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What if God isn’t?

Feb6

Today’s post explores the unexplorable, the unanswerable, the unponderable….in the mind of some people – the unforgivable. What if God isn’t?

Facebook Dangers :)

The image above was found floating around Facebook this weekend.  I read it and LOVED it! I immediately shared it on my wall, thereby inviting a firestorm of comments.  None of the comments were negative, in fact, most were either a “like” or something like, “YAY.”  One comment, however, struck me right between the eyes.  The comment was, What if god isn’t?  HMMMMM   I had never even considered that possibility.  This comment made me think, it made me reflect and  it made me sad.

The Unanswerable Question

Of course, there is NO answer to that question, “What if god isn’t” because, there is also no answer to the question,  “What if God is?”  At the end of the day, we do not know, we have no proof, we have no evidence.  And, unfortunately, unless God steps out of “the sky” and plants his or her feet on this earth (and THAT is a topic for a whole other blog!), or is spotted playing Skeeball at Coney Island (let me know if you get that reference :) ), or unless we die and go to “heaven” and meet God face-to-face….we will never know.   So until any of those events transpire, we have nothing to go on but FAITH in a God that may or may not exist.  I for one, choose faith.

Being a Fool for God

So, to the enlightened, the educated, the scholarly, I may appear the fool because I CHOOSE to believe in a benevolent God.  I choose to believe that there is a Higher Power, a Creative Source that is beyond me, that made me, that can be a source of guidance, support, nourishment, mercy, healing, love, insight, understanding, wisdom and empowerment.  I choose this belief because I have found that when I believe in God, my life is better.  And when it is not, I know that there is a loving God carrying me through the struggles, the pain, the loneliness, the loss, the betrayal and the tragedies…and when I surrender to this God, believe in this God, the doors open where I before thought they were closed, a light shines in the darkness and I am able to find HOPE where perhaps there had only been despair.  Believing in God keeps me going through the ups and downs of the human condition and allows me to seek beauty in ugliness, peace in the face of fear, clarity in the midst of confusion and strength in times of struggle.  And when I think about this really hard, I guess it doesn’t really matter if there is a God or not because it might just be the belief that gets us through and it might just be belief that helps us find meaning in a life that would otherwise seem meaningless.  But even if God doesn’t exist, and this is all there is, I still choose to BELIEVE because after what I have experienced, why would I choose otherwise?  And if I chose to not believe in God, then it would clearly be a matter of “Life sucks and then you die,” and that would just be sad.  So instead of sadness or despair, I choose God, and if that makes me the fool…..then so be it!

And here are a few God songs ….just for fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USR3bX_PtU4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Qpp1QJpxc

How has belief in a benevolent God helped you in your life?

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com

What god Are You Serving?

Jan17

Today’s blog is in the form of a music video from one of my favorites:  Trent Reznor in his incarnation - Nine Inch Nails.  Click on the link below, then reflect on the questions that follow:

Head Like a Hole:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao-Sahfy7Hg&ob=av2e

(Here’s a link to the lyrics in case you need help:  http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/nineinchnails/headlikeahole.html)

How much time and energy do you give to “god-money?”

What is the focus, center, pivot on which your life unfolds?  (money, acquisitions, status, power, love, joy, peace, fame, etc.?)

How are you being called to shift your attention from the external “gods” to the Source of love, peace and joy that resides within you?

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com

Hope in “God”

Dec7

In today’s scripture, we are reminded that the source of comfort and strength is that which some call “God.”

They that hope in the Lord will renew their strength,

they will soar as with eagles’ wings;

They will run and not grow weary,

walk and not grow faint.

Isaiah 40: 30-31

Life’s Challenges

The human condition is hard.   No matter who we are, we experience suffering, challenge, difficulties, loss, death, betrayal, loneliness, sorrow.  These are the pits and valleys of the human condition.  No one is exempt from the “negative” experiences of being human….regardless of our virtue or our good deeds.  Bad things happen to good people and bad things happen to “bad” people.  It is not because of some sort of Divine retribution or punishment for our “sins” or the “sins” of our parents that we suffer.  If we are going to be human, it is simply part of the deal.  As all of our greatest spiritual teachers (like Isaiah above) knew and taught, however, there is a comforting balm, a source of strength and inspiration in helping us deal with the challenges of being human.  This source of comfort, some would call “God.”

