(A little more explanation)
With my “Reprints” (reruns), I have been slowly putting all that I had out on WordPress over on Substack. I have found the grind of creating new content multiple times a week to be a lot. Today I felt a nudge to write something “new”.
So here I go again. Maybe you read some of my blog, or you liked a note or post, and then went on with your day. This is fine, and I appreciate every bit of interest I get. Here’s my Substack link, for those who may be on WordPress only: https://wordsmith2511.substack.com .
But my intention is not simply to get a like, but to get you to pause.
And in that pause-I want to start help changing your life.
Didn’t want that? That’s ok-you can come back when you are ready/able. I’ll be here.
As I have written over and over again, I am not a pastor, therapist, or counselor. I am an accountant by day, but I do believe God has called me to teach about Aligning with Love. In fact, I sensed that was what I should call this blog: Align with Love.
But what does that even mean?
Maybe the phrase resonates with you-maybe not. If you are a person of Faith, coming from that Judeo-Christian background, this will be easier to get into, but not essential. If you have abandoned your faith, or always felt Christianity was lacking, I get it. I had my anti-Christian phase, and I am not really “mainstream” in my practice of Christianity anymore, either. I have woven together 12-Step Practice, my own mystical experiences with God, time in Scripture, and time with various forms of spiritual literature.
Why should you care about Aligning with Love?
If some of you are like me, you get up each day, and pray or read Scripture, or study the Bible, or go to Church–all the “stuff” we Christians are supposed to do. But something still seems missing. For me, I lose my temper. I get impatient with everyone. Like everyone. I feel like I had a “good time” with the Lord-got insights when I prayed, and wrote powerful things in my journal. But before long, it all seems to evaporate. I am busy with to-do’s, from work or home. I soon forget to pray, or be open, or light (some of my Approaches. When it is time to “sit” with the Lord again, I am spending most of it trying to get recentered. This is not bad, per se, but I want to be “flowing with Life”, not “fighting”, as a wonderful Recovery book, called Hope and Recovery, once said.
Of course, we can’t be perfectly centered and at peace all the time, but somehow, I sense we are meant to be living less on a “hamster wheel” of emotional and mental ups and downs, and feeling disconnected from ourselves and God.
Align with Love is about getting off that hamster wheel, and being on a Path. It’s a peaceful path. Yes, it can bend abruptly, but we don’t have to be thrown off by that. We can have deep trust in the unfolding of the Universe, and the Presence of God in the midst of it all. We can transcend all these momentary “happenings”, and be more fully our True Selves. Yes, we can.
Align with Love is not some set of “perfect” things to do that will “fix” you and your life. But would it not be nice to go through something without feeling guilty how you handled it? Would it be nice to go through a situation without having to apologize like every dang time for overeacting and saying something unhelpful? I’ve lived the mess-ups, and the “churning” inside that I did that again. I said that, again. I yelled “God-d** it”, again. Whether it was a temper blow up, lust, procrastination, or fantasizing all the nasty things I would love to say to so-and-so, and then feeling horrible I even wanted to, I want to live differently.
Jesus said: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John’s Gospel, 10:10, Christian Scriptures.
I want that life. I think you want that life too, whether you carry the label “Christian”, or not. But I think Jesus has a very different idea of what a “full life” is. We think of it as the house, car, good job, great partner, lot’s of material stuff, and enough money to live “comfortable”. (I’m writing as a white, middle-aged, suburban American male.) This is a “full” Western Civilization life, and it is not all bad to want it or have it. But if I chase that, am I no different than the “Rich Young Ruler”, who Jesus asked to sell everything and follow Him? (Mark 10:17-22)
Ok, I will not advocate you sell all your stuff, necessarily. But what do we need to let go of? What Ego, Expectations and Narratives are really running our lives? (Go see my writings on The Unholy Trinity.)
Part of the meaning of the word “religion” is to bind up. Many of us are bound up, but bound up to rules God never intended. Or, we are chasing more and more Bible knowledge thinking extra insights into the Greek will make us more moral. It doesn’t. I am NOT knocking Bible studies, dear readers! But if all the study doesn’t make us more loving, more kind, and more like Jesus, we are just chasing religious knowledge.
The quest for knowledge was how sin started in the Garden in Genesis!
I think God wants us first to know Him. To know her, to know them. (I use that language intentionally, as God transcends our gender ideas, and goes beyond them. I am not saying I am against genders, or am ignoring their wonderful differences.)
Yes, I know some will say: “Well, we get to know God from the Bible…” to some degree this is true, but when we see those same Scriptures, we see God interacting directly with people and showing them Himself. God calls Abraham to walk with Him. He appears in a burning bush to Moses. He invites men and women to know Him, not just stuff about Him.
Aligning with Love is to step into that knowing, and then to flow with it.
It is to invite mystically a “sense” of God, of God’s presence,
into our hearts and circumstances, and to be “in” it.
Then the “rules” take care of themselves. It’s not us “doing it”, and striving, it’s God and us doing it together. Then the hamster wheel stops. No, you’re not perfect, but you are someone else, something else. You are slowly becoming a more mature, son or daughter of God. This is not just so you can “feel good” or feel peaceful.
That “Full Life” you are supposed to live,
is so that you can be what I call a Loving Presence in the world.
This is to be God’s Representative to the world, which the Apostle Paul called being an “Ambassador for Christ”. (2nd Cor. 5:20 in the New Testament) If that does not appeal to you–watch the news for 5 minutes.
We NEED people to be more Loving Presences everywhere. Everywhere.
As I said, I am not someone special, and I understand wanting to follow and subscribe to the pastors, psychologists, doctors, etc, on the Web. But I am struck by a wonderful passage from the Biblical book of Acts, following Jesus’s Ascension:
“When they (the Jewish Authorities) saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” (Book of Acts 4:13, Christian Scriptures)
I am “unschooled”, and “ordinary”, but I believe I have been with Jesus. You’ll have to decide if what I say speaks to you or not, and if you want to join me in the journey of being more Aligned with Love.
Whatever you do, I pray your heart will be more united with God’s, more Aligned with His, and that you will find your place in the “One Flow” of His Spirit.
I’ll be “here”. I am going to keep writing, teaching, and sharing my failings. Whether I have lots of followers, or no one cares, I will keep doing my best at “teaching His people Love”. I believe I was sent here to do this.
Be open. Be light. Seek to know God, not just info about Him/Her, but to know Them. Let God be “in” you, so you can manifest God to the world. That is what the “full” life really looks like, I believe.
More to write on that-thanks for your time.
Other posts explaining more of this:
-Eric, the Wordsmith
BP60 (Yes 60th post on WordPress!)
Have thoughts or comments? You can click on the comment link, or you can email me at the address provided. Have ideas you want me to write about, or questions? Want to tell me how much you enjoy (or don’t enjoy) my content? All are acceptable, but be nice, please. Thanks! alignwithlove85@gmail.com.
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