Thoughts
from the
NorthWoods
Urantia Book Thoughts on Religion
Jesus founded the religion of personal experience in doing the will of God and serving the human brotherhood; ... 196.2.6
Spiritual growth is mutually stimulated by intimate association with other religionists. Love supplies the soil for religious growth-100.0.1
"To a God-knowing kingdom believer, what does it matter if all things earthly crash?" 100.2.7
What The Urantia Book Has Done For Me
Long Viewpoint
It has given me a long, long viewpoint of life. First, I'd be talking with friends. We'd be complaining about the rate of human progress. But then I'd interject that, while the rare may be slow, over the next 50,000 years we really will get somewhere. It is The Urantia Book that gave me that long range view of future human progress that my friends just never thought of.
The second long view is life after death. The Christian view of instant perfection after death just doesn't make sense. The Urantia view of progress, then progress, then more progress, then even more progress until, after still more progress, we finally achieve perfection makes more sense. Robert, Clintonville
The Urantia Book's Use of Italics and Bold Print
Susan Lyon
I would first like to list the quotes that formed my opinion during our study together – those sections are full of italicized words: [In the following excerpts, italicized words will be underlined. ed.]
(2017.2) 188:4.7 Though it is hardly proper to speak of Jesus as a sacrificer, a ransomer, or a redeemer, it is wholly correct to refer to him as a savior. He forever made the way of salvation (survival) more clear and certain; he did better and more surely show the way of salvation for all the mortals of all the worlds of the universe of Nebadon.
(2017.4) 188:4.9 All this concept of atonement and sacrificial salvation is rooted and grounded in selfishness. Jesus taught that service to one’s fellows is the highest concept of the brotherhood of spirit believers. Salvation should be taken for granted by those who believe in the fatherhood of God. The believer’s chief concern should not be the selfish desire for personal salvation but rather the unselfish urge to love and, therefore, serve one’s fellows even as Jesus loved and served mortal men.
(2017.7) 188:4.12 The great thing about the death of Jesus, as it is related to the enrichment of human experience and the enlargement of the way of salvation, is not the fact of his death but rather the superb manner and the matchless spirit in which he met death.
(2017.8) 188:4.13 This entire idea of the ransom of the atonement places salvation upon a plane of unreality; such a concept is purely philosophic. Human salvation is real; it is based on two realities which may be grasped by the creature’s faith and thereby become incorporated into individual human experience: the fact of the fatherhood of God and its correlated truth, the brotherhood of man. It is true, after all, that you are to be “forgiven your debts, even as you forgive your debtors.”
(2018.1) 188:5.2 The cross forever shows that the attitude of Jesus toward sinners was neither condemnation nor condonation, but rather eternal and loving salvation. Jesus is truly a savior in the sense that his life and death do win men over to goodness and righteous survival. Jesus loves men so much that his love awakens the response of love in the human heart. Love is truly contagious and eternally creative. Jesus’ death on the cross exemplifies a love which is sufficiently strong and divine to forgive sin and swallow up all evil-doing. Jesus disclosed to this world a higher quality of righteousness than justice — mere technical right and wrong. Divine love does not merely forgive wrongs; it absorbs and actually destroys them. The forgiveness of love utterly transcends the forgiveness of mercy. Mercy sets the guilt of evil-doing to one side; but love destroys forever the sin and all weakness resulting therefrom. Jesus brought a new method of living to Urantia. He taught us not to resist evil but to find through him a goodness which effectually destroys evil. The forgiveness of Jesus is not condonation; it is salvation from condemnation. Salvation does not slight wrongs; it makes them right. True love does not compromise nor condone hate; it destroys it. The love of Jesus is never satisfied with mere forgiveness. The Master’s love implies rehabilitation, eternal survival. It is altogether proper to speak of salvation as redemption if you mean this eternal rehabilitation.
(2019.6) 188:5.13 We know that the death on the cross was not to effect man’s reconciliation to God but to stimulate man’s realization of the Father’s eternal love and his Son’s unending mercy, and to broadcast these universal truths to a whole universe.
Jesus is much more than a teacher or a guide, an inspiration, or example of living God's will. I pay attention to italics, in fact, I published a book titled "The BOLD & Italicized Words from The Urantia Book" a few years ago. Whenever I come across those words I stop and read them in context again, and ask, "What are the Revelators afraid we will miss?"
