The more I let go, the better my life seems to work

Life is full of distractions. Have you noticed that? The world is full of things that occupy our minds. Things that we attach importance to. And the more we hold on to those things, the more messy things get. I feel that I’ve gone through some sort of shift with this lately. But be that as it may, tomorrow I may very well be caught up in all of the little petty problems of life again. 

And that is what they are. Petty problems. Petty concerns. Petty needs. Petty wants. This is what we all so easily get caught up in. Things have to be a certain way for us to be happy. And we worry about a tomorrow that we know nothing about. 

What should I eat? What should I drink? Will I be able to pay my bills? Will I be able to put food on the table? 

And these are real concerns for many people. From a global perspective, it’s real concerns for most people. But is it for me? Is it for you? Would it really have to be for anyone, if each and every one of us took responsibility for getting our priorities straightened out? I'm obviously not talking about being perfect at this. Just about bringing some consciousness into such matters.

This is the world that we are creating together. And uneven distribution seems to be built into the way that life itself functions. Because more or less everywhere, both in the human and animal world, resources seem to be unevenly distributed. And there seems to be no political solutions to this. The only difference between left and right seems to be how the inequality arises. In liberal, capitalist systems we get an uneven distribution through the market. In socialist systems the political class, and/or those that have so much money that they can pay their way out of any regulations, get the biggest share.

And we often seem to make things worse with loads of mindless doing. Mindless doing that is intended to solve our problems. But that instead push things in the opposite direction from what we say that we want.

Why am I talking about this? Because there is a place where we haven’t looked for solutions yet. At least not on a larger scale. This might also be the place that truly separates us from the rest of the creation.

This place is within. What good could that possibly do? Well, we’ve tried everything else and the world is still in chaos. More so than ever. At least during the past few years. Even though, materially speaking, life is better than ever. 

There seems to be a false and a true personality inside of us. The false one is more or less what is usually referred to as the ego. This false personality is governed by instincts. And it has all these requirements that it needs to have fulfilled in order for life to be good. Those requirements are not something that we have chosen consciously. We have just more or less randomly reacted to the external world. 

Maybe if we take a step back and start to figure ourselves out a bit, instead of running around frantically trying to solve everything that we perceive as wrong, we might actually be able to do something good. If we start separating what is false from what is true inside ourselves. Because maybe there is some truth to the statement: “As within, so without”. 

And to make it clear, we are part of something so much grander that our little thoughts cannot begin to comprehend it. And yet we are so caught up with our thinking. I don’t know exactly what is happening in the world. Only that it’s big. Really big. 

And even if I did find all of the answers that I’m seeking, I’m more or less certain that I could not describe it in words. I know that life and the world are so much more than we can comprehend with the five senses. I know that whatever it is, we are going through some sort of shift on the planet right now. I also know that it has something to do with the Bible and Biblical prophecies. But I also know that I and everyone else only have begun to scratch the surface of things. 

Something that I’ve learned through experience, is that we are all connected through some sort of energy field that runs through us all. And the more I say yes to my experience and stop resisting what is happening in the present moment, the more I can feel it. In other words, the more I let go, the better things get. The more I stop demanding that the world gives me what I want, the more blessing I receive freely. 

So maybe it’s time to stop worrying and start trusting. I’m saying this as much to myself as to everyone else. If we truly believe in God, that God is who he says he is and that everything is in God’s hands, maybe we also need to adopt an attitude that matches this belief. This goes for both our personal issues, as well as the global problems that we are facing today. Maybe if we start looking within and just stop doing the things that we know we should stop doing, this will be enough. Maybe solutions to what seems to be out of our control will present themselves effortlessly. Without the need for a tyranny and forced compliance. 

Maybe what we need is not more force, but more letting go. More focus on the essential, while we ignore what is unimportant or out of our control. And I don’t know about you, but when I look at my days I find so much junk that occupies my awareness. Where would I be today, if I had determined to not allow these things to distract me? Where would you be? Where can we be in a year, if we decide this right now? In ten years?

Love one another!

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength […] Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31). 

In these two commandments, Jesus summarizes his whole message. But how often do we really live by it?

What do we answer to questions such as the following: Am I really doing my best to practice non-judgment and forgiveness in all situations? In most? At least towards those closest to me? How do I view those that are different from me? That think differently from me? How do I view people that have the “wrong” opinions? If a brother came to me in sincere repentance and confessed his sins, would I be able to meet him/her in unconditional love no matter what he/she confessed? Would my capacity for unconditional love be affected by whether what he/she confessed affected me personally or not?

