When life takes an unexpected turn

What do you do when something happens to you totally out of the blue and so obviously catches you off your guard? A statement that I use occasionally is, “Along the way life happens and you must deal with it.” I’m sure this statement is not an original one, but it always IS what it IS. On the other hand life is usually filled with surprises.

The normal reaction to bad news or situations is to go into a form of shock. Your rational senses go almost numb because you are unable to process such a strange happening. Fear usually rushes in and depending upon your faith you may feel temporarily hopeless until you gather your senses.

Those who have little to no faith are left “out there” to the forces that may be present in their minds. Having nothing to rely upon despair usually sets in and it may feel as though you are walking through a very dense fog. It is like being a zombie. You are alive and breathing, but not mentally present. How long this state might last is up to the individuals.

Such an event could be a life-changing moment. Many have been known to reach out to the faith community and actually find something there that is comforting. They are invited into a network of people that choose to believe in the divine and in an unseen world within the one they live.

If one is fortunate enough to discover this unseen world their lives are usually forever changed from that day forth. They find out that no matter what, they are not alone in the world, as it may have appeared before the event. Albeit the faith community of believers or the unknown and unseen God, they find a safety net that was well worth finding.

Obviously not everyone discovers this safety cushion from just one catastrophic event. Some hit a wall several time and still do not surrender to the Great Teacher of life. For whatever reason they continue to believe that they are somehow above the unseen forces that control life.

Those that are belligerent and bullishly stubborn are simply turned over to their own ignorant devices. They are left to the reprobate mind that becomes their God.

When a child refuses the wise and gentle council of a parent all the parent can do is let the superior forces of life take its own course. One thing is certain: no mortal being is beyond the unseen forces that life presents. They may run, but there is no place to hide.

Enough of the dark side, for I bring you a message of hope and good cheer. When life takes those unexpected turns it is usually to teach you lessons that you would not otherwise learn. It is one thing to teach someone something that they have never known, but another when they are somehow compelled to experience it in life.

Perhaps a parent told their child not to touch something that was hot and the child never touched what the parent cautioned them against. Was the lesson learned simply by the cautioning of the parent? One could say the child learned how to be obedient, but it is questionable as to whether the child actually learned the consequence of touching something hot. On the other hand if the child insists upon touching something hot and was burned, that child would know within its own mind the consequence of touching something that is hot. I dare say the lesson was truly learned.

In life we do not always have the love and guidance of loving parents to teach us all the nuances that come with living. Many tough lessons come to us long after we are past our youth. The Great Teacher shows up, but many times the pupil is not ready to be taught. For those the lessons become stiffer and the consequences may become even greater. One thing is certain; life is patient, only because its Creator loves us.  However, if you are unwilling to submit to divine authority your fate is of your own choosing.

A simple word to the wise… when life takes an unexpected turn take note and inquire of the Teacher, “What lesson am I to learn from this episode?” The Teacher always shows up when the pupil is ready to accept and to learn in earnest, for what is in you will rise to the occasion when the times call for it. If you have nothing in you don’t expect anything to come from you.

While the sun is shining it would be a good time to store up the essentials you might need on the rainy days. –WORD- 

If You Were God – What would you change?

I’ve heard many people use the existence of suffering as a reason for not believing in God. They would say things such as, “If there were a God why would He allow so much suffering in the world?”

 

First of all we are only in a position to speculate or ponder about God because we don’t have the assurance of anything we could consider as being factual about Him. We may quote what we have heard, studied, read, or even in our own way experienced, but that does not prove beyond the shadow of doubt, to others, what we choose to believe.

 

It is said that God is unsearchable, unknowable, unimaginable, unfathomable, unreachable, or otherwise unsubstantiated to us by means of physical proof. Essentially that means that what the world accepts as proof is virtually unavailable to us in reference to God. According to the Holy Scriptures no mortal man has ever seen God, yet we’re encouraged to do so, not merely to believe in, but also to worship this unsearchable God/Being.

 

If you were to think about this for a moment this notion would be the epitome of a quagmire. Not only would it be most difficult, it would be virtually impossible. In essence we can’t know, perceive, imagine, find, or understand God in physicality, but it’s supposed to be completely possible through spiritual means. That means that we would need to shut off the five physical senses in order to open senses that are not physical.

 

In order to come close to God one would need to strip themselves of the carnal (flesh) attachment and enter a non-physical state, that which is spiritual. We would need to learn how to place our trust in things that are unseen above those that are seen. In essence we would need to reprogram the manner in which we view things in a new way contrary to how we were previously conditioned.

 

Think about it: having faith means being certain of things that you cannot see or touch. You believe in it using non-physical means. There is nothing tangible with which you can connect. 

 

What is it that one may use to enhance one's ability to have faith? How can you afix this in your mind in order to get a glimpse or grasp of what this entails?

 

If you have ever witnessed a magician at work you may notice that the good ones have the ability to make you totally believe their tricks. Even though you are aware that he or she used legerdemain, or tricks plus techniques to fool the mind, they appear to be so real.

 

If you have ever been hypnotized or seen someone who has you will note that they believed in something that was totally not real, but their mind accepted it as though it were.

 

Even many of the movies you see today have such great special effects that you actually feel that you have entered the world of make believe. It feels as though you are right there with the mythical characters. If you totally immerse yourself into the story it is almost hard to draw the line between the imaginary and the real.ity.

 

We actually go to such places in our minds quite often, but we do it so naturally that we don’t really realize what we are doing. Temporarily or even for long periods of time we allow our minds to be in a different reality. The only problem is that eventually we have to come back to our physical reality otherwise we could literally run off a very steep cliff.

 

Have you had dreams that were so good that you didn’t want to awaken and others from which you fought hard to awaken out of fear? In both cases the mind accepted where it thought it was. Even the body may have gone into a cold sweat from what you were experiencing. People have organisms in their dreams. They feel real to your senses.

 

Subconsciously we can enter such states of mind, but consciously it is much more difficult to convince the mind and body to accept what you do not believe to be real.

 

Since we know we have this hidden ability to cross over into a different realm of existence, as we do in our minds or in dreams, our challenge is to learn to cross over that threshold while we are awake. Many believers manage to do this in varying degrees. For most it requires a lot of practice and dedication.

 

If my examples have allowed you to grasp spiritual things in the few minutes that you have been reading this essay, imagine what you could do if you were to seek Godliness, or those things that are spiritual, on a daily or regular basis.

 I would like to share a secret with you: God is not really hidden. He reveals himself in plain view for all to see and know.  The only thing secret is that you must seek Him in order to find what is clearly there. The more you seek the more you find. The more doors you knock on the more will be opened to you. The more you ask the more you will be answered.

 

The operative verb here is that IT, the draw, must be generated from you. When the desire comes from your being it attracts what it seeks. It does so using the very laws of nature that were set up from the beginning. It happens when the universe, God, knows when all things are ready. It is similar to how a seed knows exactly when to sprout without either a brain or a heart. God made it work in the manner He intended.

 

So if you were God what would you change? Until you take the time to seek the heart of God you have no idea how perfectly created things are. Try not to just look at what your physical senses reveal, but instead try opening your spirit to see God’s perfect divine will. It is not here that you need worry, for this is but a drop in the bucket of your eternal existence. God sees all things in their infinite existence.

 

I’m so happy that none of us are God because we would only change things that are for our own selfish ambitions in such a manner that we see fit with our very small physical limitations. If I were God I would do exactly what God did and does. I would only LOVE!