Turning to God

In today’s reading from the Hebrew scriptures, Isaiah reminds us that God is the source of comfort, healing and strength as we face the challenges of the human condition.  While God may not remove the challenge, turning to God in humble prayer helps us to find the strength to move through the challenge, the resources of human support we need to weather the storm and the inner peace and contentment we need to see beyond the struggle to the promise of new life.  Turning to God may also help us to see our challenges from a wider perspective – opening us to see the opportunities for growth, reconciliation, forgiveness, love, mercy, generosity, humility, etc. within that which we might perceive as a burden.  In this way, God lightens our load, eases our burden, heals our hearts.  And the best news is that WE don’t have to “do anything” to fix, remedy, change the struggle, for when we remember to turn to God, God is the one “doing” something about it.  We need simply rest in God’s loving arms and allow the Divine Source of love, comfort and peace carry us through what is sure to be a temporary blip in the roadmap of life.

An Invitation

So, next time you are facing the struggles of the human condition….Go to God.  Turn it over to God.  Engage your favorite form of meditation, prayer, contemplation and invite God to be present to you in that struggle.  And the most fantastic news is that God is already there, whether we know it or not.  Turning to prayer simply helps us to remember and in remembering, to allow God to be the source of comfort and support that has been waiting there all along.

What are your favorite spiritual practices during time of human struggle?

Where have you experienced God as a source of comfort and support during times of challenge?

How might you begin to embrace a daily spiritual practice that can build the foundation of you recollection of God’s love and support?

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com

Thoughts on God and Church

Oct10

Today’s blog explores two hot topics:  God and Church.  From my personal perspective, both have gotten a bad name….and we are the ones to blame.

 

Mean Old God

I’m not sure how this happened, but somewhere along the line, we humans, and some of our religions have decided that God is a mean old man in the sky who is judgmental, punitive, jealous and manipulative.  Yeah, I know scripture might say this in a few places but I also know that there are other places in scripture that seriously contradict these unkind images of the Divine.  This then poses the question about scripture and how we might use it to gain an understanding of God independent of our human desire to make God in our image instead of remembering it is supposed to be the other way around.  Ultimately, there are as many paths to scripture and God as there are human beings, but in the end, I guess we can really only know God to the extent that we know ourselves and to the extent that we can get out of the way and allow God to reveal God’s self to us in intimate and personal ways.

My God

This is of course, only my own personal opinion, and I know there are many who would differ with me on this….but I think God is cool.  The God that I have come to know is loving, kind, compassionate and most importantly…present, accepting and patient.  As a human being, I am a mess.  I’m impatient, doubting, intolerant, rigid, unforgiving.  And yet, God still loves me….and patiently and lovingly holds me as I move through the struggles of the human condition.  The God I know is not mean.  God does not inflict harm upon us humans or upon the world, but allows us to move through whatever the human condition throws at us and is there as a source of comfort, support, nurturing as we grieve the struggles and the losses and God points us toward the new life on the other side of the struggle…if we have eyes to see.  This God knows what is in my highest good and desires for me to know it too and allows me to see this path when I am ready to see it. In a word, God is love.  I have come to know this God through meditation, contemplation, prayer, scripture, my life experiences, teachers (some Christian, many not), relationships and worship.

Church

This brings me to point two in today’s discussion.  Church.  I will pause for a minute as readers allow the “shuddering response” of that word to move through them.  Church is another one of those dangerous words.  For many, this word brings up positive, affirming, life-giving sensations.  For others, it brings up fear, terror, disgust, anger, etc. etc. etc.  Again, there are as many ways to experience and be church as there are human beings on this planet.  Some are led by healthy individuals and groups of individuals and reflect this health in their theology and in their operations.  Others are led by fearful leaders and their theology and work reflect that.  In the end, church is an imperfect business run by imperfect people, as a result, church reflects that….some good things, some not so good.  But….if we step REALLY far back, each and every church…regardless of our experience or judgment of them, has TWO common driving motivations:

  • The search for peace
  • The call to be love in the world

Coming Together

So, at the end of the day, is a church really just a group of people coming together under a common understanding of God, in search of peace and in the service of love in the world?  Then I am left wondering, what would church look like if people were gathered in a place where they weren’t told what to believe but were given tools, permission and space to explore and come to know God on their own, allowing God to reveal God’s self to them in an intimate and personal way and were supported in that journey.  HHMMMMM   Just wondering.

