In the creation story, as the story goes, the Creator said seven times “It is good,” referring to that which the Creator created.

Some people think Creation is God, that Creation reveals the nature and reality of God. While a beautiful sunset or a jumping dolphin can reveal the beauty of Creation, it must be noted that Creation is not God but the creation of a God who then steps back from it and calls it “good.” It is as if to look at a painting I painted and to say “wow, it is good.” That painting may reveal I exist, but that painting is not me.

It is the same thing with creation. God created it and then stepped back to say “it is good.” So, if creation is good, who am I or you to call it bad? Things may not go my way. I may have some things not work out right even when I try to live morally. Tragedy does happen. But that does not deny the goodness of Creation. Whenever I say in my heart that someone is not good — do I not close my eyes to what God said?

Whatever makes people do evil does not deny the fact that they are, like you and me, created good. Often what makes people do evil are the actions of someone else. I am not sure we can just say, “so and so is just born an evil person” for whatever reason we choose.

Ponder this then: Whenever you feel rising within you the urge to denigrate another human being for whatever reason may seem important to you, step back a moment and remember what God said about Creation.

A CHALLENGE

I seek your input. The whole purpose of this blog is to share the core of faith in Jesus Christ that can give our lives a sense of what I call “connect” which as I have shared is where deep lasting meaning to one’s personal life can be found. And to do it in a way that communicates truths rather than dogma. There is way too much authority and dogma that gets in the way of the profound truths of personal faith.

I fully realize the language I use and the way I structure these thoughts may not work with everyone. That is why I now ask for your feedback.

I would love to get an open dialogue going online; where we can discuss and share and respond. Where we can place our own seekings and get a hearing.

So, please, share not who you are but where you are when it comes to connecting with a higher anchor.  Share about where you find meaning in life and what works or does not to you. Or about God or Gods. Each person’s view is important and will be treated as such. Put some questions or comments out there.

There is a lot more to come. On death. On dieing. On Resurrection. On Grace. On Forgiveness. On prayer. On mindfulness. To name a few.

Thanks for your connect.

Deep within each person is a space uniquely you. It is who you are — that person that looks out the physical eyes to see what is going on; that speaks through the tongue to let others know who you are; that goes forward looking for something to hang on to — to give that life within each of us a sense of meaning.

This inner real you is not the focus of commercialism. It is not the focus of political systems. It is no one’s business but yours.

But it needs to be fed. You see, it is this inner reality that can see ourselves alive in the world; that sets each person apart from the materialistic reactivity of the animal existence. We are physical, but we are human as well. And being human means being a living soul in the real world.

How you feed your inner spirituality as I call it is up to you. Many people fill the inner hunger by, if I may say it, making their own gods to bow down to. Whatever you may cll it,  it is a God we seek, believe me or not. So we bow down before the gods of our own making, easier to see and therefore more gratifying. Do you do this?

Ask yourself what is it that you think people need to see about you? What is it you would like people to know about you? Because that will be the god or gods you worship.

Do these gods work for you? Do they give you what you hunger for?

I have worked hard in my life to be settled with who I am. It has not been easy. Each one of us lives differently. We do not do everything the same way. For me, those self-made gods were a deep trap. An empty hole.

So I worked even harder to connect with the God I had come to know in prayer. And now I can tell you.

Thank God I did.

More to come.

If I asked you what feeds your ego, what would you tell me? There are many, many, ways to answer that question. I have asked it many times in teachings and seminars over the years and have heard many different answers. It is the question how do you know who you are; how do you want people to know who you are; what do you want to see yourself as? It is the question “Who am I” or “Who do I want you think I am”?

It is a much deeper question. What gods are you making for yourself and then bowing down to? After all, it is easier to worship gods of your own creation that are easier to see than the real God of creation. Even if you do not believe in God, you believe in something., As we have said before in this blog, within every person there is a hunger deep down in the human soul (that part of us that is who we really are!) that wants to (or maybe needs to!) “connect” with something higher than ourselves and our own experience. It’s just the way it is. That hunger shows up in many ways.

The problem is when we make our own easier-to-see gods and bow down to them; we ease the real God out of our lives. I do it all the time. The god of cash, or prestige, or esteem, or success, or power — there are many more — are easier to see. It makes us feel special when we worship these gods. Some higher connect that helps us decide how to live and act. Some higher connect that says “YOU ARE OK.”

The real God of creation is a God who wants in to your life — wants to connect with you — regardless of where you are in your God Search. I may reach out to my self-made gods but my self-made gods do not reach out to me. That’s why you can give all yourself away until there is little left and get no inspiration or strength in return. Ultimately the gods we make are dead gods.

The real God of Creation continues to reach out to us — knocking at our soul-door if you will — no matter where we may be in our lives or how many false gods we claim we worship.

Mary, the mother of Jesus went to the tomb where her son Jesus was laid after he died on the cross. She was sad (who would not be!); her heart downcast over the loss of her child. “I’ll go to his tomb and be there with him. He’s gone now. I will never see him again.”

She gets to the tomb and sees the stone rolled away. She runs and tells her comrades he was taken out of the tomb and no one knew where he was. They run to see for themselves. One of the disciples looked in and sure enough, Jesus was not there. They had no clue at this time as to what had happened. They return home.

Mary, however, stays. “I am in no hurry. I just want to be here with him for a brief moment. She bends down to look in. Curiosity, after ALL, gets all of us at one time or another. He is not there.

She stands back up. Sensing someone there, she turns around. It was a gardener.

Now get this. It was Jesus, but she did not recognize him.  So. The body of Jesus after rising from the dead was not the same as before. It had been changed. Transformed. Same Jesus but a different body. Ok. He asks Mary, “Why are you so sad. Who are you looking for?” Mary says, “Just tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away for you.

And then it happened. Jesus says her name. “Mary.” She turns to him. Now she knows him. How?

Could it be that the one who rose from the dead called her by name?

Relationship reestablished.

Connect reconnected.

“It is me, Mary. I have risen from the dead just as I said I would.” Calling out her name changed her as well. In a way her whole world was turned upside down when the relationship she had with Jesus was reestablished after he died. Incredible. The Jesus who rose from the dead reconnected with her. The life-after-death Jesus called by name the one left behind grieving. Everything was changed now.

“Mary, it’s me. I reach out to you”

“I see you Lord.”

She runs to tell her friends. “I have seen the Lord. He is risen.”

This changes all of us.

More coming.