I am a person that has been on a journey. Over that last few years I have really searched for a spiritual centeredness in my life. I grew up in a very religious family. Religion tore our family apart because certain philosophies could not exist. Everyone felt they had the true way to heaven. Now mind you all of them considered themselves Christian, but with their own brand of Christianity.
My family for me is a microcosm of the world. Everyone is not Christian but each religion feels as though THEY have the way to heaven. As a matter of fact if you do not believe as THEY do then you and others that think like you deserve to die! I never could understand the thought process that another creation of the God you worship should not live because you disagree on some miniscule point. For me it is difficult to understand how a creator of all things can choose one group or one person over another.
One day I was watching a football game. My team did win the game on this particular day. One of the receivers was very emotional during the game after he caught a touch down pass. He sat on the sideline actually crying! After the game a reporter asked the receiver what was going through his mind at that time. The receiver stated that he had spoken with his pastor at church the day before or sometime during the week. He said the pastor told him that God would allow him to do something great in the game to glorify him. Because the touch down was a turning point in the game the receiver surmised that this was the great thing that God had allowed him to do. God was on his side that day according to the receiver. A thought came over my mind at that moment. What did the corner back (this is person that plays a position on defense in American football) do to fall out of favor with God? Did God not like the corner back so he allowed him to get embarrassed on national TV?
I make lite of the situation with the cornerback, but it puts religion in a perspective that we should start to think about someday and I hope soon. Many people think of God as someone watching over all facets of our existence. I know some days he must get tired and just rest. He takes his eyes off the window to the world for brief times. I know this is true because I was going to the barber last week and prayed for a good hair cut. The barber messed up!
I figured I got in the same dog house as the cornerback or else he would not have gotten beat for a touch down and my barber would have had a steady hand. Or maybe he was busy with the guys involved in the war that had the guns praying that they be the ones to live and the other guy die? Have you ever thought how a God would choose which one of his creations would live when they were in conflict? People often speak of God as being the father. If that is so then how does a father choose one child over another? If you are a parent, what could your child do that you would never forgive them for and send their souls to burn in hell for eternity?
I don't think any religion has it right. When there is any thought that God will favor one over another for any reason it is wrong. When we start to question why a God does not work favorably for everyone then maybe we can move away from the thought process of God punishing one person over another. That cornerback has to know that he was not out of favor with God and that is the reason he was embarrassed by that receiver. I have come to believe that God is not a being in any sense of the word. However, there is a source that is greater than us, a source that we are all connected with. This source does not favor anyone anymore than the next person. One day I hope that religion will come to grips with its contradictions and let that lowly corner back know that him being out of favor was not the reason he was beaten on national TV. In our connection with universal consciousness, we all are as great as we choose to be.
Hi my name is Reginald Martin and my perspective is one of a holistic approach with the knowledge of how the universe weaves its interconnected tapestry and affects our lives. I am just like many of you. I have been through many of life's major ups and downs, like the birth of my children, raising a family, a divorce, Amway (any former distributors out there?) starting out dating again after years of marriage and being laid off from a job. These ups and downs can either make you or break you! My friend they made me. Although when my Amway business went under that was close to the straw that broke the camels back for me. J Just kidding. I developed a consciousness about life through the school of hard knocks that I would like to share with you. I look back on many of those events now and can laugh a little. I have been where many of you are about to go. There is a saying that I like, "you can learn from your experiences or from the experiences of others. The former will take you a lot longer to get the lesson but you will eventually learn it." I have mucho experience! My expertise is the areas of man, husband, father, brother, uncle, boss, friend and neighbor. I enjoy sports, reading, blogging and manly things like crotch scratching, yawning and stretching in the morning. Unless you have not lived you know that anything going haywire in those areas can cause you to have mental breakdown followed by a spiritual awakening, or not! And oh yeah, I kinda look at life in an irreverent quirky kind of way. I swear this is like writing an online dating profile!
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