When I’m being honest with myself, I’m forced to admit that I’m often unable to follow even the most basic teachings of Jesus and the Bible. And yet I’m often off into all kinds of more or less advanced speculations about right and wrong. I try to figure out what logically must follow from this and that, while ignoring how much I lack when it comes to following that which is written in clear language. Not only written in clear language, but put at the centre of everything that the central figure of the Bible taught. Things that even a five year old can understand.

St. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, says: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1). 

In light of this quote from st. Paul, I often feel like nothing. I’ve felt the love I’m capable of. If I look back at those moments, when I’ve been overwhelmed by love not just for those around me, but for the whole of humanity, the world and life itself, I wasn’t aware of this at the time. But I believe that these have been moments when my ego has stepped aside to freely allow God to love through me. 

In my day to day life however, I often feel numb, disconnected and uncaring. This in a time when we need to love, care for and forgive one another more than ever. In a time when we need unity more than ever. I know that I can still choose to act in a loving manner, no matter how I feel. And in these colder moments, perhaps it’s the best that we can do. If it is, it has to be enough until we can do better. But when life runs on autopilot, which it often does, and negative emotions sneak up on us, it’s not always easy to remember to be our best. And more times than I would like to admit, I willingly act against against better judgment. Even though I, at the time, manage to convince myself that I’m not. 

Here I would like to interject, that the more I've processed the negative emotions that I've suppressed and allowed to fester inside my body, the more I've been able to let God's love shine through me. Suppressed emotions, I believe, is one of the main reasons why we feel numb and unloving.

Furthermore, there seems to be layers to this. It probably comes to no one’s surprise, that temptations are harder to resist some times than others. But there seems to be more to it. Sometimes the bile just starts flowing, seemingly by itself. Other times, we have a few seconds to stop ourselves, but for one reason or another, we don’t. We may provide more or less muddled justifications for our behavior. But the truth is that we often simply don’t want to stop ourselves. Our ego has been hurt and demands that the world listens to it when it expresses just how hurt it feels, how it wants others to pay for the hurt and how it expects to be compensated. Or that someone else has done or not done something that disqualifies them as good people. 

If what characterizes Christians is their love for their fellow people, we fall short of this ideal way too often. I fall short of this ideal way too often. I have learned to say no to the really low emotions, such as hate and contempt. If a contemptuous thought creeps into my mind, I usually catch it and refuse to engage with it. But I feel unjustified anger way too often. Anger that is not about some injustice out in the world, but one that stems from my pride having been wounded or something equally ridiculous. 

As you can see, I have a long way to go. But that has to be okay. We all have our baggage. Little habits of thought, speech and action. And if I look at where I was just a couple of years ago, I’ve made a lot of progress. I’m not really such a self-righteous jerk anymore. My baggage is not as heavy anymore. I know that it’s time to put my life completely in God’s hands, no matter what. I know that I owe my whole life to God. Discernment is something that I pray for often. I do my best to understand God’s will. Even if I often fool myself. I want to be able to notice when I speak, act and think in a loveless manner. When I judge and condemn. To bring the light of awareness into the dark corners of my life. And I humbly as God to remove the burden of lovelessness from my shoulders.

The radical love message of Jesus has always been important. But as I said before, I believe that it’s more important than ever today. Because the world is growing colder and darker. It’s easier than ever to get swept away by its ways. What is instead needed, is to stand strong in our faith and make a conscious effort to burn brighter.

In the times ahead we will need each other more than ever. In a few years, we are going to need to come together more than just when we meet at church on Sundays or through the regular church activities. Therefore we need to work actively to strengthen our love for one another. To build up love within ourselves. It’s not always easy. Many of us have, unconsciously, grown cold and numb for many years. If so, it’s time to awaken!

We need each other’s support, care, unconditional love and help through tough situations. Each other’s forgiveness and understanding. And we need to be able to both count on receiving and be able to give this.

To my brothers and sisters in the NEW AGE (and everyone else)

Truth matters! More and more so in the extraordinary times that we are living in. And what lenses you view the world through matter gravely. Because these lenses shape how you see the world, what you think about it and how you act in it. So you have to be careful what you allow into your mind. And what you allow to control your mind. 