First, let's examine the titles of the last two sections of Paper 188: Meaning of the Death on the Cross, and Lessons from the Cross. These titles are important and the sentences with italics are a big deal. The authors really want us to extract meaning and learn the lessons they meant when they used the term SAVIOR. The Revelators have seen that we are lately inclined to take eternal life for granted, to treat it as though it is an automatic result of faith. It is not. Jesus is the way we have eternal life and God's love extended to us. We must remember the source of eternal life. Jesus makes it possible. He prepared a place for us. He provides a new body for us to inhabit so that we have a means to regain our consciousness. It is through the gift of his life and this knowledge of his power over death that we can have hope for salvation from death.
It is right that we should extricate ourselves from the atonement doctrine; and accept the assurance of being faith-sons of the living God; but we should also be careful to remember the full bestowal of Jesus and the meaning of every single moment he lived here through his exemplary life, humiliating, excruciating death, and resurrection. It was the ultimate gesture of love, service, and assurance that he stayed the course, on the cross, to the last minute, and later appeared to his followers, so that we can have the knowledge and evidence of eternal life. To minimize the importance of the word SAVIOR is to reject the very truth of the nature of our survival and worst of all, it seeks to rob Jesus – whom the heavens praise and adore – of the most personally costly title he ever earned.
Ponderings, March 2022
A Layman’s New Term Combining Religion and Science – January
I was complaining to my friend Jim that there is no term that means “a universe view that combines religion and science,” because, frankly, that’s where I am. I love science and I love learning about the observable cosmos and I also fervently believe that there is a personal aspect to the universe. Jim mentioned that that’s what “philosophy” means. But philosophy is a too fancy and ivory tower-ish of a term.
If you ask a person in a grocery line what they think of climate change, they may have an opinion different from yours, but at least they know what you are talking about. If you ask what their religion is, they may tell you that it’s a personal matter, but at least they understand the question. If you ask them what their philosophy of life is, … Well, I’ll let you imagine the result. Does “deer in the headlights” mean anything to you?
I’d love to talk with people about it, to have a relaxed non-threatening, friendly, respectful conversation in a doctor’s waiting room, say. And hey, now that I think about it, what a great place to have that conversation, a hospital waiting room.
I’ve thought of asking, “What’s your view of life?” But somehow that just doesn’t strike me as clear enough. The converse is better, “What’s your view of death?” even if it does touch on the uncomfortable. You can bet everyone in the cancer waiting room has thought about it. Thinking of death makes a person think of what happens next, whether it is nothing or living on and on. It can lead to questions like, “How long will it take to learn the new languages?”, “How many different kinds of personalities are there?” “Will we become instantly perfect, or will it take time?” Those are reasonable questions given that our dominant religions think of a variety of other personalities (angels) only during Christmas and that, in their view, the perfection of Heaven is instantly attained. Those ideas from our religions fly in the face of everything we observe in the universe, i.e. there are a bazillion types of insects, why not just as many types of personalities? And, everything we see took time to develop, are we any different? So, is perfection really attained instantly?
Maybe the phrase “a view of life” wouldn’t be so bad if it were followed up with, “Well yeah. What are we supposed to be doing here? Build bridges and tall buildings? Run for public office? Go ice fishing?” (Only those who can walk on water can ice fish.) Be nice? A conversation on these topics could really cut down to the core of what we are to do in our daily activities.
On thinking this through, I think either one of those questions would work, if asked respectfully and genuinely, rather than with an agenda to preach.
So I will try both of those questions – “What is your view of life” and “What is your view of death?” – and see how they work.
Is Love Like Gravity? – February
This is my most inconclusive pondering. At first I thought that, yes, love is like gravity. Now I am not so sure.
Love is a mystery. We do tend to be drawn toward people who have a personal gravitational pull of consideration, kindness, and compassion. But people are also drawn toward narcissistic ego-centric cult leader bullies. So, the idea that love is inherently attractive and hate is not doesn't help.
On a larger scale, I do believe the personal part of the universe is held together by the attractive force of love, but I have no evidence to back it up. Love tends to build relationships. Hate tends to keep people apart. But I can’t explain the bond of hateful social groups, except to say that the individuals’ attraction for each other is not based on a personal relationship but on a shared exclusion of other people. And taken to its natural end, this practice of exclusion of people, disrespect of people, breaking of relationships with people will eventually break the social group of hate and leave each individual alone and isolated.
