Post Election Thoughts

I just watched a YouTube message from a preacher reminding me what Romans 13:1 says about honoring the authorities that God has installed. It's a well known and oft-repeated verse. Less well known is Romans 13:2 which says, “Whoever resists that authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” People seem to believe as long as they're not marching in the street they're adhering to this scripture. But is marching in the street the only way to resist authority? If I stay in my house with my computer can I speak resistance in a kind of anonymous way that God won't notice? 

I have never in my life seen more unashamedly slanderous opposition to the President of the United States than I have during this election period. I can't believe I'm saying it but it's almost enough to wonder whether or not race is really a non-issue. I'm not talking about those who disagree with his policies, just those who hold animosity for the man who is our duly elected leader. I can even understand (though it sounds terribly misdirected) someone like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell vowing, "My number one priority is making sure president Obama is a one-term president.” But when a good Christian like Sean Hannity can go on the air and refer to the President as a liar, an agent of the devil, even the anti-Christ... can it still be in adherence to Romans 13:1? The fact that he covers himself with the biblical admonition, “Let not your heart be troubled" doesn't excuse him. In fact it’s so disingenuous it makes me physically sick to my stomach. People who feed on this kind of thing are spreading the same kind of damage on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The continual demeaning of the President does more than just ignore scriptural teaching, it is contributing to the polarization of our society, damaging it in a way we don't seem to recognize. 

Maybe we really are bringing judgment on ourselves.

Is God's Love Enough For Us?

There’s something troubling about the way we live our lives these days. Last night at a local restaurant we sat next to a family of four that didn't speak a word to each other. Each one was pressing buttons on a hand-held electronic device, in communication with someone else, but totally absent from each other. We just don't take time to be present anymore. Everything we do has such a frantic quality - the way we shop, the way we travel, the way we treat each other, even the way we entertain ourselves. A family of four will fight traffic and the elements and spend close to $1,000 to see an NFL game in an economic downturn. We seem to have a deep need that isn’t being met which is causing us to fill our lives with busy-ness and clutter, as if we could, as Kierkegaard put it, “hold chaos at bay for one more day”. The Church tells us we have a God who's love is sufficient, but is it? If so, why do we have such a compulsive need for fulfillment and validation from the world? There must be something the Church isn't telling us. For some reason we're not understanding the fullness of God’s love. Either that or something is keeping us from receiving it. It’s been several months since I’ve written because I’ve been told to take a break from finding fault with the Church. But the bible tells us to examine ourselves to see if we’re in the faith. The question is, What is it we have put our faith in?

I’ve said it before and I need to say it again. If the Mind of Christ was being modeled by more of us in the Body of Christ there would be no problem, and I wouldn’t be looking to create one. If church attendance was a more deeply satisfying experience, if believers were leading joyful and victorious lives, if the blind were seeing and the lame walking… if there weren't so many men in church addicted to internet porn.

The truth is, our faith tradition has resulted in a powerless church, an apathetic community of believers, and a prevailing disappointment for many who are seeking transformation by the power of God. Joy may be glimpsed from time to time, only to be stolen by the routine of daily living. Most of us have decided to accept this deeply flawed routine because we don’t have a vision for anything else. We've been told we're sinners and all we can do is wait for Jesus and hope for the grace of God which we don’t deserve. We don’t question this belief because it's all we have, and when our world is threatening to turn upside down we need something to hold on to. 

And so we accept our Mega-church pastors who drive luxury cars and live in luxury estates,  then preach on Sunday what Jesus said about not needing a second pair of sandals. We’re no longer appalled by politicians who smile while they lie to us, saying whatever it takes to advance their objectives and ignoring what Jesus said about letting your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' be 'No'”. It doesn’t bother us that the church condemns abortion by proclaiming the Word of God and the sanctity of human life, then looks the other way while our sons and daughters go off to kill other peoples' sons and daughters who understand God differently than we do. It’s easy enough to overlook what Jesus said about who our brother is, and how we should love our enemies. We’ve learned to rationalize all this stuff so completely we don’t even have to notice it anymore. Meanwhile the hypocritical and self-serving life we live is becoming harder and harder to satisfy us.

