Hello world. The following was written 12/02/2014.
I had written an article titled, “If everything you think you know was taught to you…” that received a number of comments and questions from my brothers. The following dialogues are what transpired.
Brother one asks, “If I may pose a question bringing to light some other of your posts over the past week. If this post reflects how you feel how can you then blame “God” and be outraged at him over what has happened to you in your past if you believe him to solely be a concept or idea people make up to explain things away?”
Brother two states, “I would rather live a life of faith and making efforts to be a blessing to people and find out at the end that I was wrong. Than to live anyway I wanted assuming that God was an imagination and come to the end of my days only to discover that he is real. At that moment the scripture that says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God would be more than anyone could bare. Just something else to consider.”
My response, “I ask these questions, yet in the same breath I will state factually that I do believe in God. I have had too many miracles in my life to not believe.
As a child I was told that God was there to protect me and love me. He would help me, all I had to do is ask. What I learned instead is that he wasn’t there. As the visits came in the night and I prayed and asked for God to make it stop it didn’t. It only got worse. My Daddy wasn’t protecting me as I was told he would.
From two years to fifteen years I asked and prayed. All I got was worse abuse. So, how can I believe when it was obvious what I was being told wasn’t true?
I am trying to wrap my mind around that contradiction.
What makes or convinces you that there is a GOD?
Okay, where does your FAITH come from then?
I am not hearing honesty or authenticity in what others truly believe and have faith in. Yet they ask you to follow them and listen to what they say as if it’s Truth because they read it somewhere.
It was in lesson 132: I loose the world from all I thought it was… What keeps the world in chains but your beliefs? And what can save the world except your Self? Belief is powerful indeed. The thoughts you hold are mighty, and illusions are as strong in their effects as is the truth.
I forgive that child for blindly believing what she was told by those around her.
The punishment is to not see anything differently. In that way we continue to manifest our own hell.
They only seem more powerful because they are in the forefront and are tangible in that moment.”
My Husband Alex shares, “That’s a good question. I find that the more people a thought or idea goes through the more distorted it becomes. Therefore I try to find truth by getting as close as I can to the original source. ACIM appeals to me because, being channeled material, there is a good chance it is unaltered from it’s original source.
Sometimes when the fears come up in me I ask myself “What do I really know with 100% certainty?” The only thing I know with 100% certainty is that I exist in this moment. I don’t know if I will exist in the next moment, but for now I know that I exist. Some how when I am in a place like that, a place of emptiness, without all the other ideas or concepts that I have been taught over the years, I can take in the ideas and concepts that ACIM teaches with much less resistance.”
Brother three states, “If you can deduce that you exist in this moment, then there are plenty of other things you can boil down to 100% certainty too.
Questions like this have to be asked, Sabrina. It’s things like this and many others why I just can’t believe in some sort of mystical being that is willing to commit miracles for some people and leave others to rot and die.
Too many people attribute random good things happening as miracles. There are billions of people on this planet, there are billions of things happening to each and every person at any given moment. The chances of something rare happening to you at some point is pretty much 100% yet people don’t understand this, so they end up giving credit to a god.”
Brother two states, “Self deception is the worst kind, because it convinces a person that they have acquired truth in themselves and they alone are responsible for it. The problem in this is that if they are responsible for truth and peace and joy they are also responsible for pain and anger and anguish. Yet they are only willing to accept credit for any good feelings and blame others and even the God they claim is dependent upon them for existence, for the negative moments. Perhaps the truth could be that God prefers that we choose him of our own free will and refuses to control us like robots. Therefore people are free to behave in anyway they choose, and some people behave badly and hurt others by their own choice. To the people that believe they are their own God and masters of their own universe, I say good luck with that. When you need help and we all do at some point I am here for you.”
Alex asks, “I find your last post quite confusing to me Brother two. I am hoping that you could clarify a few things for me please. In particular, I am wondering who is this person or people you are referring to in your post or to get more specific:
Who is deceiving themselves?
Who has claimed to have found the truth?
Who is accepting credit for good feelings and blaming others or even God for the bad?
Who believes that they are their own God and master of their own universe?
I actually agree with you on most of what you said, I just wonder who this mystery person or people it is that you are referring too?”
Brother two responds, “Alex I was not making any reference to any specific individuals, but to concepts and conditions of the Human Spirit. There are many people who walk in varying levels of self deception. What I pointed to are only some of the possible thought lines. The main focus of my comment was on our own ability and I dare say requirement to choose for ourselves what we will do, say, think, and believe. As well as, the fact that eventually we all need help from someone outside ourselves.”
Alex responds, “It seems that all of us have a image in our minds of the world and the way it is. Some people are still seeking the truth, and others believe that they have found it. Some people who believe they have found the truth try to teach others the truth that they think that they have found. So what we end up with is thousands of religions and different sects and billions of people saying, “Follow me, I know the way!”.
This desire in people to tell others to follow them is what Sabrina has been struggling with. I have gotten to a point in my own life where I don’t feel like I need to follow anyone else’s path, but I can look for similarities in others paths to help me on my own path of discovering the truth for myself. I can honor my brother and the path that they are on without the need to follow my brother or to tell him to follow me. Each and every one of us has our own path to follow and each and every one of us needs to look deep within to find the truth.
It seems that even if we have got it wrong, it’s still okay because the universe will show us our misconceptions. This is where I need the help of my brother. The Holy Spirit can use the relationship with my brother for healing, and all I need is a little willingness to look within and see my own misconceptions.
It seems like many of our paths may parallel others paths for a while but I believe that eventually we all have our own individual path. I am at a place now where Jesus and the Holy Spirit are guiding me down my own individual path. I find myself constantly asking “What would you have me do, what would you have me say, and where would you have me go?””
The dialogue above was between members of my family, my Husband Alex and I. Each of us come from different perspectives and understandings in direct correlation to the experiences each of us have had individually within our lives. As Alex had stated our paths may run parallel for a time yet we all veer off individually to follow our own unique journey of discovery of who we really are and are meant to be. To release ourselves from the chains we chose to create with our chosen beliefs.
Blessings on your journeys my brothers. Hugs and love. You are loved. I love you.