The Disconnect
Hello friends! I haven’t written for a while, so I thought I’d let you know what’s on my mind. I was flipping through the channels this morning, relaxing a little bit before having to head out to a meeting. I landed on one of those televised church services, and heard a preacher say something like, "it is your responsibility to get your flesh in order so you will be found acceptable on that final day. And, glory to God… you’re in the right place to do that!"
Huh?
Now I’m sure this preacher is a highly trained religious scholar, and cares deeply for the people who support him in his ministry of reconciliation. But, what in the world is he talking about?
It seems to me that one of the main problems with modern Christianity is that they are hell-bent (excuse the pun) on perfecting themselves, and everyone around them… no matter what. The way I see it, God built this illusion called "the universe" and put us into it for some reason. All that is physical, is temporary. The only thing real in all this is the Spirit… our spirit, and God’s spirit (which is probably the same thing). The physical will be destroyed by the physical. There is no way to avoid it. We are all here for a time, and during that time, we will all learn the things we were put here to learn. There is no way to avoid it.
Some of the things we will learn will bring us great joy, and wonderful peace. Other things will cause us incredible grief and terrible pain. No matter what. Most of that pain will come from Christians — sorry, just kidding. But, the point is, we will experience all the things that our spirit needs to experience before this earth will bring our physical flesh to destruction. Don’t worry about it, it must happen. It cannot be avoided. But look forward to all those experiences, as they bring us closer to the place we need to be. The flesh will return to the dust it came from, and the spirit will soar into newness… maybe one step closer, or immediately to, the One who created us.
You can worry. You can panic. You can work hard to try to avoid all those experiences, both good and bad… but you will only be kidding yourself. You can”t avoid them. You just can’t. No amount of panic or worry will make any difference. Lessons will be learned. Life will be experienced.
To me, that’s what the story of Christ is all about…. that we must realize that we live in two different worlds. One is a illusion, and one is real. The problem is, we strive to perfect the illusion, forsaking the real. We want to make the physical "right", not seeming to understand that it never can be. It was designed that way. Jesus kept talking about the Kingdom of Heaven, and how it was "so close". And He talked about putting our trust in the "unseen" and opening our minds to the realization of the illusion of the flesh. If we can only understand how close heaven really is, we would find our spirits slipping into its peace, and placing less and less importance on the physical world.
It’s not to say that the decisions we make in the physical world won’t affect our physical lives… we will prosper from our correct decisions, and we will suffer for our incorrect decisions. But not everything that happens to us will be in our control. Sometimes (as Geo says), its just life on earth! This brings me back to the lessons we must learn. Even the worst decision… the decision that will bring an end to our physical world, can’t harm us. Leaving this world will be the best thing that ever happened to us. It will free us to finally experience life in the spirit, free from the illusion… free from the training ground of life-experiences we were here to have.
For those of you squirming in your chairs, no… I’m not about to kill myself. I don’t need to. Now that life is in proper perspective, I relish every moment. I do look forward to the end, and the great separation of spirit from flesh… I think it will be the most amazing part of my life. But, understanding how temporary, and how much of an illusion this earth-life truly is, I can look forward to all experiences - good and bad, great and insignificant. They all bring me a step closer to freedom. And truly, just knowing that… is freedom!
Let the world bring on what it will! I am at peace, trusting in the Creator who will return me to himself… uniting me with the Source of my spirit… making me one with His Life! That is something to shout about, and it is something to quietly savor. It is the essence of the Gospel of Christ. And it is the message so overlooked by the church that claims to be His.
You said….”I do look forward to the end, and the great separation of spirit from flesh… I think it will be the most amazing part of my life.”
Your post is great reading. Makes a lot of sense. What I quoted above that you said is something that has been on my mind a lot over the past several weeks and of course it stuck out to me when I read it. I totally agree it will be the greatest part of all our lives. What could be greater than the total culmination of what this life is all about. I too look forward to the day that the ultimate separation will occur. None of us can really see or understand what this will be like but it can be nothing but glorious. Great post.
What a breath of fresh air you bring Bruce. When I see your name on a post I immediately put everything else aside knowing I am about to learn something. Thankyou my friend.