Before we continue I want to ask a couple of things of you: Forget everything that you think that you know about Christianity and the Bible. Embrace the possibility that within Christianity there is room for more love, joy, vibrant bliss and ecstasy than you could possibly imagine or find anywhere else. That when Jesus said: “the truth shall set you free” he really meant this. Which implies that if we view the Bible as a boring rulebook that hinders us from doing what we really want to do, we have misunderstood it. Because yes, the Bible asks things of us, which other teachings don’t. It asks us to do some things and give up others. But it doesn’t ask anything of us that isn’t for our own good.

If we wish to bring some more clarity into what may be called “spiritual confusion”, we need to start by asking ourselves the right questions: “Does this really lead me where it promises to lead me?”, “How does this actually benefit me and those around me?”, “Where is this leading me?”, “How is it truly affecting me?”, “Does it lead to more clarity or more confusion?”, “What is the purpose of this particular practice that I’m engaged in?” and “Does it truly fulfill that purpose?”. Another question that also most definitely is important is: “Does this truly make me happy?”

I’m not pretending to know what your answers are to these questions. I only know what mine are, which I hope will become clear throughout this text.

One thing that I do know for a fact however, is that regardless of prior beliefs, God is not just some abstract creative force. God is deeply personal, has a will and communicates with us in different ways all the time. And this is a good thing, because this means that we have perfect guidance to rely on. That we’re not left to our own faulty reason when it comes to figuring our how to think, speak and act. Because even if we need to use our reason to the best of our ability, on our own we will inevitably be led astray. There are so many forces, both within ourselves and in the world that confuse and deceive us.

That God is personal, has a will and communicates with us I know as absolute truth. This I know from personal experience. I’m not asking you to take my word for it. What I’m asking is to try this way of viewing God out for yourself, pray about it, meditate on it and use it as the lense through which you view the world. Take it seriously and see where it leads you. For me, it also finally led me to Jesus and the Holy Spirit. These are now real to me. Not just abstract figures that I can read about in the Bible. And my relationship with them is growing every day.

Now comes the part where I might really lose you. Therefore I feel the need to explain what I’m saying before I say it. I believe that there is a reason behind why mainly Christians and New Agers are waking up to the state of the world. Because of this and other reasons, I’m not prepared to dismiss everything within the New Age, even though I firmly believe in the truth of the Bible.

Now, there is an awakening happening on the planet. One that is spiritual in nature. And I don’t think that anyone knows exactly what this awakening is. More and more people are awakening every day. We are awakening to the true state of the world and what powers are truly governing it. What powers are governing us. We are awakening to more and more spiritual aspects of our physical reality. And we are awakening to more and more aspects of what is going on inside ourselves. For many of us, this has become a lived, undeniable reality.

Furthermore, I firmly believe that everything that is true about this awakening is 100% biblical. This means that everything about it that is true must be compatible with the Bible. And everything that we ever need should fit into this framework. The only things that we need to discard, are empty things that don’t benefit us anyway. Things that just cause us pain and confusion. Again I urge you to ask yourself the right questions. Because it’s so easy to get lost in what sounds good on the surface, but does not keep its promises. And at least for me and my wife, it has been difficult to admit to ourselves that what we have invested much time and energy into, has not lead us where it promised. Where we hoped that it would lead us.

What exactly this means I have yet to figure out. Some people say that you should stay away from any spirituality that is not from the Bible or about the Bible. While I respect these beliefs and do not wish to dismiss them, I don’t feel that I, in good conscience, can accept them without thorough examination. 

For example, I find nothing in the Bible that contradicts the idea that we need to cultivate a non-reactive mindset. When we learn to just feel the emotions that come up in different situation without reacting to them, we can begin to allow the emotions to guide our actions instead of controlling them. Just like we should often not act on the first thought that pops into our minds either. If we learn this, I believe that it will make us better Christians. We may even clear the path for the Holy Spirit to act through us.

I also know for a fact that suppressed emotional energy gets stored in the body as tensions, which authors that often get grouped within the New Age, such as David Hawkins, have pointed out. 

And here we come to the crux of the matter. There is so much dead weight in the New Age. And what I believe is that the Bible will help us to understand what we need to shed and what can be kept. Here I find two questions helpful: “Does this have any demonstrable practical use?” and “Is it compatible with Biblical teachings?”

I have just shown two examples of what I believe can be useful. Now I’m going to give you an example of what I believe should not just be discarded, but shun like the plague: I believe you should stay far away from channelers. For those that don’t know, channeling is when someone allows their body to be taken over by a spiritual entity so that it can communicate through them. 