What are your images of God? How did you come to these images?

What have been your experiences of church?

How can you be open to God revealing God’s self to you beyond what you might have been told by someone outside of you?

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com

The Big Scary God Question

Sep16

A friend recently asked me the “big scary God question” and it forced me to pause and really give this thought.  What is God…..to me?  How do we communicate our intimate, personal experience of “God” to another?  Can we believe in a God that is not just “the old man in the sky?”  Of course, I don’t have any of the answers….but here are a few thoughts taken from what I shared with my friend:

What Happens When Someone Asks About God?

A friend recently asked me the big scary God question.  As the words left their lips, I felt my heart stop, my breathing ceased and the movement of my life seemed to come to a screeching halt.  Of course I was tongue-tied and couldn’t come up with a intelligible response while my brain was running around wondering, “What happens if I answer the question incorrectly or what I tell them is not what they want to hear?”  After a night of being able to “sleep on it,” a better answer showed up.  I penned the best response I could come up with that felt authentic to my own personal experience and beliefs.  Knowing this friend was a regular yoga practitioner, I crafted the response in language that would be relevant to their own personal experience.  Here is what I wrote:

Answering the Question:

“You know how you are feeling at the end of a great yoga class, while lying in Shivasana, that blissed-out, totally peaceful feeling?  That is God to me.  God is that place beyond the constructs of the mind that allows us to access our truest self – pure, clear, peaceful, content, joyful and full of love and accessing knowledge of our highest truth and the path of our highest good.  While I might image “God” as something outside of us that gives guidance, support, healing, love, inspiration, etc. I also know that which I call God is WAY more than that.  I can’t explain it, define it or describe it, I can only experience it and it is in those times of deep meditation, high creativity, blissful reality, intimate connection, natural wonder where I experience and KNOW this “God.” Taking time to access this “experience” is the grounding point of my life and the pivot upon which the rest of my life is directed.  And I have found limitless ways to access this experience – whether it be through meditation, prayer, yoga, going to mass, reading scripture, enjoying poetry, a good movie, reading something inspirational or educational, cooking, gardening, cultivating healthy, intimate relationships, being in nature, just having fun, being with my kids etc.   It has all become an access point for that place of peaceful contentment, joy and love that resides within each of us….and that is just WAY COOL!”

God and Religion

Then came the religion part of the question.  If I believe in God, does that mean I am religious?  How does my Catholic upbringing fit into the whole God question?  Again, these were the best words I could come up with in response to the question, but I think they are pretty fitting:

“So….am I religious?  Probably not.  Spiritual?  Definitely. And….apparently once a Catholic, always a Catholic, so a lot of my
language is of that vein and my journey will always look a little Catholic….but at the end of the day, my spirituality is WAY bigger than anything the Catholic Church could ever attempt to contain.  That being said, I have been known to get on
my soapbox over things the Catholic Church is doing because on many levels, I still care.  I grew up there.  It has been my home.  And it was through the rituals and practices of Catholicism that I did find that deep and true place of peace…..in spite
of the Institutions attempts otherwise.”

 

Honoring Our Differences

And finally the question, “What happens if we have differing beliefs?”  Ultimately, I don’t think any of us can claim to believe the same thing because each and every one of our experiences of the “the Divine” is personal, intimate and unique.  So in response to that question, here were my thoughts:  ”Honor.  Respect. Support.  Are the words that surface when I ask this question.  I recognize that the spiritual journey is unique to each individual.  I honor, respect and offer support for
wherever people are in that process….and I expect the same.”

‘Nuf said!

What have been your experiences of “the Divine?”

How would you describe your beliefs in “God” “Higher Power” “the Divine” to another person?

How do your personal experiences inform your spiritual and/or religious choices, beliefs, etc.?

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com

Love Letters from God

Sep7

Yesterday, I gave the following spiritual exercise to a client who is working on trust issues: trusting themselves, trusting others, trusting God.  I have found this exercise to be a powerful tool for opening the heart to love and to the truth of Divine love.  God is loving, kind, gracious….the very essence of love itself…and God loves us beyond what we could ever possibly imagine!  The trick is, can we really, truly, honestly believe in the abundantly flowing love of God?

