When are we going to get it?

My original intent for this post was to write something about how the world needs to wake up.  But as I started to think about what my message would be, I started to ask myself what exactly I was imploring people to wake up to.  I wondered  if it selfish was for me to say such a thing.  Furthermore, I considered that even if people did “WAKE UP!” as I intended, who is to say that when they did wake up that they would see what I thought they should see?  Lastly, I questioned whether I am awake.  It could be possible that I am the one who is “asleep” and am dreaming that I am awake and that others are asleep.  It is a very egotistical dream to have, I readily admit it and I would not put it past my ego to conjure up such a fantasy.  So rather than try to write some awe inspiring and convincing argument that’s meant to set people free, I’ve chosen to take the stand as if I am dreaming and write from there.

If I am dreaming–that is, if I am seeing the world through my own illusory perception–then I can only hope that by writing out these thoughts, I will somehow snap into reality.  If it turns out that I am not dreaming–that is, I see the world as it is rather than how I imagine it to be–then those of you who vibe with what I am putting out here will have the responsibility to share what you too know to be true.  Because, if I am awake, then what I am writing will only make sense to others who are conscious that many of us see dimly when looking in the mirror.

1 Corinthians 13:11-13 (New King James Version)

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.  And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

So let’s start with Love.  I am convinced that Love is the only True cause and only True effect in the Ultimate Reality.  I’m saying this from the vantage point of a person who has had my share of difficult experiences in life.  Nevertheless, I believe that any time that I have imagined that anything other than Love was working in my life, it was because at that moment I was choosing to look in the mirror dimly.  I say choosing, because I believe that at our cores each and every one of us knows the Truth about our reality and the choices that we make in the world.  We just act selfishly sometimes and would rather play the victim role than take an active role in shifting our perception.

Before proceeding, let me also say that there is a great distinction between the Truth and facts.  How can people not know this?  I’ll make it simple.  If we were not present at a particular event and we weren’t in the minds of each and every participant and if there is no indisputable evidence of the absolute circumstances that gave birth to said event, then we are missing some of the facts.  Any conclusion drawn from the information that we do have is either conjecture, we have just been convinced by a strong argument, or we are filling in the blanks with our self centered perception and imagination.  This is not an insult.  It is just how it is. I do it to and am grateful when I snap out of it. Yet everyday people all over the world are fighting over ideas that they consider to be facts when the Truth is no one person has all of the facts about anything.  We just don’t.  If we can’t admit that then can never know the Ultimate Truth.

The thing is, we can know the Truth without having the facts, but we can never gain the Truth by calculating all of the facts.  The Truth I am talking about is beyond facts.  This Truth is the Love that is the Source of all being and is the very God in Whom our Life is present.  What does that mean?  In Pauline Christian terms I am talking about the Unknown God in Whom we live and move and have our being.

Here is something interesting to note about what I mentioned above.  When Paul was preaching to the people of Athens about the Unknown God, he started by saying, “Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you”.  Did you catch that? I’ll say it again.  “Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you.”  How can you worship One without knowing that One?  It is simple.  It is because, through perceiving the world from a vision of Love, it is possible to know the Truth without having the facts.  God is Love and God is Truth.  If you live with Love as your ultimate goal, you will eventually know the Truth and God who is both of these.  This is the world I believe truly is and with that belief comes a certain responsibility to clear my mind whenever I start trying to figure out what is true by weighing the facts.  Because, the fact is that I will never have all of the facts.  If I cannot accept that then I am at the mercy of illusion and if you’re getting what I am saying then so are you.  So what are you going to do about it?

When this scribe asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was, it is written that he replied,“The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

I wasn’t there, so I don’t really know if he ever said anything like that, but I know that those words are True because they are words of Love, which makes them words of God.  These Loving words are reaffirmed in 1 John 4:20-21 where it says:

If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

So riddle me this my friends.  What does it mean when I am certain that I believe these words and set my life to live them, but I see people who seem to be wasting their lives arguing over so called facts while doing very little to see the Truth?  Are there really people out there who believe that it is possible to love God, while hating others?  It can’t be.  I think I might actually be dreaming.  If so, I hope I wake up soon.  Who is coming with me?

Note:  If you get anything out of this, share it with others.  There’s links and stuff to do that somewhere on this page.  As Forrest Gump said, “I may not be a smart man, but I know what Love is.”  There’s a lot of beautiful things in this world that we can share with each other if we get the junk out of the way.  There’s a lot of us out here that are afraid of our own shadows and the only hope of eliminating that is if more of us shine our light.  To do that effectively, first we have to figure out how to love ourselves, then we have to love those that we come in contact with just as much.  It might not always be the easiest thing in the world, but aren’t you tired of the alternative yet?