The Bible is full of warnings concerning this type of activity. This is simply because we don’t know what these channeled entities are. And as far as I’m concerned the channelings that I’ve read about or listened to have not given me anything of practical value. It has mostly been either gibberish or ideas about the world that can neither be confirmed nor falsified. I believe that if these channeled entities really are higher beings, that are here to help us, they should be able to tell us things that are useful and not just feed us claims about how the world works. Claims that, again, cannot be confirmed or falsified. 

Besides, the Bible clearly says that after Jesus left his earthly life, God sent us his Holy Spirit. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit is with us all the time and that it has the same power to help and guide us as Jesus. So why would you need to turn to other spirits for help?

In other words, my experience tell me that, with regards to channeling, the answer is “no” to both of the questions that I just posed.

I would furthermore advice anyone wishing to study authors labelled New Age to approach them with caution. It’s so easy to buy into a whole package when we see that it contains some truth and wisdom. Me and my wife have both been led astray by teachings within the New Age that we now can see are not sound. 

In other words, I don’t believe that everything about the New Age is evil or satanic. But I do believe that most of it leads us astray. And I do believe that some of it would qualify as Satanic. At least when taken together. 

I believe that just like we can check what is sound against the teachings of the Bible, we can actually check what is unsound against the teachings of the Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor Lavey. I believe that Lavey, in very clear language, has laid out satanic doctrine in exact detail, while promoting it as a common sense philosophy. 

The idea that we are our own gods is the first satanic idea that comes to mind. Another one is that everything is relative. That there are no absolute truths. Together with this one comes also the trivialization of everything. That nothing is really serious and that we are mainly here to have fun and explore. And yeah, the idea mentioned in the beginning, of God as just an impersonal force, can actually also be found in the Satanic Bible. What I’ve noticed is that when we have no absolute truths to rely on, our perception of reality becomes distorted. When we take nothing seriously, we end up excusing all kinds of behavior by saying that “ultimately it doesn’t matter anyway”. And when we view God as just an impersonal force, we miss the whole point of religion and spirituality.

To conclude: Mine and my wife’s experience with New Age can be summed up as follows. We did find some usefulness in some authors often classified as New Age. The aforementioned David R. Hawkins is one of them. Two others that come to mind are Eckhart Tolle and Joe Dispenza. But for the most part, it sent us on a wild goose chase. We ended up seeking more and more knowledge, self-development and abilities, while in reality getting nowhere. We found that much within it that promises healing, power and knowledge actually breaks us, disempowers us and causes more and more confusion.

When we finally decided to embrace the message of the Bible and discard everything that was incompatible with it, we invited peace and healing into our lives. While that which on the surface seemed reasonable within the New Age didn’t hold up when tested against reality, the opposite proved to be true when it came to the Bible. What on the surface seemed unreasonable in the Bible, proved true when tested against reality. And the more we studied the Bible, the more we started to see the infinite depth that it contains. This while other teachings more and more revealed the shallowness behind their often many words. Which for us at least shows the truth in the saying of st. Paul, that “…the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God” (1 Corinthians 3:19).

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You are loved and your life matters!

Your life is not a brief series of random, meaningless events before absolute oblivion. Your life means something. It is not meant to be squandered on pontless distractions and pleasures. No matter where you are or who you are, you are important. You are important to God and you are important to the world. Your choices and actions matter. 

In the past, we may have had to take up real swords to fight living, physical enemies. But today the sword is proverbial. And the war is against meaningless amusements, empty pleasures, addictions and corrupt values. 

You may think that I’m exaggerating here, but I’m not. Because this is a battle for our bodies and minds. And these things kill our spirits. 

To top it all off we did not get to where we are by accident. To a place where we’re surrounded by tools for self-destruction every minute of every hour of every day. This is by design.

No one is going to praise us for taking up this fight. But praise is not the reason why we do what we do. The point is not to be recognized as such or not by others. But those of us that refuse to just mindlessly go along with whatever degeneration our culture offers are heroes. Because it takes strength to go up against all that is preying on our lower natures. It takes courage to go against the cultural norms. And it takes determination to stick to our resolutions.

Best of all is that in this story everyone can be a hero. It doesn’t matter who you are when or where your particular journey ends. All that matters is that you start the journey and keep on walking. God will take care of the rest. And he has the rest of eternity to make you perfect. 