I recently decided to go back and read the stories about Jesus in the New Testament again in hopes that some new revelation would come, but I just found the same thing I saw last time. It's amazing how the truth of it can continue to escape us. We don’t have the life Jesus said we could have, because we don’t do the things Jesus said we should do. Could something as clear as that be the stumbling block that keeps us from finding fulfillment in God's love? Is that the reason real contentment seems to be escaping us? I need to look at this more fully someday, but there's one thing I know already. The Church has put so much emphasis on the atoning Death of Christ we forget about the victorious Life of Jesus. Like a "Get Out of Jail Free" card, we carry his Cross down the wide road to the Good Life he told us not to take. It's a lot easier to worship God from there than it is to walk in the footsteps of one who said, “Follow me”. 

THE FALL OF MAN

I just read a book called The Starseed Transmissions by Ken Carey. His description of the Fall of Man and it's consequences is extraordinary and I have abridged it here for anyone who might never have read him.

How did you lose your God-consciousness and “fall” into the idea of separation from Me? Initially it was through a loss of confidence in the absolute perfection of My universal design. Doubt appeared through the subtle process of reasoning, and pride was conceived that encouraged you - not exactly to stop trusting in Me, but to stop trusting exclusively in Me. The moment you did this, your consciousness began to shift from God-centeredness to self-centeredness. For the first time you became aware of an identity that was distinct from the One-ness of My Spirit. This shift was minimal at first, but as you began to focus more and more upon your “personal” experience you also began to think in terms of defending it with meaningless and complicated ego structures. Such activity took you out of the present moment and diminished the pure energy of your true nature, which in turn, created greater anxiety and a greater need to protect yourself. Gradually, as you identified more and more with your own personal expression of My life, you were drawn into a long downward spiral where denser and denser levels of energy began bonding itself into matter.

This process went on for many ages before you actually found yourself in the Garden of Eden described in your Scriptures. By then you had already fallen a long way from your original state of grace. You had clothed yourself with increasing layers of material identification and had come to believe you were, in fact, separate from Me. Even so, your time in the Garden lasted for many centuries of earth time before you came to rely so much upon your physical senses that you were cut off from the direct nourishment of My divine light. In reality, you were never cut off from that nourishment. But the sense of your own identity had become so great by then that your material bodies needed even more substance for their support. You finally reached a point where you could no longer meet the demands of your bodies without “work”. It is at this point your chronicles state that you were “driven from the Garden”. But you were not driven from the Garden. The time has come for you to you understand this. You were not born into sin. It is only in the illusion of your current state that you perceive yourself to have been separated from me. Despite your belief in a Fall and an Original Sin, I do not accuse you of your free-will expression of individuality. That was my purpose in creating you. You have made it difficult for yourself - and created all the problems you are now experiencing - by misunderstanding your true nature in me. But you may take heart. It is only a misunderstanding which will one day be corrected. The truth is, you are born daily into My presence. If daily you persist in the foolish idea of sin and separation, it’s only because you are still under the influence of an illusion which has caused you to become vulnerable to confusion, disease, aging and death. Now, created by your own past-oriented guilt and future-oriented fear, Satan follows you around like some dark shadow hiding the truth about your true nature. In this fallen state of consciousness each human being functions in disregard of the song of life going on in everyone else. There is no harmony, no arrangement, and no direction. You are like random notes of an orchestra tuning before the conductor raps the baton on his music stand. But watch and listen. The Grand Conductor has approached the stand and is getting ready to call everyone to attention. It is time to stop tuning separate instruments and begin to accept the direction of One who understands the wholeness of the symphony. 

That wholeness was understood, and modeled for you by the person called Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus took on an earthly body in order to prepare the human population for a great awakening. He taught people on earth to do the opposite of what their matter-bound inclinations told them; love your enemy, give away your material possessions, disregard world acclaim. When he finished with his body and returned to One-ness with Me, his followers organized the story of his life and teachings into a book. That book was written during a time of human history when there was no science, no understanding of the evolution of life or consciousness, no concept of anything but the most basic facts of mortal existence. Nevertheless, it proved to be a living bombshell. Satan knew his influence would be ended forever if people began doing what Jesus told them to do. So he devised a clever scheme for using his teachings in a way that would prevent their actual application. He organized a vast bureaucratic structure to interpret his words, and an elitist priesthood to go and preach them in his name. Initially you were inspired by your emotional response to their beauty - but gradually you have become confused, contentious, and finally disabled. You search in vain for the victory and abundance that Jesus promised and wonder why you still can't do things he said you could do. The Deceiver knows well the transformation of the heart that is required. He doesn’t mind if you worship Christ superficially, as long as you also continue to worship your material possessions. He doesn’t care if you give lip service to his teaching about turning the other cheek, as long as you stop short of doing it. 

