I'm sitting here with tears of joy in my eyes. Thank you for sharing this story! It really touched me, and I am so overjoyed at the wisdom you've shown. I'm not expecting you to make a change of any kind, but I am looking forward to it.
Something I've learned in the last couple of years is that God speaks to each of us in a voice we understand. I won't expound, but let me say that I love to hear that you're beginning to listen. Crying! Tears in my eyes right now! LOL
Why do I believe in the divine? I will try to make a life-long story short:
I remember as a child watching an ant. I picked it up, letting it roam around my fingers, and realized that it was -alive-. Watching it move and explore and live, seeing it watch me, I felt how very small I must be in this world. I visualized what God must do when he looks down and sees me, and looking at that ant I felt for the first time that there is an intelligent, loving force behind and a part of all things.
I gave a talk once as a minister entitled, "The Marvel of God's Creation." I talked for 45 minutes about how even the tiniest thing around us prove that God exists. And it was the easiest talk I've ever given, because it was probably the main way I came to believe.
These thoughts are constantly backed up by the feeling that there is this kind, fatherly man who gets my jokes and loves me even when I'm mean who lets me come to him and talk to him anytime I want. He'll stop everything he's doing, and he does more than anyone, and listen to me when I cry or laugh or express thanks.
It's very interesting you describe "how even the tiniest thing around us prove that God exists". I use the same invocation to talk to atheists on 'the meaning of life'. As I study more to become a UU Minister myself, I revel in the ways different belief systems are alike. While you say the little things are why God exists, I say the little things give us reason to live, joy and rejoice. Without evoking the concept of God, I can help others realize the wonders of our earth are worth respecting and loving, and can the path of higher meaning. I found this quote from Freeman Dyson:
I believe we are here to some purpose, that the purpose has something to do with the future, and that it transcends altogether the limits of our present knowledge and understanding... If you like, you can call the transcendent purpose God. If it is God, it is a Socinian God, inherent in the universe and growing in power and knowledge as the universe unfolds. Our minds are not only expressions of its purpose but are also contributions to its growth.
You're a really great person.tracerooJune 7 2007, 17:24:50 UTC
It speaks volumes to your own goodness that you can feel such joy just over questions - no answers, just questions. You're a remarkable person.
Your comment about God speaking to every person in a way they can understand is fascinating to me. From that viewpoint, I can't help but wonder if I'm deaf? How can so many people think God communicates to them, but I've never heard him, never felt him? Never. Not when I was a practicing Catholic as a teenager, not as a practicing pagan as an adult - not once... Well, not once that I've ever believed was the Voice of God anyway. Maybe God does speak to me in a manner I understand, but I just can't recognize it as God? (Or of course my current belief....)
A good friend of mine once quoted to me some Bible verse that I am sad I cannot remember verbatim. It was along the lines of something about Jesus appearing to the people of the world like a rainbow or something? I wish I could remember. I only recall the metaphor he drew from it: That perhaps this Voice of God, for lack of a better term, communicates at different frequencies like light is refracted through a prism. Although I've heard the message before, maybe, he thought, I needed to hear it from someone who communicates on the same spiritual frequency I do? I couldn't fault the logic, so I listened to him. He wanted me to read Left Behind and pray and think about it - and I did. I still didn't believe.
But maybe I'm not a "blue" person, as he and I used to joke in metaphor?
I have to admit, I had to give up on the Left Behind series after two and a half books. Two things about it drove me up a wall. The first was that the Catholics were too stupid to figure out what was going on (oh, the Pope made it too heaven, but that's just because he was making concessions to become 'more protestant'). The second was that the Jewish guy, after years of research (and tens of thousands of years of history) suddenly comes to his Eureka moment of "OMG! The Christians were right all along! 1111!!elventy!"
I should give them another try sometime, and read them with a less critical eye. Perhaps I would enjoy them more!
No, run and hide instead.tracerooJune 7 2007, 21:11:03 UTC
If those were the things you disliked about the early books, believe me when I say there is nothing for you in the next 12! The suppositions only become more deeply mired in fundamentalism, the elevnty moments get far more out of hand, and the story, such as it is, just gets worse. Book 14 took me 2 years to finish. I could only read a few pages at a time before putting it back down again.
Re: You're a really great person.waywalkerJune 7 2007, 21:57:53 UTC
You're certainly not deaf *smile* I would simply quote, "When the student is ready, the master will appear."