I know that it’s so easy to give in. But whatever you put on the table God and his Holy Spirit can work with that. This is not some airy fairy “is this real or just in my imagination”. You will have real spiritual powers coming to your aid. If you’ve sunk deep in the habit of being distracted you may not notice it at first. But they are there to help you. Eventually things will start to fall into place. Eventually life will not feel so random anymore.

I’m not sitting on some high horse talking down to you from a place of perfection and enlightenment. Just like many other people I’ve made a mess of a lot of things in my life. A mess of bad habits and financial troubles. A mess that I’m still stuck cleaning up. 

The world makes it easy for us to mess up. But this does not take away my, or anyone else’s personal responsibility. No one put a gun to our heads and forced us to mess up our lives. However, as I’ve already stated, I believe that there are people (and perhaps other forces) that want us to be bound to our messes because it benefits them. When the scales fall from our eyes, we will inevitably see all of the things that are there to enslave us. And to me at least, it is obvious that we didn’t get here by accident. 

But it is still our lack of consciousness that allows it to happen. We are still the ones allowing circumstances and our reactions to them to make the choices for us. Our controllers just provide the temptations. We are the ones that are careless with our thoughts, words and actions. They just prey on our carelessness. We are the ones that don’t keep God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit firmly in our minds. Those that want to hurt us just fill up the empty space.

Our past mistakes don’t have to be a waste. It is a cliché to talk about learning from our mistakes. But as with basically all clichés, it contains a lot of wisdom. Because how often don’t we just beat ourselves up for our mistakes without learning anything from them? But when we instead take a step back and try to figure out what went wrong, growth can come pretty fast.

And remember, when you decide to take your power back and say no you have unstoppable powers on your side. God, his son Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit are there to help you. The almighty, triune, all-loving creator of the universe is on your side. These are not just empty words. It is the truth. You just have to let them in.

Those that want to hurt us tell us that life has no meaning. That we are a problem and even a cancer on the planet. That the world is full of useless people. Such ideas are the real cancer. 

The lack of meaning is one of the major sources of the difficulties that many of us face. The lack of meaning causes many to just grasp for whatever little momentary pleasure that they can get their hands on, with no concern for the future. This is why ideas matter. Why world views matter. They shape our thoughts, words and action. These nihilistic, misanthropic ideas turn “cancer on the planet” into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because what is the point of trying if we’re just destined for oblivion in a meaningless world? A world that is just getting worse and worse, with no real real hope on the horizon. Where the best we can hope for is painful solutions that may or may not solve our problems. In such a world it would be very tempting to say: “Let’s just party till the lights go out.” 

This is not my vision. It is not God’s vision either. So do your best, work with what you’ve got and never lose your hope. An infinitely better future is on the horizon. One where no one is superfluous or useless. One where everyone, regardless of who they are, matter. 

You are loved, deeply cared for and your life matters!

Frame photo by Susan Wilkinson on Unsplash

Life-choices, love, lovelessness, good, evil

God is love. Whenever we act in a loveless manner we shut God out. We move a little further away from God. Of course we don’t know that this is what we are doing. But if we pay attention to how we feel inside we notice that something just doesn’t feel right. We might discover feelings such as sadness and anxiousness.

Before I go on, I want to pause to give you a picture of what I am talking about. My wife likes to bake sweets. She makes delicious cupcakes and apple pie among other things. She loves to make these things for me, for her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend and friends. And of course for herself as well. For us. 

I also have the option of going to the store and buy a very delicious chocolate bar, made by huge, shining machines in a huge factory. My wife’s apple pie or cupcakes may contain somewhere around five ingredients. The chocolate bar may contain thirty ingredients, all carefully selected to make it as profitable as possible. And to make my inner caveman go nuts and just mindlessly munch it down without really thinking of what I’m doing. Many of these ingredients I have to look up online to find out exactly what they are.

See the difference? My animal instincts don’t, but I sure do. 

If I’ve gorged on processed, mass-produced junk long enough, my tastebuds might even prefer it over that which is made with love and care by a person. 

As I said in the first paragraph, we often don’t notice when love is missing. We are often so out of touch with ourselves that we don’t even notice that we feel bad. That something inside of us protests. That it is signalling that something is wrong. Because the world is so filled with things that keep us occupied. That pull us away from our direct experience of life. This is by design.