I started thinking love is like gravity during my time on radiation. Chemo was no picnic, but, for the short time it lasted, radiation was worse. In 2020 with chemo, Vicki and I would be sitting on the couch for supper. Many evenings I would just tip over, my head in her lap, for “lap time.” God, it felt good to be physically connected to her. Radiation was shorter, only six weeks, but more intense and with no respite. There came a time when lap time simply was not sufficient. I got up, walked around the ottoman, knelt at her feet, and put my whole body in her embrace. This was way more than connected. I was utterly surrounded and embraced within her love.
Eventually I got up and walked the four feet to the recliner. She got up and went fifteen feet behind me to the kitchen. I just laid there in the memory and glow of her love. I could hear her doing the dishes, doing them yet again because I couldn’t, and knew she was doing a labor of love. Was I feeling her love from afar, like gravity? I think not. I was hearing her love in the clatter of the dishes.
Maybe we can’t feel just plain pure love because, as animals, we sense the universe through our, well, senses, i.e. eyes, ears, etc. We simply don’t have a separate receptor for just plain love.
Maybe the sending and receiving of love depends on what the sender and receiver are. Maybe a being like God just exudes love like the sun exudes gravity. Maybe high angels, while not having a sense of taste and so will never taste an avocado, do have a sense of love and can therefore just sense God’s love. On the other hand, we animals perhaps can not exude love, and certainly have no receptor sense of love. I must feel Vicki’s arms around me as I kneel into her lap to feel her love. I must hear her doing the dishes to hear her love. I must taste her apple crisp (she made quite a few this past autumn when I was feeling down) in order to taste her love. And conversely, she can not simply sit on the couch and exude her love for me. She might smile at me. But then, I am seeing her love for me. We spiritual animals simply must do physical things to communicate love.
Yes, at other times I can recall the taste of the crisp or remember the feel of her embrace, but that is different from the active, at-the-moment communication of love.
So, is love like gravity? Yes and no. I do think God’s love pervades space rather like the galaxies’ gravity pervades space. The love is here, we just can’t feel it because we have no receptors. We need expressions of it that we can sense. That is why we need people. People are literally God’s instruments of God’s love for us.
Our Purpose in Life, or Why Are We Here? – July
In the long run, in the big picture, what are we supposed to do, to be, to accomplish? I am convinced it is not merely to build buildings, teach a bunch of students, be an amazing musician, or an awesome welder. No. If that were the case then a whole lot of people would be left out because a lot of people are just normal. Our purpose is both something bigger and something every person can do.
Nor is our purpose to love God. That just never made sense to me. Question – Why did God make us? Answer – He made us to love him. That doesn’t make sense. It just rings of selfishness. And unreality. What parent do you know tells their children, “I made you to love me,”?
I know it says in the Bible that we should love God. Jesus, in answering the lawyer, even gives the answer, “Love the lord your God…” In this instance we should appreciate Jesus’ savviness. Jesus is answering the lawyer by quoting the law.
And I believe that only good can come from loving God. But that can’t be our purpose for being here. I think it is possible that loving God is, rather, a means to our purpose.
Some things are just too big for me to do or conceive. Here’s one, “Love everyone.” That’s too much. So I think of it as, “Be nice.” That much I can do. I really can be nice to everyone. “Love God,” falls in the too big category. I can say I do, but the task itself is really big. So I break it down to parts of God. Part of God is compassion. OK. I can love compassion and aspire to be more compassionate. Honesty, seeking after truth is another part. God is always honest. I can aspire to be honest. Humility. God, the biggest guy on the block, is not arrogant. Jesus, as a portrayal of God, asked, “Why do you call me good? None is good but God.” I can bring more humility into my life, into who I am.
So, perhaps in a sense, to love God (one step at a time) is to love little pieces of God.
In order to do these things I must do them to and with others. I must be humble in the presence of praise from others. I must be truthful when tempted to lie or be false to others. I must be compassionate when dealing with an idiot.
Breathe it in – Yah, breathe it out – weh; Breathe it in –Yah, breathe it out – weh
Breath it in, compassion, breathe it out – compassion; Breath it in, compassion; breathe it out – compassion
Breath it in, humility, breathe it out – humility; Breath it in, humility; breathe it out – humility
Breath it in, honesty, breathe it out – honesty; Breath it in, honesty; breathe it out – honesty
We take in God, we let out God. We could do a lot worse in our prayer time than to practice the breathing in of the values of God. We could do a lot worse in our relations with people than to practice living out the values of God. Breathe in the smile of God’s kindness. Give out the smile of God’s kindness.
