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 Thoughts to ponder as you go about your day |
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#1 WHEN
SOMEONE SAYS :
No, this is not a promotion to retire in Nice--although I highly recommend coming for a vacation! Rather, I am sharing this to drive home another point. Although my friend loves to hear me speak about my teachings, he has often apologized for not being “very spiritual.” He was born to a Southern Baptist mother, a Mormon father, and attended a Jesuit school. He says that cured him! I tell my friend that although he may not be religious, he is definitely spiritual. Spiritual is like a “birth-certificate.” It is the identity card that comes with existence, the first condition of our being. We can’t “not be spiritual” because spirituality is not up to us. Spirituality is not an option; it’s a definition. Nor must we “become spiritual” through some effort on our part. We are each the expression of one, primal fact called Life, a synonym for God. Augustine spoke of a “Prime Mover” that moves everything. I like his choice of words. However, this Prime Mover didn’t just do a big “moving” 50 billion or trillion years ago and then retire. This Prime Mover is still moving--moving everything, everywhere, every instant. Every breath breathed, every gesture and thought, every turn of the wind, drop of rain, flap of a bird’s wing—everything is the expression of this great moving Life we call God. The one thing we can say for sure about everybody and everything is that he, she, and it, is spiritual. It is not our awareness of this fact that makes it true. It is the fact itself that makes it true. If it exists—even if it exists as a so-called inanimate object—it is spiritual. And nothing “un-spiritual”—or unlike Spirit and the true nature of Godliness--can exist. Now, “religious” is another matter. My friend is not religious. But religion has never been the gateway to spiritual or to becoming conscious of one’s true, spiritual nature. If religion were the portal, just think what great shape this world would be in! We certainly have a lot of religions running around—especially these days. Most of them are fighting about what is Truth, and many of them are sure that God wants them to kill anyone who doesn’t agree with their definitions! One thing we can all rejoice in: that God never joined a church! And thank God too, that by nature, God is superior to all our definitions, all our limited views and religious convictions. Spirit, God is impartial--imparting its vision to every open heart—regardless of whether someone is religious or not. The great life that is ours for the asking is not necessarily in Southern France. Where we land when we move as God moves us is Spirit’s business. However, it always includes radical redefinition of what we think life is, and rewrites our story in a new design of divine choosing. God’s definition of who we are is always new territory. When God “repacks”
our life and moves us, we end up traveling pretty light. Like the experience
of my friend, we don’t bring much us, and we definitely leave behind this
idea that money will be providing security for our future. Instead, each
day moves us with its own ingenuity and vision. Constituting that day
and everything is in it is Life that is Spirit. This is the one true substance
we can bank on safely. So, we might as well get with the program! Stop
looking to that which in spite of its big promises, is so fragile, unpredictable
and undependable, and instead, acknowledge the source from which all Life
is living itself right now as us and everything. |
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