But when someone points this out to us and we understand it, we can’t help but notice it. What was priorly invisible to us suddenly is everywhere (We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one [1 John 5:19]). This is similar to “good and evil” or why not the Freudian “eros and thanatos”. This is how we label in a good way. Not to become narrow minded or dismiss people that are different from us, but to more easily understand the world and our being in it. To deepen this understanding. In this case so that we can avoid what hurts us, others and our relationship with God. And why it is to be avoided. 

Before I move on, I want to add a little disclaimer. What I’m about to say is not meant to shame anyone. I know how hard it is to break habits and I still struggle with quite a few myself. I even up to quite recently bought mass-produced food and ate too much of it and I still have a problem with over-eating sometimes. 

It is when we stop trying, even though we have the strength to do so, that we let evil take a hold on us. God only gives us more than we can handle if it serves some higher purpose. Never to just make us feel bad about ourselves.

That being said… It is obvious that when we treat others with compassion, kindness and the likes we act in a loving manner. And it is also obvious that when we treat others as mere objects to be exploited for our gain, pleasure or entertainment, or when we downright hurt and condemn others, we act in a loveless manner. 

But when we pay for mass produced trash that poisons our bodies, we are also acting in a loveless manner. Because there is no love towards ourselves in the act. And there is no love for the consumer in the production. 

When we watch pornography or mindless entertainment that poison our minds and souls with destructive values or fuel our instincts with perversion, we act in a loveless manner. And the same goes for the values we take in via music.

“Aren’t we supposed to have any fun?” you might ask. 

Well, go ahead and have as much “fun” as you want. I believe that it is your absolute right to destroy yourself and I would never dream of trying to stop you from doing so. As long as you don’t directly hurt others with your actions, in my view, you should be allowed to do whatever you may please by worldly authorities. 

But maybe, just maybe, there is something infinitely better that that opens up to us when we exercise a bit of discernment. Maybe the comparison between gold and mud does not even begin to describe what we gain by removing that which is loveless from our lives. 

Believe me, there is a whole world waiting for you, right here and right now, filled with love, truth and beauty, once you start removing that which is hurting you from your life. The choice is easy once you see it with clear eyes. It is a choice between love and lovelessness, eros and thanatos, good and evil, happiness and dispair. It isn’t more complicated than that. It never was. Allow the scales to fall from your eyes and you will see it too.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

The importance of following Jesus

Do beliefs matter? Could we be condemned? Is there a literal devil? Or is the devil just a symbol for something within ourselves? Our ego?

I often find myself getting lost in speculations about this and that.

I believe that we get away from what’s important when we put too much emphasis on factual claims in the bible. Not that the factual claims are unimportant. If you take away certain beliefs, other things fall apart. And some things maybe need to fall apart, while others need to be preserved. I’m not going to go into detail about this here, but it could be worth considering.

The more I think of who Jesus was and what he taught, the more it strikes me how complete and timeless his teachings were. I’m not saying that the miraculous events in the Bible didn’t occur. As a matter of fact, I believe that some of them most likely did. I can even say this with some ease, as I know that the world is much more than what we can perceive with our five senses. But I don’t think that you need miracles or to believe in the whole narrative literally, to see Jesus as miraculous. We have become so accustomed to the many of the things that Jesus stood for, that we don’t even stop to reflect on how counter-intuitive they are to our animal natures. And they work. Not only do they work. They make our lives infinitely better. Because when we live according to our animal natures our lives will most likely suck. And the lives of those around us will suck too, if we have a significant impact on them. 

What I believe is that Jesus gave us an example of the ultimate potential that lies dormant within each and everyone of us. And I’m not alone in this belief. Thinkers such as C.S Lewis, Dallas Willard, Jordan Peterson and John Ortberg have said basically the same thing, with small variations. 

According to the Bible, we were all made in the image of God. But we are somehow fallen. I don’t believe that the fall from the Garden of Eden should be taken literally. I’m not ruling it out. But I don’t think that it’s what’s important. If you look at it a little closer it’s full of symbolism. What does, for example, nakedness symbolize? And no, I’m not talking about sex or shame around sexuality. I’m talking about vulnerability. When we’re naked, we’re exposed and vulnerable. 

Or take the idea that Adam walked with God before the fall. This means that we have the potential of living in- and feeling God’s presence. But as the Bible progresses, God becomes more and more distant. Less corporeal. 

And what does it mean that the knowledge of good and evil is what causes the fall to begin with? You can ponder that for a yourself, because I could go on like this forever and this is not really what this post is about. 

