A lot of people regularly attend Church on Sunday, which just so happens to be today. I used to attend regularly. According to one perspective, I’m not so ‘faithful’ anymore because my attendance has become spotty.😞

In fact, some of my religious associates might judge me even to be ‘inactive’ and possibly even to be in trouble with God for my lack of regular attendance of prescribed church meetings🧐 I know I previously would have been a judgmental one, if things were reversed😒 In fact, I previously considered myself to be quite faithful almost to a being-very-pleased-with-myself level, because of my adherence to prescribed religious activities and could even be quite a ‘jerk’ to those who I felt weren’t being quite as faithful in their religious obligations as I a self-consecrated Disciple of Christ thought they should be, since I felt I was a ‘steward’ or ‘guardian’ of ‘Christ’s Church’ by virtue of my perceived relationship with, and devotion to, Him.

I even went so far as to rationalize the ‘enforcement’ of my fellow adherents’ obedience to God’s Laws, by referencing in my mind how Christ set an example for us to follow when He ‘violently’ cleared the temple of those who were defiling his Father’s House, thus establishing that there is indeed punishment for disobedience to God’s Commandments, that should be justly meted out by the self-declared Faithful🤨

Over this past decade or so, though, as my relationship with God has deepened and strengthened, I’ve gone through a renaissance of sorts, which has compelled me to completely reexamine my overall ‘reality’, as a whole. Mentally, emotionally and psychologically, I’m not anywhere near the same place I was at, ten years ago–not even close😵😊

For me, much of written scripture is a purposefully-designed ‘distraction’ or ‘test’ to see WHAT ‘message’ {among the many conflicting messages that can be found in the scriptures) we will grab a hold of and focus on. One can find justification in the scriptures for doing literally ANYTHING towards one’s fellow human(s), including outright murder and because it is indeed in ‘God’s Word’, it is quite often unquestionably deemed a ‘good’ thing😳🙄😬

Each one of us was born with a ‘light’ of sorts, within us–a conscience. It is a ‘compass’ which points us towards treating each other with kindness and respect. Through our upbringings, however, sometimes that light is virtually extinguished, especially if in our early or formative years, we were raised by someone who is mean, violent, hateful or otherwise abusive in their interactions with others. What’s worse is if those who raised us professed themselves to be followers of God and believed wholeheartedly that their abuse was somehow justified by something written in the scriptures.

What if, as I already suggested, and I’ve come to believe, the scriptures were compiled with mostly ‘fluff’ designed to ‘test’ our humanity, our conscience, our common sense and that there are only just a few divinely-placed nuggets in the scriptures of absolute truth or pearls of great price that will actually bring us to truly know GOD and the associated Divine Mysteries?!

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God….” (John 17:3)

Wouldn’t things make a lot more sense from such a paradigm? Wouldn’t there be a lot fewer differing religions? Wouldn’t there be a lot less trite contention even within a particular religion’s or church’s own ranks?

Also, if we ceased finding all the differences about each other to focus on and more and more instead focused on our similarities, even if we could only begin with: we all have bodies with the same organs (basically), nervous, circulatory and skeletal systems which are covered by skin, and work from there; what would happen? What could happen?!!

“Except ye become as little children….” was uttered multiple times by Christ, according to the scriptures. Could such a ‘commandment’ or invitation simply be to behave with the same benevolent and unprejudiced dispositions that little children have? Toddlers don’t focus on skin color, political affiliations, religious beliefs or other ‘grownup’ stuff and they can find happiness simply playing in the dirt with a cardboard box, a blanket or other things that ‘grownup’ supposed adults have no interest in, because we’re so engaged in the minutia of simply trying to survive.

My point is: that I do not see skin color. I do not ‘see’ or focus on religious or political beliefs (unless someone who is exercising them interferes with my pursuit of happiness or makes my life more distressing).

When I meet a person for the first time, I see an equal human being deserving of my kindness and respect, unless they purposefully try to interfere, as I already said, with my pursuit of happiness or are somehow otherwise a threat in some way to my survival, the survival of my business or to the survival of another human being, i.e., are trying to rob, harm or kill them. Even then, I will make every attempt to simply disengage from such a person and go about my business elsewhere.

Before existing in the paradigm in which I now exist (on a fairly consistent basis), I used to wonder how in the world the Lord could ask me to pray for my enemies, do good unto them, turn the other cheek or otherwise not seek their harm or destruction. Like so many others, I merely looked at such invitations as being an optional type of thing and that my ignoring them would be overlooked by the Lord come judgment day because… well,… how can anyone realistically be expected to NOT take an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth and seek justice in such inequitable circumstances?!!!

In this hard-won yet Divinely-Gifted Paradigm in which I now am blessed to be, a whole new world has opened up and I feel so much freer than I ever did.

“And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free[!]” (John 8:32)

It is no longer difficult to avoid having feelings of anger towards my ‘enemies’ (and I use the term ‘enemies’ very loosely)! When the invitation was extended through the scriptures to do such challenging things, it was challenging because if we are not existing in the ‘correct’ paradigm, it doesn’t matter what scriptural truths we think we know from devoted scripture study, how often we attend church, how consistently we utter prayers with bent knees and outstretched heavenward with our lips uttering words, unless we have come to that divine paradigm (and one can only know what such a paradigm is when one has experienced it, firsthand), we will be nearly unable to not have ill-will towards our ‘enemies’, especially when in today’s climate, they have different beliefs than we do!!!😳🤯😡

In the other paradigm I used to exist in, for instance, I used to abhor John Lennon’s song, “Imagine” because one of the lyrics is, “Imagine there’s no heaven.” I chose to focus on that one allegedly ‘godless’ phrase within the song and condemn the rest of its generally inferred message of Peace on Earth; Good Will Towards All, along with helping the Least of These.

