All Good Things...

When I posted my summary of Hollow Faith, my counter indicated that it was the 99th post I've made on this blog.  A nice, round 100 seems like a good place to stop, so I decided to come up with one more bag of hot air for posterity.  As I type the first draft of this paragraph, I have no idea what I may have left unsaid, so perhaps I should focus on a conspectus of what has gone before.

To my non-believing readers:

1. First off, congratulations!  Your skepticism at least implies a certain level of intelligence.  Good for you!  Please go further.  Look inside yourself.  Ferret out any assumptions or biases that may be subconsciously clouding your judgment.  A materialistic or humanistic bias does not represent an improvement over a deistic one.  Don't let it cause you to dismiss the fortuity of a Greater Power out of hand.  Stay open to possibilities.  Even Carl Sagan, quoting Martin Rees and others, famously said that "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."  Dig deeper.

2. If you're an atheist mostly because you feel turned off by Christians, give them another try.  All those sanctimonious Christians you see and hear about on your social media feed are a stereotype (see Bullet Point 1 below).  Okay, granted, I do know a handful of these killjoys, but I assure you they are a minority, at least among those of my acquaintance.  Try it.  Show up unannounced for church next Sunday.  You might discover you actually like it, and, if not, what have you lost?

3. If you just can't bring yourself to try a Christian church, seek out a mosque, synagogue or temple somewhere.  Those belief systems are fine, and you may find them a bit easier to work with.  Done right, Christianity requires a LOT from its adherents, a lot more than any of the other faiths with which I am familiar, a lot more than even most Christians can meet (including me, but I'm still working on it day by day).  It's okay to go a different route.  God can still find you.

To my believing readers:

1. Get your prayers and meditations together.  Seriously.  Let go of the "God and I are tight" crap.  Build a prayer closet and spend time in it.  It doesn't have to be fancy; mine is just a rocking chair and a TV tray in the corner of my computer room which I have to move every time I need something from the armoire. That's not important.  What is important is that you visit it at least once a day, more if you can.  I'm in mine every morning from 5:00 till 6:00 (often later) and any other time I can squeeze in.  When you're there, shut up!  Stop telling God what you want or need or telling God how better to run a world.  Just shut up and listen!  Learn to distinguish between the voice of God and the voice of Ego.  God will never tell you how to fix up the neighbor or the school or the government.  God will tell you how to fix up you.  God will never tell you what the other fella needs to hear.  God is not a gossip.

2. Stuck in traffic?  Standing in queue at the drugstore?  Waiting for your sister to return a phone call?  Don't whip out your phone and start scrolling.  Use the time for meditation.  Pray for your fellow commuters.  Look at the others in the line and think to yourself about each one, "I love you.  I really love you."  Smile more.

3.  Turn off Olsteen.  Turn off Jeremiah.  Turn off Wommack (see Bullet Point 1 below).  Read Lewis, Bach, Vonnegut, Tolkien.  Learn about Brother Lawrence and Meister Eckhart.  Study Fred Rogers.  Look up the name Kenneth Miller.  You'll find more than a few surprises.

4. Take off the tail feathers and stop strutting.  In your life you've earned absolutely nothing.  Everything you have - right down to the air you breathe - is a gift from God.  Meet it all with gratefulness, humility and frugality.  The world doesn't need to know your opinions about it or God.  The world needs to know God's opinions about it and you.  Here's a test - if you ever think you're actually getting pretty good at this gratefulness and humility stuff, you're not.

5. Really, just stop trying to read and interpret the Bible.  Let the Bible read and interpret you.

6. Don't cloister in your sanctuaries waiting for the Kingdom to come.  Jesus said often (twice in his prayer) that the Kingdom is here, now, this moment.  Get up and make it happen. 

To all my brothers and sisters, regardless of belief: 

1. Please, please, please get rid of your source of news and opinion, whatever that may be.  Never forget that newspapers, magazines, television, radio and social media are all owned by billionaires who are getting filthy rich by keeping you engaged and angry.  And why would they do that?  Because happy people don't buy useless shit and they don't vote along party lines.  Angry people do those things. 

2. Go outside and play.  Take evening strolls through a neighborhood park, or just sit on a bench under a tree.  Spend at least one weekend per quarter in the woods, away from urbania.  Don't take your phone.  Sit in the forest and absorb.  Shut up and listen.  Let yourself be awed.

3. Wipe your feet before entering a neighbor's house, but never on the way out.  That's insulting.

4. Eat whatever the host puts on your plate.  Eat it all, but only ask for seconds if there's enough to go around.

5. Share your toys and your goldfish crackers, but keep your diseases and opinions to yourself. 

6. Look both ways and hold hands when crossing the street.

7. Your friends don't need you to always have the right thing to say.  Sometimes they just need you to sit with them and share the silence.

8. Getting the last word isn't the same as being right. 

9. See the pitcher on the mound?  They started off in right field, too.

10. Try to steer clear of bullies, especially the one between your own ears.

11. Doing everything you can for everyone you can every time you can is not an obligation, an interruption, or a punishment; it's your raison d'etre.

12. Believers and non-believers alike tend to research their subjects until they find answers with which they're comfortable, then move on.  Never stop asking questions, never be satisfied with what you know.

13. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves.  To love, one must first respect.  To respect, one must first understand.  To understand, one must first listen. 

I just noticed that I said "shut up" three times in this post.  I think I'll take my own advice.  I've learned over the years to ne jamais dire jamais, but I think I'd need a pretty strong motive to add anything else.  I'll check in every once in a while to see if anyone notices or has a question, but, honestly, I think I've exhausted the sphere of my knowledge, perhaps even exceeded it!  ☺

As always,

Pax

Shalom

Mir

Frieden

Ukuthula

Shantih 

Peace