Personal Growth, A Process of Change

The world is powerless to harm my prospects, or to turn my past success to failure. My place within God's Eternal Kingdom is secured by love, I trust it completely and I have a good reason to trust it. Unity is the divine principle; separation an impossibility. Eventually we'll all have to own up to our 14 billion or so companions and peers; each with the capacity to exercise an independent judgement, and then try to feel happy. It's a very common idea that there are some wicked people in the world who deserve to be punished, and most of the people who think like this feel they are able to determine where those lines should be drawn. As if we we are all going to vote on the matter, you're free to vote but you're not the enforcer. If all those people who we don't like receive favor instead of punishment, how will we complain? The possibility of forgiveness is only meant to be a pardon from punishment, it can not make us exempt from judgement. We are supposed to learn from our mistakes and achieve personal growth, so that we do not continue to make similar mistakes. Ignorance may serve as our best excuse for just about everything we ever did in life that might have been a crime, but it can not serve as an excuse indefinitely.

I have heard people proclaiming that our world is about to change, something fundamental to our awareness perhaps, i'm not sure what they're expecting. And some people desire to be in a controlling and guiding position, they write books expressing some personal truth. And i'm mostly thinking about Neale Donald Walsh when i say that, since i subscribe to his quotes on facebook, and he's somewhat famous for his 'Conversations with God' books. When we discover something unexpected then personal growth may occur; and if we have some personal experience that contradicts our past beliefs, then we may be changed. Neale seems to feel that the answer lies in overcoming our fears of a mortal end, which is at the root of all our bad feelings. Personally I think that I've already achieved that goal; those who have are supposed to lead those who are yet to overcome. But how did it happen to me? The change was anything but instantaneous, it required years of time and confidence building. But the revelatory experience took place in just a few moments of my early life, and it was something completely unexpected. I can only refer to the event as an intervention by some higher power, evidently something uncommon to all people, but I've heard a few personal stories of such experiences. It was nothing like a conversation as Neale claims to enjoy, and I would subsequently have to doubt any voice proclaiming itself to be God. I never had the problem of hearing voices, that I know some people do experience. Can I know for certain that God favored me with a personal experience of itself, I might assume it was a lesser person than the most high God. But clearly someone greater than a human-being had been paying attention to me and cared enough to make a special effort. That such a person may be able to exist and excerte a little power over our reality was enough of a revelation to justify a growing trust in God I guess.

I don't think that there's really anything I can do to enable other people to have a similar experience of their own. It simply doesn't depend on anything that I can do, or some special knowledge that I might be able to impart. And I don't think it will ever be good enough to go around saying to people that the human spirit is a very durable thing, and something that could last forever. By virtue of a form of manifestation which is yet invisible to us, perhaps our consciousness is sustainable. It's always going to be speculation until we experience it, even faith can't make it more real than that. I believe and feel good about the belief, but good feelings are not enough, that I've had to learn. Still my belief is enough to affect some of my choices; I'll wait to see if the judgement was sound, I can be that patient and I can afford to be surprised. Or I can afford to be wrong and unable to feel surprised if my experience becomes an experience of unconsciousness. If we believe that consciousness is a phenomena of life then i suppose that unconsciousness makes sense; but if you think as I do that consciousness is a phenomena of God's presence then it may be preserved.

Making a Difference

If I wanted to change the world in a big way, I probably do not have the time or ability to be successful in my desire. But if i'm happy to change the world in small ways then I have already been successful. And what more should we really hope for than to know we are saved for eternity? Beyond this what expectations should we have? If I believe that God is the great planner that many people think he is, I must humbly admit that I have no special knowledge of that plan. But I know that I can not make such a plan accountable to my own personal desires. If I have many expectations then I'll most likely be following a path of many disappointments. It's very hard for me to trust that anyone else would have superior insight, even though I believe we all share the one source for all inspiration. I trust what I myself have experienced before I would trust another person's account or claims; I prefer my own opinions in case there are any contradictions. But I'm willing to be proven wrong, our knowledge can never be made perfect by our own means. Popularity is no way to gauge righteousness; and I've heard other people argue that its alright for us to judge so long as we are righteous judges. But I really wonder how anyone can be certain of that; and it seems to me that meekness is favored over righteousness if they're not the same thing.