As a small side note, I’m willing to acknowledge that even a reader of this blog may still feel that way and possibly judge me for no longer ‘shunning’ such ‘wickedness’, even in such a trite thing as a song. But I’m reminded of how the scriptures tell us that a bunch of self-righteous church-goers caught a woman in the act of adultery, wanted to punish her and also wanting to simultaneously ‘kill another bird’, brought her before Jesus, to see if they could trip him up and find something evil to accuse him of and further condemn him with. You know His Response….😉

What is the general message of the song “Imagine”, though?… Would the Jesus from the scriptures condemn it?…

When I read ‘God’s Word’, I come away with this one overarching message or ‘commandment’ of: “Love (or respect) God by loving (respecting) yourself along with your neighbor (everyone else besides yourself)”. And because it makes more sense to me, I also choose to view the Golden Rule more along the lines of: “Do unto others as [they would have you do unto them]” because each of us experiences life uniquely and do-ing to someone else the way you would want done unto you may necessarily not work for them.

Didn’t Christ almost always ask those who humbly asked something of him, “What would you have me DO,” in so many words? As a general rule, He did not insist that he DO for others the way that He wanted things done. He showed love, respect, kindness and mercy.

Furthermore, this same new paradigm that I live in compels me to want to spend more of my resources and time doing things (other than sitting in church, listening to someone expound and expand on “loving God, self and neighbor” with yet still another twist [or discuss a ‘distraction’ besides such love] which just isn’t quite as high on my list of priorities, as it used to be) that will help unite the people of this planet because each of us is a Child of, or part of the Family of, God–not an indentured servant, not a playtoy, not a pet of His–and to support (a) cause(s) that will help solve world poverty and human (child)-trafficking. THERE HAS GOT TO BE A SOLUTION! And sadly, not one religious or political organization has come up with one yet! (Incidentally, the last thing on someone’s mind who is cold, starving or sick is their relationship with God or any kind of a desire to consume His Word🥺)

Before Jesus spiritually fed the multitude with the Sermon on the Mount, he prepared their bodies and minds to be a little more clear of distractions by putting food in their bellies with bread and fish (which He incidentally procured via a miracle😉).

In the scriptures, didn’t Christ set an often overlooked example (as God, Himself, the Greatest of All) when he humbly washed the feet of (served) multiple people instead of demanding that they worship and pay obeisance to him? Even more so, if any one of us was given the choice of: 1) praising His name with our lips and worshiping Him by falling to our knees; or of: 2) helping someone in need, which behaviors do we believe He would desire of us? Number 1 or number 2?

Does He have some kind of Grand Ego that needs validation from praise and worship? Not according to the scriptures. Instead, he’d rather be feeding the hungry (temporally or spiritually), washing feet and other things that a True Servant of the Universe would actually do.

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,…” (James 1:27)

Additionally, the reader may notice that I’ve referred to the term ‘scriptures’ quite a bit instead of simply leaving such an almost redundant reference to the word out, as some might do. As I’ve already alluded to, I’ve come to view “the scriptures” through a fairly unorthodox lens yet one that brings me peace, especially regarding how I view everyone in this huge worldwide ‘Family of God’.

I don’t really see ‘enemies’ anymore, for one thing,… but I also view the scriptures as a maze of purposefully-placed ‘distractions’ that only the pure in heart, contrite in spirit and humble in mind will see beyond, into the few carefully placed, almost-hidden Pearls of Great Price that all revolve around The Royal Law or Golden Rule—THE TRUE GOSPEL or GOOD NEWS!

As I was saying, regarding the ‘scriptures’: I believe when in the scriptures Christ said, “Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life,” He was giving a bit of a warning along the lines of: “I’ve tried to teach you a new Gospel using the good common humane sense that we were all born with, hoping you’ll focus a little–well A LOT, actually–less blindly and strictly than you do with this almost-dead Mosiac Law, on what the scriptures say, especially when they conflict with what you know in your heart to be right, with regards to the way you should treat your fellow (hu)man(s), because some of you treat them pretty terribly because you believe your religion tells you to or else God will feel like you’re not defending Him or His Honor or being obedient to His Commandments (or something to that effect).”

“On these… commandments [regarding showing love/respect for God, yourself and others] hang all the law and prophets [or fluff that purposefully distracts you from it and everything else is NOT QUITE as important].” (Matthew 22:40)

This year, as I continue on in this new paradigm, it is my hope that we can continue to put aside our differences, forgive past trespasses and seek (a) solution(s) to solve poverty before Christ solves it for us–and according to the scriptures, such a solution won’t be very pleasant for many of us.

“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? ²³ And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:22-23)

May this New Year be a much better one and may God’s Peace reside with you, my ‘friend’, as we each strive to make the next day a tad better for us and others than the previous one!😁🙏🏼