God. But that is a very different thing than saying that
it is the “words” of God. Jesus is also the Word of God.
But He is so much more and bigger than
the bible. To say that God can only be what is found in the bible and
nothing more is to make an idol of the bible. Its pride.
The problem is that fear and insecurity
creates a need to control things. Sometimes those “things” are
knowledge. Its the “Are we there yet?” syndrome that kids have.
Like if they don't like the answer they are going to get out of the
car. So its our fear and insecurity that drives us to cling to the
bible at the expense of allowing God to truly reveal himself to us.
And that has to do with acceptance.
Acceptance is a subset of humility. Accepting God for who He is, on
His terms, and with no limits or labels or restrictions or standards
is a very complete understanding.
Let me give you an example. There's
this verse that most Christian's are taught first when they give
their life to Christ. It's John 3:16:
For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life.
(I like the King James, if it was good
enough for Paul its good enough for you.)
So what we have is the first step in
making a slave out of Christian. You have to say the right prayer, or
THINK the right thing about Jesus being the Son of God, or even
announce it publicly, or something, and then: Poof! You're saved.
Look, every non-Christian in the world
sees this for the nonsense it is. It's about time we Christians do
too.
Do you know how many Christians I have
talked to that have told me this one verse is proof that God's love
is conditional? How many are tortured that God doesn't love them
unless they do this or that, go to church regularly, learn all they
can about the convoluted logic of doctrines or denominations? Does
that really sound like someone loving you so much that they would
sacrifice their Son for you?
The problem is that the people who tell
you this are the ones that want something from you. If its a gift of
grace from God, then its free. There is nothing need to be done to
get it.
The word believe or belief does not
mean the same thing now that it did even 100 yrs ago. Certainly
something different than the old English that the King James was
written in, and definitely something different than the Koinic Greek
that it was translated from. In old English the word is Bea Loef. I
don't need to translate that do I? It means “beloved”.
You are already the beloved of Christ.
He died for you in a very gruesome way. You already have eternal
life.
And so does every Christian, in every
denomination. Yes even the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses.
And so does the Muslim and the
Buddhists.
And the Wiccans and the Athiests.
Everyone is already saved.
Its the sin of Pride that keeps it us
vs. them. So we need to start with humility.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Application and Understanding
Because I am often accused of rambling,
that my writings appear to just go all over the place, let me
summarize.
First I talked about how language is
not truth. Language is metaphor. Metaphor can help us understand the
truth, but the farther we go with it the farther we get from the
truth. So we get the situation where people seek to understand a
concept, like “love” by looking up what it means in other
languages, or other dictionaries, and collect words (metaphors) to
somehow justify their understanding of a concept that exists
independently of our understanding of it. Can we just agree that we
are talking about real-life concepts that are more important than the
metaphors we use to describe them? Its kinda like treating the
symptoms while the disease keeps its merry way.
Second I talked about how the only way
to seek the truth of the reality is to first let go of what we think
we already know about it. To simply accept reality for what it is.
“Life on life's terms.” This takes a great deal of courage and
humility to accomplish.
Third I talked about the Glory of God.
The weight or significance of God. The importance. What I am doing
here is using multiple words to describe something that is true. This
is not my argument, and I chose this example to begin with for a very
simple reason. Again and again when I try to discuss these concepts
with other Christians from many different denominations or doctrinal
positions the conversation usually ends with the comment that God is
the only truth. The conversation ends, not because they “showed me”
but because once they utter these words they find they have no idea
how to explain this concept or what it actually means. They say
things like “I understand it, but I can't explain it.”
Where does one go from there?
So when I say things like weight or
significance or importance or awesome-ness of God, I'm describing
something that exists with or without me. I'm trying to get you to
understand what I'm talking about, not trying to define it. Let's
move past the definition to the “experience”. What is is is
something that encompasses all those words, and more. Here's another
one: value.
The Glory or kavod of God can be
described as the weight, significance, importance, awesome-ness and
value of God. We feel it, but it is not a “feeling”. Its real.
In the same way, these words are really
about the characteristics of the kavod of God.
So when we start talking about
spiritual values, we are talking about the characteristics of the
kavod of God.
As I started understanding and applying
these spiritual values to my life, I learned a couple things. First I
learned that it was really about the application. It was in the
applying of the values that I gained a better understanding, not the
other way around. This is why I say that telling a new believer to
surround themselves with other believers and listen to a human
authority is the wrong advice. One can only gain spiritual maturity
by having maturing experiences. Its good to have a support structure
of other believers, but the way it is often practiced is that the new
believer is hidden, or protected from the very life that they are
supposed to be applying their new spiritual life to. As I pointed out
already, this is easily shown to be anti-biblical.
The second thing that I learned about
applying these spiritual values to my life is that there are stages
of understanding and application one goes through. This is not so
strange. If we are talking about “maturity” then there is implied
a “growth” or development. And growth or development always goes
through stages.
