Good morning Readers,
Today is a great day down in Cleveland with our grandson. It is also the day that I get to talk about my relationship with God. This is a complicated talk because there are so many views of God and so many different opinions on how you should have a relationship with God. I will simply explain my position and how I got there especially after the accident. There is a chapter in the book that really describes this but I will get more personal for the purpose of this blog.
Growing up, I went to a private Lutheran school through eight grade. This is where I met God. That was a very important time in my life. My teachers taught me through reading the bible, discussions and living the life. As my relationship grew in faith, my belief started to change from what I had been taught. The people that taught me at a young age, no doubt, had great intensions. I just didn’t know where to go next with my relationship. The absolutes in religion were no longer absolute. I was flooded with guilt and pain because it went against what I had been taught. After my wife and I got married at a very young age, there were people of God that past judgement beyond God. By that I mean God simply loves and man passes judgement through their ego based on what they believe is right or wrong. I knew then that there was a difference between my relationship with God and the ideologies of man. I spent the next several years randomly going to church and I couldn’t shake the tension that I held in my heart for the people of God that never held God’s love in their heart.
Start with your perspective of “why did God do this to me” a poor me ego driven view and see a greater vision of “why is God doing this for me”.
The weeks after the accident, my view of life had changed so dramatically that my resentment of those people had been washed away with my own ego. I realized that my own ego wanted to hang on to those feelings because my changing view was “right”. After the accident, my relationship was based on self-awareness and a realization that God was changing my life right in front of my eyes, all I had to do was see it. My argument today for ideology is that it develops personal disciplines in our lives but it also adds to our ego. It adds to the development of strong personal views that have NOTHING to do with God or God’s all encompassing energy. If people would just let go and see God as the energy that surrounds us and let go of the judgment of mankind, people will grow beyond any belief that we have come to know. People have got to stop defining God and just let him exist without ego and let the incredible energy fill you up giving you vision like you have never seen.
A lack of vision is a dream killer.
A quick story that happened just a couple of years ago to help illustrate this idea of man’s view vs God’s energy. A young couple that I know had started living together and was working on their relationship. This included their relationship with God. When the time came they decided to get married. When they went to the church leader that they had been attending, the “leader” told them that he would not marry them because they lived in sin and they would go to hell. When I was told about this conversation, the first thing that came to mind was my own situation decades earlier. Anger grew in my heart and I couldn’t believe that people, especially a leader, would speak to someone this way. It only divided a young couple between the church and God. I feel today some of our worst leadership comes from the church. It builds division instead of using God’s love to bind us no matter what difference of opinions exist. God is at the heart of all ideologies but is quickly diminished by man’s ego in defining God. My relationship with God is the strongest that it has ever been but everyday I pray with a gracious heart thanking him for every blessing he has put in my life. I also pray for wisdom to see the blessings not yet realized. God continues to grow in my heart and even though I talk passionately about ideologies, I love people. I pray that God would somehow give me the ability to enlighten others without the ego of man because division of egos will only destroy us. No matter what your view or interpretation of this week’s blog, God is surrounding all of us with every molecule in everything in our lives. If you feel anger towards me or my blog, step back and look at the anger. Where is it coming from? If you look close enough you will find your ego at the center not God’s love. My only goal is to help people see beyond what ideology has become and get back to the purity of God’s gift. It is our duty to let go of our ego long enough to take it all in. My advice is to start with yourself. Start with your perspective of “why did God do this to me” a poor me ego driven view and see a greater vision of “why is God doing this for me”. God is constantly working toward changing our perspective, a perspective away from our own ego. A lack of vision is a dream killer. You can’t move forward without seeing the differences in your view of the world that comes from the ego vs your soul. This is a discussion all to itself and very simple to start practicing.
As always, God Bless and thank you
Bill