His primary maneuver for distracting you from the message was convincing you to glorify the unique nature of the messenger himself. Raising Jesus up as an object of worship has only increased your sense of separation and caused you to overlook the kingdom within you. Thus, rather than taking responsibility for your eternal soul you became lost in crucifix adoration and scripture worship. The message of Jesus, to disengage yourself from the influence of man and find your life once again in the Holy Spirit, has become buried under a catalog of religious verbiage and dogmatic interpretation. Many of you kill each other in defense of your own interpretation, flaunting your superiority in the face of those who exercise their belief in Me with different words. There is nothing more sorrowful than to observe this behavior among those who claim to live by My truth. One tree nurtures many leaves, yet no two are the same. Do not separate yourselves any longer according to the different ways you think about Me. Reality is far beyond such childish ideas. I am about to come into the world again, this time through your own consciousness. Look there for my living presence. If words written in days of old continue to divide you, recognize that the time has come to begin listening to me in your heart. There I will inform you directly.

A New Reformation

John Shelby Spong is a retired Episcopal bishop who believes that a literal interpretation of the Christian faith no longer speaks to the lives of modern believers. The following is an excerpt from his book Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile (Harper Collins / May 1998).

The Catholic Church had it's beginnings in the 4th century and for more than 1,000 years was the source of much of the stability of the western world. In the 16th century it entered a period of internal upheaval that came to be known as the Protestant Reformation. The institution that called itself the Body of Christ broke first into debate, then acrimony, then violence and counter-violence and finally into open warfare between Protestant Christians and Catholic Christians. It produced the Thirty Years War and the conflict between England and Spain which led to the destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Yet, when looking at the conflict from the vantage point of the 21^st century, it is surprising to see how insignificant the theological issues were that divided them. Neither side was debating the core teachings of Christianity such as the doctrine of the Trinity, Jesus as the only son of God, the reality of heaven and hell or the cross in the plan of salvation. These were faith assertions held by both sides. Instead Protestant Christians and Catholic Christians disagreed about whether salvation was achieved by faith alone, as Luther contended, or whether faith without works was dead as the Vatican argued. There was also debate over the proper use of scripture and the role of ordination. Despite being confrontational, with hostile accusations of “heretic” hurled at Protestants and “anti-Christ” hurled at Catholics, it was nonetheless a fight that pitted Christian believers against Christian believers. The Reformation was not an attempt to reformulate the Christian faith for a new era. The time had not yet arrived in which Christians would be required to rethink the basic and identifying marks of Christianity itself.

The need for that kind of change was first hinted at when Copernicus and Galileo removed the earth from its supposed location at the center of the universe, where human life had basked under the constant attention of a humanly defined parental deity, and cast it adrift into an ever-expanding universe. That understanding produced an angle of vision radically different from the one in which the Bible was written and through which the primary theological tenets of the Christian faith had been formed.

When Sir Isaac Newton charted the fixed physical laws of the universe the Church suddenly found that the concepts of miracle, supernatural, and divine intervention as explanations of everything, no longer held as much intellectual integrity. Once more believers were forced to embrace a reality vastly different from their faith tradition.

Next came Charles Darwin who related human life to the world of biology, an awareness which diametrically opposed the traditional understanding of the Creation event. The Bible began with the assumption that God had created a finished and perfect world from which human beings had fallen away. As a result, sin was the reality in which all life was presumed to live. Darwin instead postulated an unfinished and imperfect creation out of which human life was evolving.into higher levels of consciousness. In such a vision the belief that Jesus came to earth to rescue mankind becomes inoperative. So does the interpretation of the cross as the moment of sacrifice when the ransom for sin was paid. The Church clearly wobbled under the impact of evolutionary insights, and Christian leaders ever since have pretended that if Darwin couldn’t be defeated, he could at least be ignored.

Darwin was followed by Sigmund Freud, who analyzed the symbols of Christianity and found that a God who is understood as a father figure, who guides personal decisions, answers prayers, and promises rewards and punishment based upon our behavior is not designed to call anyone into spiritual maturity. Instead this view of God produces a passive dependency on end-time fulfillment in another world.