Bruce- This is just about the finest post I have read from you. I feel you are telling a great truth here. I, too, bellieve that we are here to have experiences, experiences that will prepare us for the true reality to come, not the illusion we are living here. When each of us finally realizes that this existence is really illusion, not reality, and that the spirit is the reality, not illusion, our lives will change. When we realize the power to change the illusion we seem to see is within us, we can truly change this illusion to make it more bearable while we live it. Thank for giving us this wonderful post!
Don R.
Why in your mind does this world need to be an illusion? Is it possible that this is just a portion of our existence that we go through. In other words, like a baby goes to child, which goes to adolescent, which goes to adult, and then to death of this body. Why does that need to be illusion, is it not real? Is it not just a part of the whole? I always get this sense when people speak of this world we know as an illusion, that they are no different than the people who cant wait to escape this Life to get to heaven(or their so called Real life). In my mind, its all part of the whole, just as “real” as my spirit.
Somehow, I think believing that this is “real” is embracing defeat. This world will destroy us (ultimately). But the reason for the word “illusion” comes from my study of quantum physics.
This might interest you.
http://www.phrenopolis.com/perspective/atom/#electron
Maybe that’s where the term “far out, man!” came from.
You don’t have to believe the physical world is an illusion if you don’t want to. I don’t really care. But, coming to that conclusion was one of the most freeing thoughts I’ve ever had!
Smile!
Bruce
Whatever “real” is to you or me is all about perspective. Mind over matter, If I dont mind it dont matter. LOL. Now the term “defeat” to me, means to lose. I dont see my life as a loss. In fact even the pain or suffering in my so called “illusion”, in my mind is part of my “whole” existence. To wish it away as some kind of illusion just makes no sense to me. But ultimately Bruce, whatever works for you, go for it. I think if there is continual life, then “ULTIMATELY” were all ok, if not then we are just worm bait.
John T.- My studies of dreams, hallucinations, etc; have convinced me that this life is like a giant, universe-sized simulation. A simulation that, like a dream sometimes seems so very real, seems so very real us. This simulation (experience) is preparing us for something to come which will be real, which will not be illusion. It really doesn’t maatter to me if you believe it or not. That’s your perogative. And you are right, “ultimately are all OK”.
First of all, I have to say this made me laugh…
“Most of that pain will come from Christians — sorry, just kidding.”
Second of all, I really liked this post. I realize that I have to differentiate reality and illusion (my own thoughts). I have let go of the religious mind-set although there are random times I stop and think, what if I am wrong? But then I shake my shoulders and say, yeah right, and move along. I have known so many people who live their lives (or it seems) pretty care-free about what happens with their spirit. I’d have to say that is much better than living in fear that your kids screwed up and that you won’t get to be with them in eternity. The thought of actually dying scares the hell out of me, but not the part after it.
Don R.
Youre right to say it doesnt matter if I believe you or not. Thats why there called opinions, weve all got one. I like your simulator idea. I play golf all the time on simulators, and it never does catch the total feeling of playing it in “real” time. The thing is though it is an experience of the real thing even if it comes up short. And to top it off, it helps me with my “real” game. So I guess all Im trying to state here is that even the so called “illusion” helps me with my game of life. And ultimately my life is the sum total of all its parts, not just the “real” time, but the “illusion” time too. And with that Im going for another cold beer, thats if in this illusion I still have some in the fridge.
Bruce,
Great post. It’s so good to be reminded of how sneaky the dysangel of works is. It’s *my* responsibility to get my self in order so God can save me! That’s funny. The whole message of God needing me to straighten out my life to fit some supposed pattern otherwise he’s gonna hurt me real bad is a sick, sick message. I understand why folks believe it. I used to believe it myself.
But, hey, life is a journey. A process. And we’re always in process. At our best we can enjoy the present moment of where we find ourself in the process. All the while, understanding no one’s process is exactly the same. The past is a story, and so it the future. The NOW is all that is real. And that’s not a sad thing. It’s pure freedom.
Thanks for the post,
Kevin