Movement creates opportunity

A few years ago I decided that I was going to become what I termed back then as “an opportunist”. My thinking was that as we are making our way through life, at certain points opportunities just seem to appear and each time they do we have a choice to respond. Most people decline, usually through fear of failure.

Now, several years later, I want to write here how my ideas on this have “evolved”.

I believe that the process is initiated by us first creating movement. For instance, we phone a friend, we visit someone, whatever it is we actually decide to get up and do something. This movement creates change, and part of that change is opportunity. Now recognise the opportununities for what they are and seize them with both hands, knowing that doing so creates more movement, more change, and more opportunities.

There you have it.

Now for most people this doesn’t work, and for the silliest of reasons. Most people just sit there. Same job. Same church. Same TV shows. Same beer. Same conversations. Same whatever. They bemoan the fact that life is so boring, such a dead-end street. But they do not see that they do not create movement, and so do not even get off the starting blocks.

Others create movement, actually get off their arses and get out there. Strike up a conversation. Talk to someone they don’t know. Sit at a different table for lunch. Whatever. But then when opportunity is created from this movement they shrink back into their shells. “Oh no”, they say, “oh no, I couldn’t possibly do that.” And they will come up with a thousand good reasons why that opportunity is not for them. They are paralysed with fear, fear of failure.

A very few seize that opportunity, seeing it for what it really is. These people see success as seizing an opporunity and running with it as far as it can go. That is the measure of succes: A path to more movement, more opportunity, more growth, more experience, more life. How that living like that ever be anything other than successful?

It just can’t be done (rant alert!)

I don’t care how strong your convictions are about what people should or shouldn’t do, you are just going to have to learn that you can’t legislate morality. If you think people should not do this or that, you cannot repeat cannot stop them from doing it simply by making it illegal. All that will achieve is make them aware, as they continue doing whatever they are doing, that they are violating your rules. And do they care? Not a jot. And why? Because each person who lives and breathes does what they believe to be good for them. All of us. No exceptions. Do we need a law to forbid people from drinking sulphuric acid? Of course not, because why would anyone do anything that is so obviously bad for them? Do we need a law that says you must breathe every few seconds? Of course not. People do what they do because theyare utterly convinced that it will benefit them in some way. So if you try and stop that through some law or rule, one thing is for certain – they will not stop. Why would they?

Horoscopes and what might be

“Yesterday’s high-spirited mood keeps the fun going today, but without incurring any penalties. You will be in an irresistibly charismatic mood, which bodes well for your relationships. Attached Pisceans can look forward to a cozy evening, while singles can look forward to a buzzing one! “

I’ll admit that I’ve never been a great fan of horoscopes. During my Christian years I viewed them with deep-seated suspicion for their clearly demon-inspired error, and nowadays as a free thinking New Ager with nonchelant indifference.

BUT ….

(and please humour me if you have already figured this out for yourself) I have discovered a rather handy way to use my horoscope. Rather than viewing it as a predestined prophecy of how my day will be, I see it as a possible reality that I can create for myself should it so appeal to me.

There you have it.

Nothing to sell

This afternoon we visited a school function and I found myself chatting with a couple I had never met before. After discussing one thing and another the subject of the church came up and they asked me if i was a member. I offered a brief answer that I had been a member of the church for a good number of years, but was now no longer involved.

However, the observation that interested me most was that not only did I feel neither a need nor desire to justify or explain why I had left Christianity, but also that I felt neither a need nor desire to justify or explain my new “New Age” beliefs. I was content to simply let it be.

Its a wonderful freedom to simply be, to allow others to be, to bless that which you do not choose, and to have nothing to sell.

Beliefs and Values

Yesterday we all went along to the opening ceremony of the new church building extensions at my parents church, a small presbyterian community of mostly older people.

The building is to be used not just for chuch meetings, but also for a variety of community activities like indoor bowls, girl guides and the like.

I liked the idea they had embraced that the building was open to use by any group that “shared our values, not necessarily our beliefs.”

I wonder how diffferent the world would look if world leaders were smart enough to make the same distinction.

Great Expectations

A group of people were blind-folded and asked to compare the taste of a normal strawberry yogurt, and compare it with a new, improved strawberry yogurt. Almost all of them agreed the new strawberry yogurt was better. When the blindfolds were removed, they discovered that the new strawberry yogurt was actually chocolate!