The next thing I learned is that
eventually one reaches a stage where no matter what the value,
humility, courage, love, etc, it ultimately reaches an ultimate stage
where its about God. For example, when I learned about acceptance I
started with accepting that bad things happen. Then it moved through
a stage where I learned to accept the good things that others did for
me. After a few more stages I eventually got to a point in my
understanding and application where I learned to accept God as He is.
This is a very important point to get, not trying to make God fit my
understanding but to accept the I AM.
And so every spiritual value reaches
the point where its about God.
The value of God.
The kavod of God.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
The Glory of God
There's one more thing to keep in mind
before we really jump in. If you can understand and accept that it is
necessary to let go of what we think we know to allow God to give us
some of His truth and understanding then let me propose another
“misconception” I find a lot of Christians have about the bible.
It concerns the Glory of God.
Now what I hear a lot, and see if you
don't experience this too, is that whenever we tell a fellow
Christian they have done something especially cool, they respond by
saying “It's not me. Its for the Glory of God.”
Neat, huh?
Now what I'm about to say is not meant
to take anything away from that at all. What I'm going to say is
meant to make it more meaningful.
What exactly does the “Glory of God”
mean?
The way its used seems to mean
something like if its good then lets agree its God's fault.
This is important. In my old life if
something good happened it was me, I did it. And if its something bad
then its God's fault. Part of my “repentence” (which yes means to
turn away or change direction, but it also means to go beyond my
current mind or understanding) included changing how I looked at it.
Now if something good happened, God gets the credit and if something
bad happened it was my fault. I needed to do something about it.
This was very necessary in order to
change or transform my life. I needed it.
But the longer I did it it became clear
that that wasn't the whole story.
In hebrew the word used for glory is
kavod. It means “weight or significance” or “awe inspiring”.
Nowadays people throw the word awesome
around as it means “cool”. But really it is much bigger than
that. Wanna understand what awe really means? Go experience, on the
ground and in real life, the detonation of a cluster bomb in battle.
Or a Fuel-Air Explosive device. Or a thermo-barric bomb.
You suddenly understand your own
insignificance in the great scheme of things.
In the book Miracles by CSLewis he
describes how awe gave rise to religion in ancient man. His
descriptions and explanations of this “Numenescent Awe” is a good
description of coming face to face with true spiritual power.
Its coming face to face with your own
insignificance in a very real way.
There's this TV show I saw a couple
times called “Ghost Hunters”. I'm not going to make any comments
about it. But in this one episode there was an incident where one of
the new investigators was slapped by a non-corporeal entity. The
old-timers said that this happens sometimes, and you have to be
prepared for it happening if you're going to be a ghost-hunter.
Something seriously violates your sense of self and there is no way
to fight back.
The look on this guy's face was very
real. He wasn't the same for the rest of the episode. His world had
been completely scrambled in a very real way.
He got a taste of his insignificance in
the face of something incomprehensible and un-fightable.
There are times when the weight and
significance of God is unmistakable. This is the Glory of God.
Sometimes we find it in nature. Once
when I was a teen living in a very rural area, we were expecting
snow, the first snow since I had moved there. But the sky's were
clear. It was very windy and cold, but the skies were blue. I climbed
the highest of the mountains around, and at the top was a pile of
boulders, so I climbed them too. In gusting 20 knot winds. I stood
there at the highest point possible, facing the wind, which also
happened to be the west and the sun was starting to go down, and
looked farther than I ever had before. As this ripping and tearing
wind sliced through every cell of my flesh and hair, I watched as the
black tendrils of clouds miles away seemed to reach out to me
seemingly at the same height I was like the fingers of some massive
hand stretching out to me.
Believe me, I'm not doing it justice.
I've had moments of joy like that.
Once a woman broke my heart. I was so
depressed for days, and just really questioning the purpose of
living. My friends tried to console me with drugs and alcohol and
some of the activities we used to do, like playing cards or
something. I swear after three days straight of putting plenty of
chemicals in my body my depression far outweighed any high. I felt
nothing but miserable. Finally I just gave up and prayed. God I need
help. Real simple.
What I received, immediately, was so
real, so palpable... it was like a warm blanket wrapping every inch
of my being, and suddenly everything was alright. It was a very
significant moment. The first time I truly experienced the power of
God in a real way.
What ties these and other events
together, and I'm sure if you looked you'd find some in your own life
too, is the very real and palpable feeling of a presence. And to be
honest, that presence is there and just as real no matter what we
call it. It exists whether we call it “God” or not. It is what it
is.
And that is the Glory of God.
Joy, happiness, tears, pain, sadness,
fear, battle, death, destruction, music, children, romance, the
simple connection we find with someone we've never met before, the
simplicity of saying “me too” to someone at the lowest point of
their life, sitting in silence with friends or family that is as
comfortable as the womb... sex! Bathing! Sitting in the kitchen
watching a cockroach, staring out the window into the rain....
Spiritual experiences can happen anywhere anytime, and they can never
be explained to another person. Not in a way that does it justice,
because it is so much bigger than we are... that's the nature of
it... it makes us realize both our significance and our
insignificance at the same time.
Its glorious.