Finally in the last 75 years there have been landmark discoveries in the field of science that may be the final blow to any remaining supernatural or mythological aspects of our spirituality. The Church tells us we were made in the image and likeness of God who always was and always will be. Quantum Physics is now telling us the same thing in modern terminology. We are not solid objects of matter as we appear. We, and everything else that exists in the universe are made of pure energy which, according to the law of thermodynamics, can neither be created or destroyed. This field of energy connects all of creation and is holographic. That means everything is one with the Source and each piece mirrors the whole on a smaller scale. If one considers this field of energy which is the source of everything to be God, then there is really nothing that separates us - only a stubborn and persistent belief that we have held onto long past it's usefulness.

In defense of this onslaught of intellectual reasoning it has not been surprising to see Christianity degenerate into an increasingly shrill biblical fundamentalism where genuine questions are not encouraged, and if allowed, are met with preconceived and pious answers. Today such churches are declining numerically, seem intolerant theologically, are concerned more about preservation of doctrine than truth, and wondering why boredom is what people experience inside church walls. Surely the renewal of Christianity will not come from this kind of fundamentalism. If there is nothing more than this on the horizon then I see no future for the enterprise we call the Christian faith. It is my conviction that the need for a re-formation of Christian theology is facing the Church today. The pre-modern concepts upon which it was based cannot speak to the post-modern world we now inhabit. The New Reformation will be far more radical and will dwarf in intensity the changes of the 16th century, for it will not be concerned about authority, ecclesiastical nuance, ordinations or sacraments. Rather it will be an examination and rethinking of the very nature of the Christian doctrine itself. It is the only way this ancient religious system can be re-focused and re-articulated so as to become relevant in an increasingly non-religious world.

Are We Becoming What We Believe In?

In 1 Corinthians 2:16 Paul says, “We have the mind of Christ” - beautiful words that have endured for centuries and created hope in all believers. But is it something which is being realized by most Christians? Is it being realized by any Christians? If so, why is there a book on my coffee table by Che Ahn (president of an international ministry of 5,000 churches in 35 countries) called, Say Goodbye to Powerless Christianity. Powerless Christianity? Why would a prominent church leader feel the need to write such a book if Christians were becoming like Jesus?

I have part of the answer and I mention it often it in these blogs. The church has created a separation between God and man which doesn’t really exist and only serves to render us incapable of spiritual transcendence. Regrettably, the Christian community, finding no way to bridge the gap, has chosen to follow the ways of the world rather than the Life of Christ. That was the premise of another popular book on Christian coffee tables recently called Radical. How few of us really live the way Jesus told us to! And how easy it is for us to rationalize why we don’t!

Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man many times in the Bible. I always thought that was his way of saying he was just one of us. Unfortunately, rather than developing the capacities he demonstrated (which he said also belonged to us) the church projected him into a heavenly realm and built a religion around him in order to avoid the radical shift of mind and disruption of culture that he said would enable us. Separated as we are from the power source, the necessary change has not been able to take root in the heart of man. We simply cloak in religious terminology the agreed upon shortcomings of our sinful nature, accept the consequences as our reality, and ask Jesus to come and save us. I read this recently: You will never allow yourself to receive what you do not believe yourself worthy to have. If that’s true then it’s no wonder Christianity is powerless after 2,000 years of “faith”. If the evidence of that faith showed more positive results I wouldn’t still be looking for answers. But if we’re not becoming what we say we believe in (and Ahn’s book suggests we may not be) then it seems to me, it’s time to re-examine what we believe in.

As early as the fifth grade I remember being very confused about something in the Christian doctrine. The nuns and priests taught me that God was a God of love and that he created me in his own image and likeness. At the same time they said he created me in sin so unacceptable that he would have to send me to hell for it. I tried to believe that, but it seemed like such a contradiction. How could God blame me for something he made me with? As far as I can see, nowhere in the bible did Jesus ever speak of an Original sin. What he preached was God in the heart of man and he prayed that we would come to know it. So if Jesus didn’t say it then who made up this stuff about us being separated? It’s not true and it no longer serves any purpose to insist that it is just because “it is written”. We may know God through Jesus, but at some point we must learn to experience him in ourselves. The power we seek can only come with the realization that we are part of the one-ness with God that Jesus modeled. And we are. We are all part of that one-ness. That’s the really Good News that Jesus brought into this world.