Similar studies have been done with swapping cheap and expensive wines, and even simply adding red food colouring into a white wine and passing it for red.

These results show that our expectations actually determine the outcome, that our reality is produced by our expectation of what is going to happen.

Before you become a christian …

Before you decide to “become a christian” there’s a few things you might like to think about:

There are lots of religions in the world – what makes you think christianity is the only right one?

There are lots of holy books in the world – what makes you think the bible is the only right one?

Your teachers tell you that God gives us free will – but what kind of free will is it when choosing one thing over another brings condemnation?

Your teachers tell you that Jesus prayed for unity, yet over the years there have been hundreds of different “denominations” that cannot agree on the most basic common ideas and – worse still – fight amongst themselves.

Your teachers use fear – the antithesis of all they say that God is – to gain your assent to their petty teachings. “Believe as we say or Perish!”

Over the ages, the christian church – both protestant and catholic – has been responsible for the murder of countless thousands of people (witch hunts, crusades, inquisitions, hugenots)

Believe what you like, but think it through!

Blessing that which I do not choose

During my years as a Christian I was very good at presenting my viewpoint (this was called evangelism) and also very good at attacking opposing viewpoints (this was called apologetics). I spent many hours studying the various religions, cults and other wrong world-views, and learnt ways to argue how wrong they were in light of the teaching of the bible.

From my reading of “Conversations with God”, I now see what unbridled judgementalism ruled my mind, and have now discovered (re-membered) a far better way of living:

“The job of the soul, of course, is to cause us to choose the grandeur-to select the best of Who You Are-without condemming that which you do not select.

This is a big task, taking many lifetimes, for you are wont to rush to judgement, to call a thing “wrong” or “bad” or “not enough” rather than bless what you do not choose.

You do worse than condemn-you actually seek to do harm to that which you do not choose. You seek to destroy it. If there is a person, place or thing with which you do not agree, you attack it. If there is a religion that goes against yours, you make it wrong. If there is a thought that contradicts yours, you riducule it. If there is an idea other than yours, you reject it.”

(quoted from CWG, Book 1, p78 )

Jessica’s question

My 14 year old daughter asked me “If you are gay or lesbian or bisexual, can you still be a christian?”

My response was to ask her what she meant by gay, and what she meant by christian. Although she seemed reasonably clear that gay meant “you were born liking other guys” she was fuzzy to say the least about this troublesome christian word, giving up after something like “someone who believes is God and tries to live the way the bible says you should.”

I then asked her to pretend she was a christian, and answer the question herself. She proceeded to ask me straight back what the bible said about homosexuality. From this, I asked her if that meant that her basis (as a christian) for determining whether something is right or wrong was “what the bible says”, which got met with a mumbling sort of yes. As for me telling her what the bible says about homosexuality, I pointed out that it isn’t all that clear, as christians from both sides of the fence argue their viewpoint by each quoting different verses at each other (as they do for many other issues). So then I suggested we just pretend that the bible was crystal clear that being gay was wrong – what would she think then? This was greeted with more grumbling as she clearly did not want to agree with this, but also did not want to disagree with the bible.

Finally I asked her how people of other cultures and religions would resolve the same question. So this left her with the questions of not only how do you determine the “correct” message of the bible, but also even if you do, what difference does that make as there are lots of other “bibles” out there. How can she know whether or not the bible can be trusted as divinely authoritative, or whether it is just another religious book devised by man.

After all this which was way more thinking than she was expecting, she decided to leave it at that.

What would you say to her?

Free Will is actually Free Will

Above all, you are not to ask such logical questions as “If God wanted strict obedience to His laws, why did He create the possibility of those laws being violated?” Ah, your teachers tell you – because God wanted you to have “free choice”. Yet what kind of choice is free when to choose one thing over another brings condemnation? How is “free will” free when it is not your will, but someone else’s which must be done? Those who teach you this would make a hypocrite of God.
(quoted from Conversations with God, Book 1, p62)

When I first read these words I was astonished that I had never made this self-evident observation for myself. But of course I had no choice but to ignore its obvious truth, otherwise my whole christian house of cards would have to come tumbling down. To be quite honest, sometimes I am so overwhelmed with gladness to have finally broken free from the tyranny of christian fundamentalism that I feel like weeping for joy.