Spirit Gives Birth To Spirit

Without love, as a Christian, I am just a charlatan peddling a world view.  I feel that it is a world view that is complete and total, healing and hopeful. But really without love, it is just another of many. In Christianity, it is said that God is the God of relationship.  The dogma I have accepted says he is three in one, father spirit and son in eternal relationship with each other.  So it makes sense that relationship would be important in this world view.  I think it was important to Jesus: he was always taking time for people, interacting with them on a deep level and being present with them.  And they responded. Like Zacchaeus, they ran to get a glimpse of him, and then he surprised everyone by coming to dinner with us - like Zacchaeus - unworthy sinners.  And, as a Christian, when I say I am unworthy, I am not getting down on myself.  No, the bible teaches me to look upon myself as a unique, chosen individual at the receiving end of an eternal parent’s unbounded love. W

In twelve step programs, I am invited to put my trust in “a higher power,” (God as I understand him/her/it.)  The point is that I have to give my will and eventually, my life over to something or someone outside my control.  This is so I will stop relying on self to control the uncontrollable – the circumstances in my life, the weather, other people’s reactions to me, the next urge to use.  In 12 step programs, you walk out a spiritual path with the end result of giving your life over and surrendering your will.  This was all fine with me as I had been slowly becoming a Christian over the past 20 years, starting first with a deepening relationship with the God I found in the pages of the bible.  But I learned one day that the higher power in 12 steps could be the group or the group consciousness, or, what really got me thinking, a doorknob.  It still works because the addict gives his choices and will over to something outside himself.  That simple act of giving up trying to contr

In these days of ever quickening change and biased arguments, it is easy to get discouraged.  If I fill up on news-as-entertainment television, get bogged down in religious or political arguments on Facebook, or get caught up in the issue du jour, I end up feeling depleted, stressed, and frustrated.  It seems to me that our public milieu has increasingly become one of biased, polarized debate. I may be inclined, as many people do, to escape by satiating on the ubiquitous outlets for entertainment- where I get filled up with even more of the same and left more depleted than I was when I came. No time to rest or be at peace with one’s self. But in my back pocket, waiting to be remembered, is another way to live that I can rely on.  And it’s all about changing focus. It is an exciting time to be alive.  Advancements in technology are progressing at a frenetic pace: from bionic arms for amputees, to new wonder materials, like Ozy, that will be in everything, making possible space ex