 

A Spiritual Exercise:

In this exercise, you are invited to read through the scripture passage below.  Then, going back, replace “Jacob” and “Israel” with your own name, then re-read the passage below as if it is a love letter from God written directly to you.  Read through it several times, reflect and meditate on what you read and if you feel called to do so, record your thoughts in a notebook or journal.

But now, thus says the Lord,

who created you, O Jacob, and formed you, O Israel:

Fear not for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through water, I will be with you;

In rivers you shall not drown.

When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned;

The flames shall not consume you.

For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your savior.

I give Egypt as your ransom,

Ethiopia and Seba in return for you.

Because you are precious in my eyes

And glorious

And because I love you.

Isaiah 43: 1-4a

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com

I’m Not Worthy to Receive You

Aug31

Today’s blog explores the topic of worthiness – the fine line between self-loathing and humility. 

 

 

Lord, I am Not Worthy to Receive You

Every Sunday, (or anytime attending mass) just before the reception of Holy Eucharist (communion), all Catholics bow their heads, strike their breast and say, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.”  As a child, I understood this part of the ritual to be a moment in which we acknowledged our sinfulness, our depravity, our complete unworthiness of God’s love and Jesus’ sacrifice, and recognize that even though we are woeful sinners, God can somehow make us worthy of receiving HIS (God, to me,  was still the old man in the sky at that time) grace through the Eucharist.  But even reciting these words did not erase the lingering doubt in the back of my mind that we were still completely unworthy.  I have a sense that this is how many (if not most) Catholics understand this phrase along with its ritual actions.

Only Say the Word and I Shall be Healed

Then something amazing happened.  As I grew up and found the tools through which I could be open to discovering, exploring, cultivating and nurturing a deeply intimate, expansive and personal relationship with that which I call God, I found that the mass and all its trappings began to be transformed.  As I came to know God through prayerful contemplation of scripture, through my life experiences, through nature, through signs and wonders, in Jesus and his ministry, in the lives of the saints (especially:  Mary Magdalene, Bernadette, Francis, Clare, Theresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Joan of Arc), I came to understand that God is not the scary, vengeful, judgmental, punitive god that so many want us to believe in.  Instead, I found a God that is loving, infinite, compassionate, just, merciful, kind, joyful, peaceful and forgiving.  I found a God that loves us beyond what we could possibly imagine and is the very nature of Love itself and as this love, seeks to be known in and through us.  God was really cool and no longer the scary old man in the sky with clipboard in hand marking off if we are naughty or nice.  The fear-based images of God were erased from my consciousness and replaced with nothing but love.  How cool is that?!

From Self-Loathing to Awe-filled Wonder and Humility

So, back to the “Lord I am not worthy” stuff.  As my images of God became transformed, so did my experience of the mass.  The mass was no longer the sacrificial banquet in which we celebrated Jesus’ death (and I do mean, “celebrated”), and hung our heads in shame over the sins that made his horrific execution by crucifixion necessary.  Instead, the mass became a celebration of the wonders of God and the amazing teachings of Jesus and the new life that he came to reveal for all of humankind – a life rooted in the passionate love of God and the contentment and joy that are our reward when we allow ourselves to be open to this love.  In attending the mass, I was reminded over and over and over that “we are an Easter people.”  The focus moved from sacrifice and death to new life.  Amen!  While this transformation was taking place, so too was the experience of the Eucharist changed for me.  No longer was I compelled to hang my head in shame over my unworthiness of the Eucharist, instead, I raised my eyes in awe-filled wonder at the miracle of God’s love and the promise of new life.  Receiving Holy Communion became a ritual through which I could humbly say, “God you are so awesome and I am humbled at the sight of your glory and I know my heart is too small today to contain the fullness of your love, but I know that through your grace I will somehow, someday, know the depth of your love that Jesus knew and be able to reveal that love in our broken world.”  It was to this awareness and intention that I was able to say “Amen” when taking the bread and the wine that had become the body and blood of Christ into my hands.