Coming back to the person Jesus, I believe that, together with everything else that he is, he is the perfect ideal. I would even go so far as to say that he is a perfect ideal that would be very difficult, if not impossible, for the human imagination to conjure up on its own. And as I said a few paragraphs ago, we have the potential within us to live like Jesus. There are no real physical or even psychological limitations. I even believe that what Jesus said about humans being able to perform miracles is accurate, because I know that lots of strange things happen inside us, that are not recognized by mainstream science.

But even if nothing limits us for real, each and everyone of us fall short of the ideal that Jesus represented. And yet, paradoxically, I believe that when all of the nonsense that we have turned into an identity over the years is removed, living like Jesus is really our natural state. When we completely stop functioning from the ego.

NON-RESISTANCE and the BEAUTY of life

Life can be so beautiful when we seize with the activity for a little while and take the time to just stop and experience what is. I suggest that you pause reading this blog post and take the time to just listen to Antonín Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings in E Major. It should be the first song that comes up if you search his name on Spotify. And why not listen to the song that comes afterwards while you’re at it

Just listen without thinking that you have to be somewhere. Do something. Just be there with what is and take in without resisting or holding on to anything. This is God speaking through a person. And if you are calm, quiet and silent, you can hear God’s voice. Here and now can be so filled with beauty, joy, wonder and love. But we miss it when we resist what we don’t want or grasp for what we don’t have. And the thing is that the real game is an inner game. 

We are always in some form of activity. Thoughts are an activity. And most thoughts are on auto-pilot. Fear and anxiety are activity. When we feel fearful and anxious something moves inside us. And we either resist it or try to find an outlet for it. Both of these options are activity. But we also have the option of just being still. Of just accepting what is. The secret here is that we don’t have to do anything. We feel that we have to do something. Because we have been conditioned to think that we always have to do something. That our egos have to step in and try to fix the situation. But the thing is that we are connected to something so much more powerful. We are connected with God, the almighty. But if we want God to work through us, we must drop the illusions. We must seize with the ego’s endless activities. The little me, the one that really is nothing, merely an illusion, needs to step aside. God is infinite love. Infinite energy. And at the same time, God is also infinitely intimate and personal. This is another secret. You cannot have the infinitely big without the infinitely small. As above, so below. This is the beauty of oneness and duality. To be able to experience oneness in a meaningful way, you first need duality. But this has to be experienced to be understood. I’m not sure that I completely understand it myself. 

The more I can just live in this acceptance and gratitude for what is, the more joy I find in just being. When I for example just allow myself to be overwhelmed by a piece of classical music, without any resistance or need for things to be a certain way, I can find a wellspring of overflowing love and joy inside of me, that just wants to burst forth when nothing hinders it anymore. 

To conclude: I hope you enjoyed this text. I let it flow from the spirit that I’m talking about throughout it. Maybe it doesn’t make sense. Maybe it does. It’s always hard to put powerful experiences into words so that others can understand them. But to me, what I have written here is one of my most important insights. Everything is about letting go. About living in gratitude of what is good, instead of resistance towards the unwanted, or longing for what is not. It’s about taking action from a divine place instead of from the ego. It’s about allowing life to unfold joyfully through oneself, instead of forcing life to comply with the demands of the ego. It’s the easiest and hardest thing to do, both at the same time. All we have to do is to not resist what is. If you understand this correctly, you understand that this is not a ticket to complacency. What it is, is about acting because we truly want to, and not because we feel that we have to. In every little infinitesimal moment in life, we are give the choice of resisting or not resisting. When we don’t resist, everything flows with joyful effortlessness.

We interpret SPIRITUAL AWAKENING differently depending on prior beliefs

Let’s begin with a bit of psychology: We all interpret situations differently depending on our identity and prior beliefs. Our memory also becomes distorted over time, in a way that is colored by our beliefs and our identity.

Now, let’s take the spiritual awakening that is happening on the planet. Many, regardless of faith, are going through it. Even some atheists are going through it, but unless they realize that they are wrong in their atheism, they will not even begin to understand what is happening to them.

My point is that something very strange is happening on our planet. Something spiritual in nature. Something that is often referred to as a global spiritual awakening, where individuals wake up to who they really are and the truth about reality. Those that are going through this know that it’s true. It’s not “maybe it’s happening, maybe it’s not, we’ll see”. This is most definitely happening, even if no one seems to have the whole picture. 