It may go against church doctrine, but there comes a time when rethinking our position in God is more important than insisting on tradition. It is critical for our spiritual growth to come to the knowledge that nothing can separate us from the love of God. How can it, when in fact, nothing can separate us from God? Science is showing us that such a separation between creator and creation is not even possible. Someday we’ll understand that and accept it like we do any other great truth that was once a great mystery. Only then will we be able to give up our belief in the sinful nature of man which prevents us from knowing our true relationship to God. That alone will enable the mind of Christ in us. Finally Paul’s words will become our reality. Finally we will be able to do the things Jesus said we would do.

When that time comes there will be no more books written about powerless Christianity.

My Own Human Experience

One thing has been on my mind. If we really are eternal spiritual beings having temporary human experiences then what did I do to deserve such a good one? I could have been born in Burundi and grown up an orphan looking for food in the garbage dump. (God bless all those who are having that experience.)

Instead I came into this life at the end of WWII in the greatest country in the world at the beginning of what has been the most peaceful and prosperous era in modern history. I was born to good Catholic parents who loved me and taught me about God, and I grew up in the booming metropolis of Southern California, in North Hollywood. Somehow, though my sister was famous for having the brains in the family, I excelled in school. I was named Valedictorian of my grammar school class and won Science and Religion awards in high school without even knowing. Even in those early years it occurred to me that I must have favor with someone bigger than me. Father Harris told me to get to know Jesus and I undertook to read the bible for the first time in my freshman year of high school. 

In the 10th grade I had a friend who aspired to be a professional baseball pitcher who made me practice with him every day. I didn’t care much for baseball but working with him all that time made me a pretty good hitter, good enough to be selected to the All-Star team in my junior and senior year. All of a sudden I became known as an athlete and began moving in the best social circles. I got good grades and had the coolest car. My yearbook used one word to describe me when I graduated from high school: Popular. What more could a teenager ask for? Meanwhile my desire to know God was increasing and I began to study other faiths - including the eastern religions.

In college my friends and I started our own fraternity and it soon became the most popular fraternity in the school (see Animal House). I envisioned myself in a band performing at our parties but I didn’t know how to play a musical instrument, and I had no money. One day I was awarded $1,000 after a car accident and, against the advice of my father, used it to buy guitars and drums for me and some selected friends. The band we started not only played at fraternity parties, we auditioned and got booked for a week at a major nightclub on the famous Sunset Strip. It was there that we were discovered by '50s crooner Pat Boone. He got us a contract and we recorded a song that became a number one hit in California. The blessings were coming fast now. I went on to join the Turtles and then Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, touring the world several times with big hit records, appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show, even playing at the White House. The Beatles came to see us play in London and Paul McCartney told me he liked my music. Not bad for someone who didn’t know how to play an instrument five years before. But how did it happen? I continued to seek to know the source of my good fortune so that I might thank him appropriately, maybe repay him, or worship him - whatever it was he required.    

After about 10 years it occurred to me that I wasn’t limited to life on the road with a rock and roll band. It wasn't reality and it didn't make sense to be attached to it. Better to change my experience and do something completely different.  Once more against the advice of family and friends and without any definite idea of what I would do I left the music industry and moved to New York City. I knew two people there. One offered me a place to live in Greenwich Village and the other a temporary job with the New York Jets Football Club - if I didn't mind mailing Joe Namath posters and polishing the Super Bowl trophy. I didn't mind. Six months after touring the world as a rock star with Alice Cooper I was now commuting by subway in Manhattan to and from my job as a $100 a week office boy - and I loved it. One day I was called into the office of Weeb Ewbank, the head coach and general manager. He had heard that I was from Hollywood and wanted to talk to me about developing a film department for the Jets. I didn’t know the first thing about film-making but I told him I could do the job. Somehow I learned how to shoot, develop, print and edit 16mm movie film and did the job for 27 years, traveling with the team and filming all their games and practice sessions. Years later we transitioned from film to videotape and finally to non-linear digital imaging - none of which I knew anything about, yet the films were always the highest quality. I had three file drawers full of applications for the job as my assistant, all from people much more educated and qualified than myself. Whoever God was, it appeared I still had his favor in my life.

During my New York experience I practiced Transcendental Meditation, took courses in Scientology, and finally became a born-again Christian. I served in the local church and it was there I met my wife - the most wonderful gift of them all. Actually I've been married to wonderful women twice in my life. The first blessed me with a son and raised him almost by herself when I was on the road with the band. He grew up and served his country in the Air Force, then graduated with honors from the University of Washington. Now he too has a beautiful wife and I have my first grandson. For the past 23 years I've been married to a highly motivated professional woman (a doctor) and we're raising two more excellent boys. Does God’s favor ever end?