Two things happen as we live the values of God. First, we change, we bring ourselves closer and closer to perfection. We may already be pretty nice, but we will change to become nicer. And we need to become nicer if we are to become perfect. We may already be compassionate, but perhaps we will become more wisely compassionate.
Second, when we breathe the kindness of God out to others, we are literally breathing (hmm, can a metaphor be literal?) a part of God into the world. When we enact any of the values of God, we are making that little piece of God a little more real to people.
And, as a bonus, breathing these values out, living these values among people, when taken as a whole, is doing what Jesus said in the second half of his answer to the lawyer, “...and the second is like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
So, here is how I think of it. Why are we here? To love God…in little doable bits not as an end in itself but as a means of bringing God, in little bits and pieces, into who we are and into our relationships with others.
Salvation is a Natural Consequence of Our Actions – October
Let me start my rambling by defining some terms.
Value – Something has value if it can be taken from you. Something IS value if it can’t. An item’s value is determined by a number of factors, but one is duration. It seems people tend to value things that last longer over things that last shorter.
Values – Values are beliefs, they are behavior guides, which a person strives to bring into their life, their self, to become part of who they are. Generally we think of positive values, but there are negative values as well. Loyalty, honesty, tolerance, empathy, hatred, arrogance, and selfishness are all values. Positive values lead to lasting relationships. Negative values lead to isolation.
Real – and reality. I think one’s perception of reality, of what is real, is based on one’s place in the universe. To us physical beings, physical is real. The earth is real. Non-physical and non-observable, i.e. mental or spiritual, is not.
A house has value, but is not a value. Frugality is a value. A person may let frugality guide their behavior so that they can buy a house. Frugality is real. It has had a real impact on people’s lives. But we cannot hold it in our hands, cannot measure it or observe it.
Values are real. They are part of non-physical reality, as are mental thoughts and mathematical relationships. As we absorb values into us, to become more and more part of us, I wonder if we become more and more real in a non-physical way. As we absorb more kindness, do we become more real? As we absorb more empathy, do we become more real?
Are there beings in the universe who are the epitome of positive values? Does their universe placement only allow them to see other beings who are also value-based, not physical-based. When they look at us, do they see some people as bright and shining beings full of values and others as dull or small dots of light, those who have not absorbed much in the way of positive values?
Salvation – So, I think salvation is not a single event, declared by a High and Mighty Judge. It is an ongoing behavior performed by us. And it is not performed in the hopes of a final day of reward. It is done for the daily joy of being more loyal. For the daily joy of being more empathetic, of understanding our fellows more. For the daily joy of searching out and living by the truth.
This is salvation. And it is salvation from not-really-real-life (physical life which will have an end) to real life supported by enduring values.
What about people who are not saved by this process of daily taking in more of enduring values? What about those people who take in and live their lives by the negative values of isolation? I think that will be their endpoint. Eventual absolute isolation and eventual non-existence. This concept eliminates judgment day with a terrible and scary High and Mighty Judge saying “Angels to heaven, demons to hell!” There is no everlasting torment. There is only an observation (Ha! Perhaps by a High and Mighty Observer.) that that person, after continually choosing values of isolation and non-reality, after mercifully being given literally “all the time in the world,” simply doesn’t exist any more.
A More Useful Idea of Where God Is – December
People want a personal and intimate relationship with God. To meet that end, they must conceive God as right here, right now, right in this room with me, and with you in your room over there. They want to believe that God is interested in their lives and is actively involved in promoting their well being. And, because we are physical beings and the physical world is more real to us than the spiritual realm, we tend to believe that God is actively involved in and interacting with, the physical world.
Many times people will think that what God does, or did, was to save them from the tornado that destroyed their house. That image of God begs the question of “Why didn’t God save the four year old next door?” Isn’t God big enough? Wasn’t he fast enough to get over there, too? Was that child a bad person? The answer is that the entire premise that God is a personal, focused being, right here next to me and you and that he gets physically involved in some lives but not others, or physically involved at all, is just not workable.
First, where is God? As a focused personal being, God is someplace, but it is not here. Just for the sake of defining things, let’s say God, as a “reach out and touch him” being, is on Paradise, right at the corner of Holy Street and Perfect Ave.