Since the awakening, what ever it is, is spiritual in nature, it makes sense that we interpret it through our prior spiritual beliefs. There is nothing wrong with this. On the contrary, it would be strange if what is happening now has nothing whatsoever to do with our current beliefs about religion and spirituality. Or that what is happening now is going to erase all of religious history up until now.

I myself make no secret of my belief that Christianity, and especially the person of Jesus, has a special role to fill in what is happening now. But I’m also trying to stay open to what other beliefs can tell me about this. And considering what role the church has played throughout history, I’m not going to just go ahead and put 100% faith into biblical interpretation based on church doctrine. But when it comes to Jesus, I believe something like this: No matter what it means that Jesus is the son of God, or that Jesus is both fully God and fully human, Jesus shows the nature of God embodied in one single person. Jesus was what God would have been like if God was human. And humans were made in the image of God.

Our realities are shaped by our subjective experiences and our beliefs about them. Our beliefs are shaped by our identities. Depending on who we believe ourselves to be, what we believe about the world, what we value and so on, we will accept some information and perspectives while rejecting others. Then comes the passage of time. We forget certain things because we don’t think about them, while we reinforce (and distort) others by ruminating over them and discussing them with other, often likeminded, people. 

I believe that an important conclusion to be drawn from this, is that it’s time that we start talking to each other. We have this distorted view and perception. This is self-evident once we see the conditions that we live under clearly enough. And we might not be able to understand what is going on as long as we stick to talking about it with likeminded people. And we all know that something happens, when people come together and discuss things without the ego-based need to be right. Something that becomes fertile soil for important insights.

Photo by Renè Müller on Unsplash

GODLINESS and ANIMALNESS

Maybe you’ve heard that according to the Bible we were made in the image of God? What does this mean? And perhaps more importantly: What in our lives today is godly? And what in our lives is not godly or ungodly? 

When we choose whether to engage in a certain activity or not, it may be wise to ask ourselves: Am I acting in a divine or animalistic way? This is one of the ways that we can use to discern how to apply what the Bible says to our own lives. 

It’s also one way to make the Biblical teachings make sense. What do I mean by this? Well, I’ve been noticing how it’s not always obvious why the Bible or Jesus in particular says a certain thing or sets a certain example. But, looking at the bigger picture, I’ve been able to see that it has been good for me. And this is important: The Bible doesn’t say that we should do some things, abstain from others, adopt a certain attitude or follow a certain example just because it pleases God. It says what it says because what it says is good for us. If we look at the Bible as a rulebook that we need to follow to avoid punishment or get rewarded, we are missing the whole point. And for the record, I don’t believe in hell, even though I don’t rule it out completely either. All I’m saying is that I don’t think that the Bible should be viewed either as a threat or as a set of rules that hinder us from enjoying life. 

At the root of godliness and animalness is the question of free will. As far as I know, humans are the only beings with freedom of choice. Animals act according to their nature, to their instincts. They often act out of love, but it is not a love that they choose. 

This means that whenever we are acting mindlessly and just follow our impulses, we are choosing animalness. Or rather, we let animalness guide our lives because we do not make a conscious choice. 

Here I would like to add a small note: This does not mean that if we are not super strict with ourselves, we are acting like animals. This is about making conscious choices. And making conscious choices includes being kind to ourselves. And sometimes, being kind to ourselves means that we allow ourselves to indulge in a bad habit that we at the moment feel is too hard to break. But making conscious choices also means to be ready to let go of one’s vices as soon as it feels as if it is in one’s power. 

Choices or the act of not making choices of course also affects us. Acting like animals does something to us. We become a little less free. A little more ruled by our instincts. And the reverse is also true. The more we embrace our divine nature, the more we move away from our instinct driven selves. 

This is one of those interesting paradoxes of being human. The more restrictions we place upon ourselves, as long as it’s the right restrictions, the more free we become.

We don’t see many things that are right in front of us until they are identified and labelled. So it is with the division between animalness and divinity. Once the distinction is made, as long as we don’t forget about it, we cannot help but seeing it. And the more we learn, the more responsibility is placed on our shoulders. And the more responsibility we can take on, the richer and freer life becomes. But it also becomes harder.

Knowing that we can approach our choices in life from an animalistic or godly place is a heavy burden if we take this knowledge seriously. But it is a burden that we have to take on if we wish to be free. Our animal natures inevitably lead to slavery to our instincts. It might be a comfortable and even pleasurable slavery. But no matter how much gold we manage to pour over our cage, the cage will always be a cage.

Reno Laithienne on Unsplash