A few years ago I was ready for another new experience and moved my family to Jacksonville, Florida, where my spiritual hunger and search for God continues. After having careers in two glamorous entertainment industries I really don't remember "working" a day in my life. It's all been so interesting. We've also founded a center for children with Autism, done medical missionary work in Central America (I'm the pharmacist) and opened a growing pediatric practice in St. Augustine, Florida. My spiritual hunger and search for God continues but all I can see is his goodness. The blessings in my human experience continue to this day - none of which I planned, none of which I was qualified for, and none of which I take credit for. The only thing I’ve really made an effort to do in my life was know Him. The rest of this stuff is just happening to me.

Spiritual Beings Having a Human Experience

For the last couple of months I’ve been sick. It’s very discouraging not being able to write or even think straight. I can understand the difficulty we're having trying to heal lepers and raise the dead, but how can a being made in the image and likeness of God be victimized by a bacteria that he can’t even cast out of his own body?

Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) was a Catholic priest, philosopher and mystic credited with making the observation that, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” I have loved and quoted that statement for years without realizing its full implications. All this time I’ve been wondering why our experience of God doesn’t seem to fulfill our expectations and have concluded that it’s because of the church and what we’ve been taught to believe. But might it be simpler than that? As human beings wouldn’t we naturally be limited in our understanding of ultimate reality? If so, why then are we surprised and discouraged by sickness? And why are we dismayed by our difficulty knowing God in an experiential way? How could it be otherwise?  

A young preacher in a Unity Church I visited recently shed a new light on the subject for me – one that I had never considered before. Maybe our shortcomings and our lack of peace are just part of what it means to be human. He told us to imagine something. He told us to imagine that we were eternal beings who had lived 8,000 years in the presence and one-ness of God, who one day offered us an opportunity to “do something different”. In an extraordinary gesture of free will he would give us our own separate experience in a world of imagination that would be unlike anything we could ever know living with him. The only drawback was, in order for it to appear real it would be necessary for us to forget where we had come from and what ultimate reality was. And we agreed.

And it really wasn’t a bad deal. For the first time in our existence we’ve been able to experience the beauty of a sunrise on the ocean, the feel of a warm fire on a cold winter evening, and the taste of a ripe strawberry. We’ve also come to know the pain of sickness and the loss of a loved one – some things pleasant and some not so pleasant, but all part of an amazing gift that we never had in our purely spiritual realm. The problem is we’ve forgotten that our real life still exists in the spiritual realm. None of these things have taken that life away from us. They’re simply part of our human experience. We may have forgotten how it all started and where we came from, but that’s what we agreed to. It’s also why so many of us live our lives in fear and caution, afraid of doing the wrong thing and holding on to this life as if it were all we had. Why else would we spend the 75 or 80 years we’re typically given trying to get the best job so we can have money to buy the biggest house and the nicest car? 

Jesus told us not to put our faith in these things. He knew they don’t bring the lasting happiness for which we deeply yearn. That only comes from remembering that we have come to this temporary place directly from God who is always our ultimate reality. Jesus was able to remember this but we don’t – at least not yet. But I’ve been thinking. Maybe we shouldn’t beat ourselves up just because we don't have the mind of Christ yet. Maybe he didn’t mean it would happen in one lifetime. Maybe we’re generations away from being able to do the things he told us we would do. And that's OK too.

But if we're ready to give up the illusion here’s a good place to start. We say that our souls are eternal. Let's make sure we know the meaning of the word. Webster’s Dictionary defines eternal as “having infinite duration”, “existing at all times”. Somehow we accept that it means without an end. But it also means without a beginning. That means there was never a time when our spirit wasn’t alive. Quantum Science is beginning to prove that to us. Once it becomes our reality we may begin to consider where and what we were before we came here. At some point we will begin to understand that we are far more amazing beings than we appear in this lifetime. We may not have all the wisdom and power we had when our lives were one with God, but that was part of the agreement. It is promised that we will have it again. 


In the meantime let’s be thankful for the extraordinary gift of our human lives. Let's enjoy every strawberry... but at the same time try not to get lost in the illusion. It’s just a part of the human experience.