I have my own validation for believing that Jesus was successful in creating salvation, although I still don't understand the how and why of it. And I believe that he did this for everyone, whether or not we believed in it, and whether or not anyone else thinks we are deserving. One man claiming to be inspired with a divine vision suggested that a general resurrection was the ultimate end of prophecy, and i quite like the idea of it. And while that story has become very popular it might still be wrong, merely wishful thinking at best, and not within the realm of possibilities. But while I don't have all the answers myself, I'm generally willing to wait for the right answers. We can never be certain of some things until after it becomes a part of our personal history and experience, we just need to be patient. In the short or long-term there's nothing better than first-hand information. In the long run I don't think it really matters what we merely believe; but what we do and how we treat one-another might make a difference.

Interdependence and Personal Debt

Owing to our great interdependence practicly everyone will be left with a large number of unpaid personal debts at the ends of our motal lifetime. And I think its fair to say that some of our debts can never be satisfied via financial means. Countless numbers of people have made contributions to my own personal welfare with little to no monetary compensation. Some of them can't be rewarded because they're already long dead. Many of the individuals who's life work has benefited myself, may never get more than a pat on the back and "Job well done m8!" from me, but arguably that's good enough for recognition. Most of those people I may never have the opportunity to meet and thank personally, whether or not they were rewarded in life.

For example, everytime you drive a car you accumulate debt with all those people who built the roads and bridges and maintained them. Whether or not you supported all that work by paying taxes, I believe there should be an additional and more personal debt. We probably don't know anything about those people as fellow human beings, what personal accomplishments they cherished or how well they lived. Life should be more personal.

Of course there are a number of individuals who we did pay for services rendered, or were paid by our benefactors. For all those who have been rewarded financially, should we owe them any additional loyalty? I think not, because for all intents and purposes we are equally important. To consider our fellow human-beings as peers is the highest form of compliment that I personally can manage. Most of us are unwilling to go that far without discrimination and judgement, but if we haven't reached the level of maturity to learn it for ouselves, I think we must at least learn to be willing. To be willing is the greatest accomplishment whether or not we possess a level of personal ability to do a job.

Thousands of man-hours have been spent to stock our local grocery stores, a very minimal amount of labor is required by me in order to eat. As a practical consideration I would never be able to accomplish that much work myself, and do it in a timely way. I live in a house which I did not build myself, and I have not dedicated the many hours of my personal time to develope the skill to be able to do all the work. It doesn't really matter that the contractors were paid for the work, there is still a personal debt which goes well beyond that. And in order to make good on all these kinds of debts we really do need unlimited time, and we need some kind of after-life, or restoration to life.

We need enough time and opportunity to meet everyone and entertain a bit of conversation. There are a number of historical persons and personal hero's whom I'd very dearly like to meet and here them tell their own story. And whether or not they're personal hero's, I'm still willing to listen. There is a huge difference between being willing and simply being pre-occupied. We can sometimes excuse ourselves from making the effort because we are too busy, but within God's Eternal Kingdom, no such excuses can be made. And the way I see it, mortal life does take place within God's Eternal Kingdom. No place can exist in a state of seperation from that Kingdom, and the Spirit of God itself is ever-present. God touches all of our lives whether or not we are willing to believe it, without this intimate touch our self-awareness would be impossible. We can not choose to forsake this without forsaking our own continued existence as Individual persons, in this respect we are utterly dependent. We simply have no power or authority to chose seperation, we can not chose to have an end and rest in the peace of unconsciouness. If thats what we end up getting, it can never be due to a personal choice. Free-will has it's limitations when we are counted among a multitude of thinkers, and evidently we will always be counted as part of a greater whole.

The only kinds of personal rights which can be gaurenteed in life are those rights whigh our God or Creator does gaurentee. Its hard to say exactly what those rights would amount to if we share them equally and all things being considered. Evidently the right to life and happiness is not gaurenteed. While most of us would like to enjoy a guarenteed freedom from molestation, it does not appear that any one of us has ever had that gaurenteed. Any of our civil rights which are gaurenteed by a governing agency of our own, can easily be made subject to suspension, and for most rules we are willing to make exceptions. In order to become the most excellent judges in our own right, we must learn not to make exceptions, and we can never choose to enforce punishment. Violence in all it's various forms is the main part of our human dilema and can never be a part of the solution. When we've dedicated literally millions of man-hours to preperations for war, then war becomes a fair certainty lest all that work goes to waste; it easily becomes the means of choice. But i'm afraid its inevitable that all our current technology of arms will eventually be rendered obsolete, someone will discover a path to superior force.