Also, you don't seem to be without faith, and understanding. Perhaps God does speak to you and you do not recognize it. Are you spiritually balanced, or spiritually happy? Do you have an urgent need to find out who God is, and bring him into your life? I believe you are already in a place where God speaks to you in a way that you understand. This is evidenced by your balance. What thoughts come to your mind if you think about spirituality?
Of course, a year from now we may look back on this as the first time you began to study the book of Mormon and that this faith is how God speaks to you at that time. Who knows? You're looking and listening, and that's what counts.
I agree! God is in everything. All things, to me, also have a spirit. I have spoken to trees, rocks, animals and I have learned something new from each of them. Whether they -are- God to me would be debatable, but the thought that God exists in everything is a wonderful one.
I'm sitting here with tears of joy in my eyes. Thank you for sharing this story! It really touched me, and I am so overjoyed at the wisdom you've shown. I'm not expecting you to make a change of any kind, but I am looking forward to it.
Something I've learned in the last couple of years is that God speaks to each of us in a voice we understand. I won't expound, but let me say that I love to hear that you're beginning to listen. Crying! Tears in my eyes right now! LOL
Why do I believe in the divine? I will try to make a life-long story short:
I remember as a child watching an ant. I picked it up, letting it roam around my fingers, and realized that it was -alive-. Watching it move and explore and live, seeing it watch me, I felt how very small I must be in this world. I visualized what God must do when he looks down and sees me, and looking at that ant I felt for the first time that there is an intelligent, loving force behind and a part of all things.
I gave a talk once as a minister entitled, "The Marvel of God's Creation." I talked for 45 minutes about how even the tiniest thing around us prove that God exists. And it was the easiest talk I've ever given, because it was probably the main way I came to believe.
These thoughts are constantly backed up by the feeling that there is this kind, fatherly man who gets my jokes and loves me even when I'm mean who lets me come to him and talk to him anytime I want. He'll stop everything he's doing, and he does more than anyone, and listen to me when I cry or laugh or express thanks.
Reply
I believe we are here to some purpose, that the purpose has something to do with the future, and that it transcends altogether the limits of our present knowledge and understanding... If you like, you can call the transcendent purpose God. If it is God, it is a Socinian God, inherent in the universe and growing in power and knowledge as the universe unfolds. Our minds are not only expressions of its purpose but are also contributions to its growth.
Reply
Reply
Your comment about God speaking to every person in a way they can understand is fascinating to me. From that viewpoint, I can't help but wonder if I'm deaf? How can so many people think God communicates to them, but I've never heard him, never felt him? Never. Not when I was a practicing Catholic as a teenager, not as a practicing pagan as an adult - not once... Well, not once that I've ever believed was the Voice of God anyway. Maybe God does speak to me in a manner I understand, but I just can't recognize it as God? (Or of course my current belief....)
A good friend of mine once quoted to me some Bible verse that I am sad I cannot remember verbatim. It was along the lines of something about Jesus appearing to the people of the world like a rainbow or something? I wish I could remember. I only recall the metaphor he drew from it: That perhaps this Voice of God, for lack of a better term, communicates at different frequencies like light is refracted through a prism. Although I've heard the message before, maybe, he thought, I needed to hear it from someone who communicates on the same spiritual frequency I do? I couldn't fault the logic, so I listened to him. He wanted me to read Left Behind and pray and think about it - and I did. I still didn't believe.
But maybe I'm not a "blue" person, as he and I used to joke in metaphor?
I'm still looking, still listening.
Thank you.
Trace
Reply
I have to admit, I had to give up on the Left Behind series after two and a half books. Two things about it drove me up a wall. The first was that the Catholics were too stupid to figure out what was going on (oh, the Pope made it too heaven, but that's just because he was making concessions to become 'more protestant'). The second was that the Jewish guy, after years of research (and tens of thousands of years of history) suddenly comes to his Eureka moment of "OMG! The Christians were right all along! 1111!!elventy!"
I should give them another try sometime, and read them with a less critical eye. Perhaps I would enjoy them more!
Reply
You're not missing anything.
Traceroo
Reply
Also, you don't seem to be without faith, and understanding. Perhaps God does speak to you and you do not recognize it. Are you spiritually balanced, or spiritually happy? Do you have an urgent need to find out who God is, and bring him into your life? I believe you are already in a place where God speaks to you in a way that you understand. This is evidenced by your balance. What thoughts come to your mind if you think about spirituality?
Of course, a year from now we may look back on this as the first time you began to study the book of Mormon and that this faith is how God speaks to you at that time. Who knows? You're looking and listening, and that's what counts.
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Thank you,
T.
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Thus I say, Namaste. *smile*
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