Second, when is God? Well, God is eternal. Not merely living a long long time. No. That is Methuselah. Not merely never having been born and never dying. No, that is still living within the realm of time, just like us. Inhabiting one second of time, one after another, in sequence, experiencing actions and decisions over time and hence growing in knowledge and wisdom. No. God is Eternal. That is different. It is Not-Time. That is where God, as a focused personality with volitional will, lives. In Not-Time and Not-Space. In other words, not here, with me, right now. This is not a warm and personal and involved concept of God.
Now, not to be humorous, but God would not be God if he were not multi-talented. There are more aspects to God than a single, focused personality. There is The Spirit, which I did not ponder on last year, so I have nothing to say about it. Except to say that the Spirit may be more feminine than masculiine. But there may be a piece of God that is germane to this topic. There is reason to think that there is a piece of God that he has implanted inside each one of us. Where? I have no idea. Brain? Soul? Mind? Heart? I don’t know. (Probably not the brain or heart.) But when Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within,” or when some other bible person said, “I am the still small voice within,” I believe they were pointing at this piece of God. Jesus also said, “Whatsoever you do to these the least of my brothers, you do to me.” And then there is the new interpretation of Namaste – The divine in me greets the divine in you.
I will call this piece of God a Presence. There are at least two critical elements to the Presence. The first is that it is not personal. It cannot be. If it is inside me then I am the one with will. It may be the advisor, but I am the decider. I am willing to live with mystery and the mystery here is, how can it communicate without will? More than that, how can it communicate without me knowing it is. Think about it. People must not be allowed to know God is talking to them. When a loving parent tells a two year old to get out of the street, what word does the child say in order to assert its independence? We are no better. We are but toddlers in the eyes of the universe. If we knew God was telling us something, you know most of us would respond in the simplest and quickest way to assert our own free will – No. God simply cannot allow himself to be “heard” as he communicates with us if we are to have real free will. So, the Presence is not personal.
Second, the Presence is waiting to obtain personality. It is waiting to be a personal, focused presence passing through time and located in space. How does it do that? With us. We have personality. The Presence has perfection. As it talks to us, and nudge by nudge, we agree to its suggestions, as we bit by bit do more actions that are closer and closer to perfection, as we do more and more actions wherein the Presence actually beams out through us, when the will and the decisions and the actions of the personality (us) become so absolutely in sync with the Presence (God) then the personality has achieved perfection and the Presence has achieved expression in personality. That is how God, albeit a tiny piece, becomes a real focused personality active in the universe. This perfection may take a billion years or a billion billion years. It doesn't matter. It is just a matter of time. It will happen. And it will happen to person after person after person. And when all the persons in all the universe have achieved perfection, and all the Presences have achieved personality, then will God, the big focused personal God on Paradise in Eternity, be made real in time and space.
I understand this may sound high falutin, and that it has no usefulness in our daily life. But I think it is powerful in every interaction with other people. This has a real and practical impact right here and now. Let me speak in generalities. Currently, we treat each other as people. Occasionally, we may recall that the angels are watching or that God is also looking and aware, but still I can treat that other car driver as the rude idiotic imbiclie that they are, just a stupid person. Under the new idea, God is inside them and I am talking to God. Remember, “Whatsoever you do…”? This elevates the status of every person on earth. We are all vessels of God. When we talk to someone, we are talking to someone whom God himself has chosen to inhabit. Under the old idea of living in the presence of God, we can be degrading and disrespectful to a person because, after all, God is only watching. Under this new idea, we are doing such actions not in the presence of God, but rather directly TO God.
Now I don’t intend to get all namby pamby about this. People should still be held accountable for their socially disruptive decisions and we still need to control bullies. But this idea can elevate every person’s status in the eyes of every other person.
Prayer Piece, August 2020
Back in 2020, in the throes of chemotherapy, I spent a lot of time in the recliner refining my thoughts on prayer. One of my cancer buddies knew his time was going to be shorter than longer and he was afraid he wasn't going to make into heaven. He was the nicest guy on earth. I felt bad for him that he had such a concept of life after life that it caused him so much angst.
I organized my thoughts into seven ideas, then sent each one out to the list about a week apart from each other. You may enjoy reading them reading them with some days of separation as well. Or perhaps not. Here, as a unit, is what I call my Prayer Piece.