This wonderful capacity for reason which we believe elevates us from the rest of the animal kingdom has not freed us from this kind of insanity. It appears that we are able to justify practically any deed, even genocide can make sense to one of us. Frequently we are able to justify murder or assasination when the ends seem desireable, and the threat of punishment will not serve as a deterant for many of us. We can not help but feel angry under certain circumstances, and it appears that our feelings will serve as our best excuse if we are ever to be made accountable. It's hard to account for the way we feel about differernt things, although in many cases we have been taught how we should feel. Who can take the blame if they were not favored with a quality education? We don't get to chose the circumstances of our birth but we need to be able to trust someone other than ourselves.

It's my personal belief that all manner of our personal debts can and will be paid in some way eventually. I believe in the durability of the individual human spirit because I trust God completely not to abandon us. At the very least we are gaurenteed to be remembered perfectly, all the events that surrounded us and intimately our personal experience of those events. It must be true because history is indelible, nothing can ever be changed about it. Even if I imagine that God has the power and authority to change some factual event, I can not imagine him using that power in order to show favor to a few and disfavor to others. I think that we will endure whether or not the world ever made sense to us, or whether or not we get any enjoyment out of it. We are ever a part of this great big Universe whether or not we felt that we belonged to it, it belongs to each of us. From our personal involvement and accountability there is no possibility of divorce, we may be pardoned from punishment but we may not be pardoned from existence and judgement. In the long run I believe that happiness is still a possibility for us, we shouldn't be too disappointed as the ultimate truth stands revealed to us; if we find ourselves very surprised the truth must still be better than we can possibly imagine.

Intervention

I believe that the Earth should be preserved indefinitely by some form of intervention; and it doesn't matter to me who intervenes. So long as they are able and willing to do the work I will consider them well motivated and a personal friend.

Clearly life on Planet Earth has a definite beginning, and is preceded by the Universe as a whole. Even the Universe itself has a definite beginning and we should assume is preceded by something else. I call that something else God's Eternal Kingdom, which i consider to be an undivided Kingdom. Our mortal lives take place within the greater Kingdom, and within the presence of God because God is ever-present within the Universe. To the best of my understanding, it is not possible to be separated from God's presence, we depend upon it for our ability to be self-aware. For every kind of historical event there must be at least one observer. From where we stand we can see a great multitude of Individual Person's, each one of them observes the Universe from a unique perspective. We appear to be separated from one another and we do not share a common personal experience. Whatever one of us has experienced in mortal life constitutes a measure of personal wealth, the experience has value. Whether we deem the experience to have been pleasant or unpleasant we might learn something that brings about personal growth. We progress along a path to maturity with no clear obtainable goal, at times we endure, and sometimes it seems we fail to endure. Many of us have struggled at times, we fought the battles that our survival seemed to require. Occasionally one of use chooses not to fight, we submit to the idea that some circumstances are beyond our ability to control. Our struggles may always seem to conclude with unhappiness, and some of us stop believing that we can be happy. Some of us have followed the noble path of personal sacrifice rather than making demands upon the lives of others. If we are unwilling to take a life in order in insure our own survival then we may not be preserved from another person's will to injure us. So a few have suffered injury while believing that the greatest battle had already been won. An uncountable number of human beings have proven that they were willing to die in the service of some noble cause, and in many cases willing to kill. For even one life to be saved may be noble enough reason to risk our own lives, or to demand the sacrifice of someone else's life.

All of the players in the Great Game of Life may be ranked in a variety of ways; but our personal rank matters less than the fact we participated. The human family is one family, and if we choose not to see it this way then we are out of touch with reality. There is a personal relationship between ourselves and every other human being, the matter can not be made subject to personal choice. These relationships bind us together whether or not we like the circumstances. Every single one of us was born here on Planet Earth and we belong to the Earth as much as it belongs to each of us. If we tried to change our world, or chose not to make an effort; if we have believed that we were powerful or powerless, we share a common fate. Our species succeeds or fails all together; as a species we either survive or fail to survive and become extinct. Whether or not the people are able to continue our world may fail us, if we do not destroy ourselves mother nature may still have the final word. In the long run we are unable to preserve the viability of Planet Earth. We can only hope that we are deserving of the intervention of a higher-power and a greater technology than we possess. And its hard to say what would make us more or less deserving. Perhaps we can by surviving perform a service valued by these higher-powers. The motivation doesn't matter to me, so long as the work gets done I will call it good.

Unlimited Responsibility - Pt. 2

While I am a kind of priest, it's not in my job description to take confession or offer absolution. However it is in my job description to take responsibility for your personal welfare; and I have to accomplish that without offering you material support. My personal ability is somewhat limited but my desire is less limited; and sometimes just being willing is more important than being able.

