Upside down God

I am participating in a group writing project being produced by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net

Everyone who participates is writing a blog post using the topic "Top 5" in a way that's related to our blog theme.

I've decided to write about my Top 5 illusions about God. These are the "top" 5 because they are the most damaging and/or ridiculous beliefs I have ever held about "the big guy," and as such have caused me considerable pain and/or confusion and/or frustration.

Illusion number one
God is a "big guy." He is just like my father, only much larger, more powerful, and with a long white beard.
I'll admit - this is an oldie, but a goodie. I can hardly think of anything more intimidating than a bigger, more powerful version of my father. I once had a dream about such a hoary-crowned dictator. In it, he threw a fish at me. I don't know if he was trying to hit me or feed me. Guess that is the dream interpreted. Until this moment, I never knew what it meant.

Illusion number two
God loves poor people more than he loves rich people
Another classic. This is what people who operate under a lack mentality tell each other, and it's what they teach their children. It is first of all a way for people to band together and absolve themselves from understanding the complexities of prosperity, and from the responsibility of stewardship and living an expansive life (speaking from experience here). It's  crazy - but it makes some people feel better about having less, it gives them a sense of superiority, and it helps keep them where they are - which perpetuates the lack. Last I heard, the Universe was ever-expanding...so how could God ever possibly prefer an operating system that is so completely opposite to his own? The truth is that God does not take money out of context the way we do. Money has nothing to do with how he "feels" about us.

Illusion number three
Suffering is a one-way ticket to paradise.
This is a variation on illusion number two, but it is not specific to money. This suffering might be due to illness, loneliness, frustration of potential, etc. But it's OK - because every moment of suffering is one less year in the way-station known as purgatory. If you suffer enough, actually, you can skip right over purgatory and go straight to the third cloud on the left, where you will learn to play the harp. This makes me think of Disney World for some reason. Can you imagine if the price of entry was pain? Like when you get to the top of the line for Space Mountain, the ride operator winds up and gives you good wallop before you can get on. Thank you, but I'll skip that ride.

Illusion number four
Jesus is God's only son.
Jesus is special, that's for sure. He fully realized his true, divine nature while in human form. But he spent his entire life trying to explain to us that this is our birthright as children of God - and for the most part, we still don't get it. He called us his brothers and sisters. He said anything he did, we would do - even greater things would we do. And last but not least, is the beginning of one of the most famous prayers in Christendom, given to us by Jesus: "Our Father..." (Not my Father...). Jesus placed himself among us in his life and his teachings. He is the ideal, the master. He is my savior because he saves me from my own ideas about the baseness of my humanity. We are all sons and daughters of God.

Illusion number five
God is outside of me.
This is probably one of the most damaging illusions about God. God is spirit, he is substance. It is in this substance that we "...breathe and move and have our being." He is all around me, with me, in me. When I pray, I am not begging that big scary white haired man to have favor on me. I have no power to convince God to be anything other than all loving or to do anything other than promote life and goodness. If I lack anything, it is not because God is withholding it from me - it is because I have not yet come into the level of awareness of God within me that enables me co-create according to my highest good. When I pray, I simply sit and listen. Then I trust what I hear, and I go do it. God is that "still, small voice" and that voice is in me. Last time I checked, a being is where his voice is heard.

So my illusory God was big and scary, played favorites, preferred lack and suffering, withheld good things, was distant and inaccessible. My personal experience with God has caused me, over time, to release each one of these illusions, flipping my old image of God upside down. I learned that he is warm, gentle, kind, loving, present, healing, intimate, ever-expanding, all good.

Peace,
Julie

Julie Scipioni McKown is a writer, dedicated to the ideals of spiritual, physical, emotional and financial transformation.
Visit http://www.juliemckown.com.

Comments

[Yehuda Berlinger]

Very nice. (My second comment out of 150 posts; 'nuff said.)

Yehuda

[Eli James]

I fall regularly into illusion no#2 and illusion no#5.

God loves us all equally, but he places upon the rich the onus of doing more for the sake of humanity.

Or perhaps it's just the distractions of being a good Christian over the love of money.

Well written, well thought out. ^.^

[Julie Scipioni McKown]

Eli: The more I study the prinicples of prosperity from the Christian perspective, the more my view on this shifts. I think that studying how to be a good Christian inherently means learning how to become more prosperous ("...that you might have life, and have it more abundantly") - so that we will be enabled to do more for the sake of humanity. It doesn't make any sense if more of the most spiritual people have the least of the money. People who are farther along on the path to the realization of self as divine do and should have an abundance of resources with which to serve. For some, that's money, for others it's time and talent, but it all comes through the practice of the same principles.

I am reading The Prosperity Paradigm by Rev. Steven D'Annunzio (http://www.theprosperityparadigm.com), and he does a wonderful job of making the spirituality/prosperity connection from the Christian perspective.

Peace to all and thanks for visiting!
Julie