First Email
August 2020
Hello Everyone,
I don’t think my time spent on prayer has increased over the last seven months, but its content has changed. And I’ve met more people with whom the topic of prayer has come up. As a result, I’ve given more thought to the content of prayer. Then I decided to organize it, write it down and share it with all of you.
I’ll be sending it to you all, unless you request otherwise. I’m sharing it in the same attitude car buffs share tips and tricks at a car rally, with joy and mutual respect, or guitar players share licks and songs. I’ll send it in serialized form, perhaps one topic per week. That keeps each reading session down and lets people ponder before the next topic. The pieces aren’t long. And of course, they’re not written by an expert theologian. Just me. As Paul and Sherry used to say back in the day, “We’re all just Bozos on this bus.”
I’ve got three groups of “you all.” The first is what Al calls his “cancer buddies.” I am, thankfully, one of them. I have several on my list he doesn’t know of, and I’ve expanded the list to include “heart buddies” and “Covid buddies.” The second group is all the people who are praying for me. There's a bunch of you and I am thankful. And the third is a group that I’m not sure prays, but I’m pretty sure they ponder, and they are close friends.
There are seven topics: No Discipline, Thankfulness, Have to Ask, Healing, My Three Attitudes, Practice, and Heaven and Paradise.
Here’s the first. You can opt out at any time, even now, just by sending me an email. No one but me will know.
No Discipline
I have habits, but no discipline, no structure, no frame. So, and perhaps to my detriment, I have nothing to hold my expressions to, and reception of, whatever is out there in place. I have no set form. I have nothing memorized. I have no beads. Beads have a long history in many religions as a prayer aid. They can bring a person back on focus, prevent them from praying too long, or too short. But I don’t use them.
Yes, I do have habits. I have always prayed in the morning, usually with coffee. I like to sit in favorite spots, something with a view. A big picture window or the porch. Perhaps outside. I like seeing the sky and trees. I resist putting on my glasses. If I put them on, I’ll probably start reading the news.
My mind wanders a lot. Probably because I have no structure. So I have to bring it back to expressions of my concerns and openness to whatever is coming my way. I have cultivated a sequence that helps. I didn’t invent the sequence. Many religions use it. It progresses generally through thankfulness, asking, openness, and practicing.
I usually keep my eyes open. If I close them, I tend to fall back asleep, especially when only on my first cup.
That’s all for this first one. Just sharing ideas.
Bob
Hello All, Here’s the second.
Thankfulness
I always start with thankfulness. It’s just so easy to fall into, being thankful for even the mundane. But truly thankful just the same. I am thankful for the blue sky, or for the gray sky that brings rain. I am thankful that my legs work this morning to get me out of bed and onto the porch. Really, this is no small thing if you can remember a time when your legs didn’t work. Breathing. Just breathing. In. Out. Smooth and even. I worked for hours and hours and hours for three days straight to wrest control of my breathing back from the chemo.
Being thankful that I can go to bed each night and wake up each morning next to my Sweetie. Thankful my kids are healthy and have settled with reliable spouses into a stable life.
I am thankful for every little thing. Do you realize that in the winter my little bungalow is heated better that King Arthur’s castle? I have clean tap water every morning, and better yet, I have water to flush away the morning’s poop. Did you ever wonder what they do in the Syrian refugee camps? Ick.
Thankfulness tends to lift the weight of worries and concerns off my shoulders. The important issues are still there, but they aren’t as oppressive, and the minor issues evaporate.
I don’t think we have to say, “Thank you.” I think being merely thankful is enough to make it work. That being said, thankfulness does connect us to things and people. I feel that being thankful for the blue sky connects me to the day. Being thankful for good tools connects me to, and acknowledges a certain indebtedness to, the long line of people who developed those tools over the centuries.
Thankfulness reduces arrogance and increases humility. Arrogance is unconsciously scary. The person is scared that at any moment they can be knocked of their perch. Humility acknowledges one’s accomplishments, but admits, declares and is thankful for, the contributions of others. I built a boat. It is beautiful and well built. But I could not have built it without the inspiration of Pat and the help of Caitlin. There is the joy of accomplishment with no perch to be knocked off of.
So, I start with thankfulness. It’s pretty easy. Especially if the coffee is yummy.
