Mar 18, 2018

12 Steps to Joy (1)

Trust in God (1)

You would think that for someone raised in a religion that teaches that God loves you, it would be a simple and almost automatic reaction to have total trust in the force or being that we call God. All of us who have loved another human being including our parents, know that trust is the fundamental bases of that love. We trust that the other will not knowingly let us down. So why is it so hard to trust God? We claim that God loves us, but we often find it hard to prove it to ourselves that God’s love is real.

Much of the reason it is difficult to trust God is that we have warped the meaning of God as taught by the great wisdom teachers, which include Jesus. Even the Latin for God, Deus, is the Latin name of the Greek god Zeus. We all know that version of the gods: an old man sitting on a throne, waiting to throw thunder and lightning at anyone who he disapproved. That is the very image our religions give of God: and old man sitting on a throne who decrees that his only son has to die, and die in the most painful way, to appease his sense of ownership: we humans have failed to give something to this creature that he (always a he) desperately needs. Usually that something is adoration and obedience (under pain of death); he (again always a he) always demands obedience above all. This is why most religions have piles of rules and regulation that have to be followed if we are to be on the good side of “god”. And to be truthful, that obedience is almost always having to do with sexual mores and individual ‘sanctity’, whatever that is. Yes, sometimes religions seem to be horrified when I say that they have rules, but these rules are still there, just not written down. Such things like always follow the bible; but only follow it in the way they tell you, otherwise then you are not among the “saved”.

Yet Jesus was clear as stated in Mathew 25: visit the sick, feed the hungry, invite the stranger, take care of the poor, etc. Nothing is said about any belief in anything; just acts of kindness and love to the most vulnerable in our society. Not only that, Jesus made it clear that it was the only thing required, and there is no getting around that requirement.

So much of our worship and liturgy formats concentrate on giving God adoration and placing God on that throne in the sky, that we miss the very efforts that the wisdom teachers have been passing on for thousands of years: God does not exist in some far-away place in the heavens; no, God exists right here and now: “The kingdom of God lies within.” (Luke 21) God is here and now, existing in the poor and destitute. Indeed, “Whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.” (Matt. 25: 40)

We will continue these thoughts.

Meditation

Oh God, it is in gratitude that I place my life into Your presence. Give me the courage to always defend those who cannot defend themselves. Help me to see Your life in those who cannot live in the freedom that I enjoy, but exist in what we call the dregs of society and toss them off as expendable. Take my lips and let me be Your spokesperson where it is most needed. Let me be Your mouthpiece so that indeed, we help the helpless and enrich our poor world with Your Love and care.

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We are bound in the music of life where we dance and weave within that glorious melody, or what some call God. Now, God has said that we are the very image of God (Genesis 1:27), and as images of God, we have the inborn ability to have Joy and Happiness forever present in our life. The author, David L. Peters, is an octogenarian whose life has always been filled with joy, regardless of outward appearances. The wonders of the Kingdom of Heaven is everyone’s birthright, if you know how to let your Creator and the Universe enter your spirit. Jesus put it succinctly: “The Kingdom of God lies within” (Luke 17:21). The Kingdom of God, Paradise, Heaven: these lie within you, right now, waiting for you to only turn and see, and join in the dance. Paradise is right within us, but how do we unlock the door to this wonder of joy? This book lays a path open that the author has followed for almost 80 years, starting as a young boy in rural Ohio, and it operates as advertised. No matter how things look in life, how bad it seems, all one need do is look deeper within and find the joy that can fill life: life is good! The life of abundant joy and happiness is yours for the asking. Dip your toe in the living waters, and taste the Beauty of God that is awaiting.