Our Life Experience is the Mass

Now here is the really cool part!  Not only was the liturgy of the mass transformed in me through attention to God’s love, but that 1 hour of Sunday mass spilled out into my daily life.  No longer was mass contained by the ritual, but my whole life became the celebration of the mass…and everyday I have been invited to see the glory and wonder of God and exclaim, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.”  And no longer do these words come from a place of unworthiness and self-loathing, but from a place of complete wonder and awe and I frequently wonder, “What did I do to deserve this greatness?”  And the terrific answer is NOTHING…..It is simply the abundant outpouring of God’s magnificent love …  we simply need to be open to receiving it and offer it a bold and joyous “AMEN!”  (meaning, yes!)

How are you open to seeing, knowing, experiencing the magnificent wonder and love of God?

Where are you reluctant to receive the generous outpouring of joy that God intends for you?

How can you say “yes” to all the love that God wants to give you?

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com

I Am My Beloved’s

Jun22

How are we being called to love God and to be loved in return?

Listen! My beloved!
   Look! Here he comes,
leaping across the mountains,
   bounding over the hills.
My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
   Look! There he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
   peering through the lattice.
 My beloved spoke and said to me,
   “Arise, my darling,
   my beautiful one, come with me.
 See! The winter is past;
   the rains are over and gone.
 Flowers appear on the earth;
   the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
   is heard in our land.
The fig tree forms its early fruit;
   the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
   my beautiful one, come with me.

  My beloved is mine and I am his.”

Song of Songs

 

I’m a Freak

I do not expect anyone to comprehend or understand the way in which I have experienced the love of the Divine.  If I lived in India, I could say that I was a practitioner of Bhakti Yoga.  Indians understand the call to devotional practice, where we accept the invitation to believe that we are  the lover and the Divine our beloved.  In the Western world, if you try to express this, people just look at you crosseyed.  Well, look at me crosseyed if you will….but I love God….passionately, devotedly, overwhelmingly…..more importantly, I know and have experienced God’s love for me….and for all of creation.  I do not wave this around as a flag of my own accomplishment because quite frankly, I can only hold this as the overwhelming, profound, humbling gift that it is.  This experience of Divine love, I consider to be pure Grace – something that we receive not because we deserve it or because we prayed the right way or the appropriate number of times….it is simply gift – undeserved, unbidden, unearned.  Pure, Grace.  Neither can this experience truly be described….it is as if your heart is filled with a warm, bright light and expands beyond thought, beyond reason, beyond the universe and we are able to get a tiny glimpse into the heart of God and what we are able to see is a love beyond all love, beyond all imaginings, beyond any ideas of separation or judgment…certainly beyond any thought of sin or condemnation.  God is love, pure love, nothing less. 

But, there is something that makes me sad

This love of God is so far beyond what we can possibly imagine or ever experience in our human condition.  This is the love that Jesus spoke of….Teresa of Avila, Francis of Assisi, John of the Cross, Hildegard of Bingen, Rumi, Hafiz, Rilke, Yogananda, and  all the Indian masters.  So if this love of God is so magnificent…..why are we still talking about punishment, condemnation, sin, judgment, etc. etc. etc.  This makes me so sad.  How can one get across to a fearful world that God loves….PERIOD…..and that this love does not have to be earned, neither can it be taken away.  God loves….God is love…..love is God.  And……not only does God love…..but God wants nothing more for us than to know this love.  This is why I LOVE LOVE LOVE the book from the Hebrew scriptures, Song of Songs.  There is absolutely NOTHING else that expresses the passionate love of God for us and the invitation for us to love God in return with a passion that might even be considered erotic!!!!   In this poem, we are invited to recognize that we are God’s beloved and to accept the invitation to be God’s lover in return.  Scandalous, I know!  ;)  

Still a Freak

So, I’m still a freak.  I love God and enjoy with a bliss beyond all bliss the way that God loves me….more importantly, the way that God loves all of humanity, all of creation.  I see the love.  I feel the love…..and I know I am the love.  In my world, there is absolutely nothing better than sitting in meditation and feeling this love, giving honor to this love through my yoga practice, observing this love move through me as I share my gifts with others.  And, there is nothing worse than the moments I feel absent of this love….but it is during those moments of perceived absence that I find comfort in knowing, “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.”

 

How have you experienced God’s love in your life?