Have to Ask
OK, let’s get something out of the way…God. We all have different concepts and definitions of God. I think God is what God is and most of our concepts are useful to us and we’ll find out more when we get there. Second, angels. I don’t think we are the only personalities in the universe. So, call them whatever you want, Spirit Buddies, Etherial Guides, Unseen Friends, whatever. I just resort to what I was raised with, angels. But not all girly and with huge white wings.
That paragraph is relevant because I have come to think that we have to ask. And when we ask, we are asking someone. We must give permission for the angels to cross the line of our free will.
Free will is important. We either have it or we don’t. If once ever crossed, it means we don’t. And I believe we do.
So, let me tell a story.
Pat and Joan sign up for a mountain climbing expedition. Everyone in the group are newbies, except for the two guides, of course, Bob and Ray. The guides take everyone into the equipment store for them to get outfitted. There is general list, boots, coats, etc., but within the list each newbie has to decide.
Pat and Joan both happen to be considering boots. One pair is light and soft and oh so flexible and comfortable. The other pair is heavy and stiff as a board. Bob walks up to Pat and instructs him to buy the heavy stiff boots. Ray stays out of it, until Joan looks to him with a quizzical look in her eye. He walks over and says, “Your feet will feel much better in the stiff boots after an entire day of walking over rocks,” and leaves her with the decision.
You can bet that after each day of lifting heavy boots with every step, that give blisters because of their stiffness, Pat will blame Bob for painful blisters and sore legs. On the other hand, Joan will be walking in her decision and, whatever it was, will own it and have learned from it.
While we were given Ten Commandments, I think it is possible the angels are given one, “Thou shalt not cross your person’s free will.”
I believe the angels are like Ray. They wait to be asked. The asking might be right out verbal expression, “What boots should I buy?” “What would you do?” “Can I have some help here?” Or it might be the slightest quizzical look, as Joan gave to Ray. Just the merest expression of “What do I do?” “Can I have some help during my day?”
While the angels’ disciplined behavior of waiting to be asked may seem cruel, it has a clear benefit to us. Whatever we achieve through our long universe career, it will be a result of our decisions, not the result of a bossy guide.
So, I ask. For me and for each of you. And what I ask for are coming in the next two topics.
Healing
Yup, I ask for a miracle. You can bet that if the angels are handing out healing miracles that day, I’ve got my hand up. And I ask for each of you on my Cancer Buddy list. I go geographically from north to south, starting in Wittenburg, through Bear Creek, and ending in Milwaukee.
But I don’t have the faith of the lady who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, nor is Jesus, as a focused, personal wonder, physically present. And the fact is that we exist within the element of Time, so I have to work through the gift of science and doctors. My physical healing, if it happens, will take time.
But I do not pray exclusively for healing of my physical self. I’m pretty open minded. I pray for mental and emotional healing and healing of relationships. I pray to have my fear and anxiety healed. My self-pity, self-centeredness, and just plain whining, “Why me?”
I think perhaps healing is a cousin to development. Our fear is healed as we develop trust. Our anxiety is healed, and we learn to develop a state of calm. Self-centeredness is healed and (as?) we develop a habit of sharing cheerfulness. This development is part of reality. We are no longer the “No!” two year old we once were. Nor are we the know-it-all teen-ager. We’ve developed into something better. Not perfect. But better. More on that later.
Here’s a true story. Father Paul was moved to an Episcopal church in New London in the fall of 1997. The church had an old, old, building and he informed them that they would need a wheelchair ramp for his New Year’s Eve healing mass. They were more than surprised, “A what?!” But they built the ramp.
Now, it is Father Paul’s belief that healing always happens. It might be physical. It might be mental, emotional, relational, or what ever. It might be visible, or not. But it always happens. And he never asks for evidence or follows up.
On New Year’s Eve he gave the mass, then dismissed everyone. A few people chatted in the back as an old lady walked up to him. She thrust her hands close to his face, hands badly deformed by rheumatoid arthritis and said to him, “I came here to have these healed…but I’m not angry anymore.”
Healing always happens.
The Three Attitudes
My mind wanders a lot when I pray (or meditate, or chat with angels, or ponder, or whatever you want to call it). I’ve put together three little attitudes or mantras or sayings that I use to bring me back.
Cheerful Endurance
Hopeful Persistence
“Peace, I got you.”
The first chemo recipe I was on really hammered me. The height of my physical activity was shuffling from the front door to the back door. Maybe five times. Then collapse into the recliner. It was hard to endure. The most I could contribute to the well being of the planet was to smile, just smile, at my loving Vicki. That’s all I could summon up. Just cheerful endurance.
I taught guitar before my fingers went numb. I had to give hope to my beginning guitar students as they persisted in short drills I gave them. They needed to have hope that, yes indeed, they would get better and succeed if only they persisted in the drill. They didn’t yet have the past experience to know for a fact that success really does follow effort. In a sense, hoping that persistence will lead to success, develops over time and experience into knowing that persistence will lead to success. We have hope when we are young in field, or young in an activity. Perhaps that is why religion speaks of hope so often — we are, spiritually, very, very young personalities and know so little of what lies ahead.
Anybody besides me remember “the good hands of Allstate?” “You’re in good hands.” Now, I don’t intend to downplay death here. And I understand I am a newbie at this “looking at death up close and natural” kind of thing. But I find my phrase, “Peace, I got you,” comforting, that through it all, whatever pain might come my way, whatever losses of touch, strength, music, I might go through, that in the end, my existence is secure. And, I didn’t invent this phrase. Sunday school memories will bring back, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me.” Mine is just shorter and more to the point. It’s also more fun to say if you say it as, “Peace, I got choo.”
Practice
There are several different flavors of prayer — thankfulness, supplication, awe, talking, listening. It was a couple years ago that Caitlin mentioned that Buddhists practice. They meditate, but they also practice. Now, I don’t pretend to know what they mean by practice, just as many people don’t know what another person means when they say “meditate.” But to me practice became a useful part of my prayer time, my meditation activity.
Visualization is a highly useful technique in sports. Athletes are instructed to mentally see themselves doing every little aspect of the task. In basketball—holding the ball, seeing the basket, starting the jump, throwing the ball, seeing your hands follow through. Then to repeat, practice, that over and over. This visualization, mental practice, has documented success in sports.
I use it in behavior. Mentally practice smiling at the checkout clerk when one is feeling ornery. Practice ignoring the rude driver. Practice showing respect toward an idiot (Oops. I mean, of course, toward a child of God of differing opinion.). Practice acceptance of one’s situation rather than anger. Practice being at peace (“I got choo.”) when getting less than good news from the doctor.
Just as in sports, mental practice of personal behaviors and mental attitudes really helps when trying to do those things in real time in real situations.
Heaven and Paradise
OK. I’m going to define those two words here, according to what works for me. I’m not saying you have to agree. I hope you’ve got a definition that works for you. And I know this doesn't have to do with prayer. But it is relevant to people who are told they have six months to live. One tends to think of death more often.
Heaven — that place we go next. We work through it. It might take a billion, or a billion billion years, but it is a place of gradual development and perfection attainment. We’ve actually started, right here, but we get nowhere close to done in just 67 years.
Paradise — If a focused portion of God lives in any one place, it is here, wherever that is. We’re allowed here when we’ve achieved perfection. And then maybe we go out and work some more in the universe as beings who really have been there and done that.
But the key here is heaven, because I see heaven just as I see the physical universe. We live in a universe where things develop. Here on earth trees develop, grow. People develop from helpless babes to hot headed twenty-somethings, to wiser and calmer Elders. Our solar system developed from what it was to what it is. Everything uses time to develop from what it is to what it can be.
That’s how I see earth and heaven. When we leave here, it is as if we are only two year olds. We are very, very young relative to what we will be. No parent condemns a two year old for using their favorite word, “No!” Children are not condemned for being what they are, children. Neither are we kept out of heaven for being less than perfect. It is just who we are. The angels must look upon us as relative two year olds.
Heaven is where we continue to develop. We get better and better in all manner of skills — honing what we desire, improving how we think and plan to achieve our desires, and perfecting how we finally act. Who knows how long this takes? It doesn’t matter. We are literally given all the time in the world. Time is a gift. There are no deadlines for this. We do not have to be at a certain level of attainment by a certain date. Time is on my side. Yes it is. (Can you sing that with me? If you can’t, type it into YouTube. It is a useful phrase to have playing in your head.)
So, with my definition of heaven, I am really not worried about “getting in.” It is just the natural event and place that happens next. That picture of the personal half of the universe works for me.
But of course, no one really knows. And steer clear of the person who says they do.
Well, that’s all folks. You’ve got your thoughts on these topics, or not. Just as cancer buddies share their experiences over coffee or tea, I thought I’d share my thoughts on prayer with you.
Hope. All is well.
Bob