How are you being invited to perceive and realize this love more fully?

 

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com

Judgment Day – Are you Ready?

May18

May 21, 2011 is Judgment Day….at least that is what Harold Camping wants us to believe.  Today’s blog explores Judgment Day from a different perspective.


May 21 is Judgement Day

For several years, a former civil engineer based in California, Harold Camping, has proclaimed that the world will face “Judgment Day” on May 21, 2011.  He has convinced thousands of followers that a “worldwide earthquake” will occur on this day, beginning a hellish period that will culminate with God Himself destroying the planet five months later. Mr. Camping claims that these ideas are all found in the Bible. According to his website:  “On May 21, 2011 two events will occur. These events could not be more opposite in nature, the one more wonderful than can be imagined; the other more horrific than can be imagined.  A great earthquake will occur…This earthquake will be so powerful it will throw open all graves. The remains of all the believers…will be…glorified…the bodies of all unsaved people will be thrown out upon the ground to be shamed.”    (this paragraph compliments of  The Real Truth Magazine)

Apocalyptic Prophecies

I, for one, find myself skeptical of Mr. Camping’s prophecies, though my skepticism is nothing personal.  My skepticism is due to the fact that people have been predicting the end of the world since the beginning of time and we are still here.  Mr. Camping is just another in a long line of end-time predicters.  With all these voices crying out in the wilderness….who are we to believe?  And in the end (literally), who cares?  If any of these predictions prove to be true, then where does that leave us?  DEAD!   If that giant meteor that is on a collision course with the earth hits her mark….then there will no one left to tell about it.  We will just be dead, gone, kaput.  And ultimately, we have no control over any of it anyway.

Judgment Day

Now Mr. Camper’s prophecy carries an interesting twist.  May 21 isn’t the total end of the world (we have to wait for October 21 for that).  Instead, there will be a cataclysmic earthquake (supposedly) and God will come down to impart God’s judgment upon us.  May 21 is not end of the world day, it is judgment day.  Now I’m going to get a little dogmatic here…and for this I offer apologies ahead of time.  If I were to believe this part of the prophecy, I would have to believe in a judgmental God….which I do not.  Now, here comes the dogmatic part…..

My God is an Awesome God

Through my own meditation and prayer, specifically on Jesus’ teachings and the teachings of other great spiritual leaders, I have come to know a God that is loving, compassionate and merciful.  This God is so loving, in fact, that I find that I cannot even use the word forgiving in regards to God because from the perspective of the God that I know, there is nothing to forgive.  (See the story of the Prodigal Son from Luke’s gospel).  God is love, plain and simple and not only does God simply hold us in that love, we are an expression of the very love that God is.  God loves us into being and loves us into the natural unfolding of ourselves.  Through this love, God lives in and through us and tenderly calls us into the recollection of our original nature as One with God in contentment, love and joy.  That’s it…no judgment, no condemnation, no wrathful vengence.  God simply loves.

Who is the Judge Here?

God loves, God does not judge.  We are the ones that judge and condemn.  Living in the false perception of separation from God, from our truest nature, from each other, from creation, we judge.  We decide what is good and bad, right and wrong, of God, not of God.  But this judgment only exists within the framework of separation.  What if we really believed (as Jesus taught) that we are all One….One with God….One within ourselves….One with each other and all of creation?  If we really believed this and lived this truth….there would be no judgment….ONLY LOVE.

LOVEMENT DAY

So, as we approach Judgment Day on May 21, 2011, I offer this invitation.  What if we used this day to observe our own tendency to judge – to judge others, ourselves, the world?  What if we used this day to step back from our judgment and instead, offer compassion?  What if we offered ourselves compassion for our own behaviors that we judge as “bad” and instead recognize them as indicators of an unhealed wound within us?  What if instead of condemning ourselves and others, we asked God for healing…healing of the places within where we feel separate from God, from our highest truth, from others, from creation?  What if instead of awaiting or imposing judgment, we turned the world to love?  This is my plan for May 21, and I invite you to do the same as together we celebrate May 21, 2011 as LOVEMENT DAY!

Where are you tempted to believe in a judgmental, wrathful, vengeful God?

Where are you still suffering from the wound of separation?

How can you ask God for healing of this wound so that you can remember the truth of Oneness?

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com