Our creators do not gaurentee that life will be easy and free of all hardship; and for the most part humanity Lords over itself. Whatever we may conceive as a higher authority and power, it seems content to let us govern ourselves. But of course none of us creates all conditions, our influence is mostly limited to an ability to make personal decisions. We create most of the world events that we deem to be important as we exercise what power we do have over reality. And we choose what we will or will not believe in, we define our own most fundamental truths in-as-much as we do feel comfortable with our own opinions. If we manage to put food on the table and shelter over our heads with a bed to lie in, that is a measure of success. And while we have enjoyed some successes we take comfort in the idea that our beliefs worked for us, why should we doubt what works? Whatever the nature of reality may turn out to be, we would like for it to make some kind of sense to us. We are all deserving of a Just Universe, but its hard to say exactly why we are deserving. We likely have some very definate ideas about what justice entails, most people agree that punishment should be a part of that equation. Unless the people can be seperated into more or less deserving groups there can be no meaningful justice because clearly we do not all deserve equal favor.

Individually the children of humanity do enjoy more or less favorable positions over the full course of mortal life. If we believe in our own durability and some kind of immortality, why should be believe that our future would be any different? It's good for us to be loved and we should be loved more as we grow and develope into our own personal maturity. IMHO everyone enjoys some capacity to learn from thier own personal experiences; and given unlimited time we are free to progress at a leisurely pace. With imperfect knowledge we must still act in every moment, and whatever we choose to do it's having an effect upon our environments and upon those who share it. I do believe that we would all like to be gaurenteed a personal freedom from molestation, to be isolated from violent deeds that others do. Let no-one impose his or her will upon me, let them not hold me up to their expectations, make no demands upon my time. Ask and then let me decide what to give, let me determine what my personal responsiblity demands of me. No-one else can make up my mind or determine how I should act. No human-being has superior rights, individually or collectively as a group. Still someone will always try to claim superior authority, superior intellect, superior education - people will even go so far as to claim divine insight and direction. The proponents of democracy may believe in some kind of providence, but they will never believe in the divine right of Kings to govern their world.

Who has ever been given instructions? Instead of instructions we get a measure of judgement, that we must exercies and develope to the best of our ability. The people have all been inspired with diverse and sometimes conflicting ideas, but the source of all human inspiration is somthing we share in common, it is a singular source. A few of us have gone so far as to claim that they did have guidance or instructions, but how can we trust the integrity of such claims? Human-beings are quite capable of perpetrating deceptions, even honest men may be self-decieved, our desire can be that strong. A true King is always self-directed and self-employed, he depends only upon a well-developed judgement. As revealed within the tale of Johnathan Livingston Seagull; the pursuit of personal excellence for birds is found within flight, for human-beings it is found within judgement. The most accomplished judge knows that he can not lay claim to superior knowledge for the matter can not be proven. He can only claim to know of events for which he has a direct personal experience. That personal experience would natureally include a great deal of testamony given by our peers. The whole body of testamony must be considered as evidence but often it is only evidence of beliefs being held. When someone says that they have experienced something that testamony must be given more weight. We found these things and we observed these things and we arrived at these conclusions. The physical evidence can never be excluded, it must always be accounted for. The excellent judge must keep asking the question, "What do I know and how do I know it?" He can not decide that an idea is valid based upon it's popularity and he can not make precidents upon decisions that have been made by other men in the past. Whatever has been done or said, cannot be undone. So given the limited power and authority that a single individual may possess, what can be done to change the world and what exactly would make it better for everyone. If we choose to be concerned for the welfare of all people without allowing for exceptions, exactly what outcome would be in everyone's best interests? It must serve the interests of the living and the dead and posterity and as a practical matter it must somehow be achieveable.

I decided a long time ago that the experience of Life on Earth is the very best thing for human-beings to have, and for everyone to enjoy more of that is my definition of the ultimate good. I don't know for certain that such a thing is achieveable but I believe it may fall within a realm of possibilities. It's difficult to rule out the possibility of a general ressurection even though our Universe doesn't seem to allow for any kind of permanence. The state of manifest things is constant change here and it's entirely predictable that our Sun will not last forever. The Earth will not be habitable forever; but in order for the ultimate good to be served as I perceive it, these things must be made to last forever. Clearly there is no Human technology that can moderate the forces which cause the Earth's magnetic field, or renew or Sun's supplies of fuseable Hyrodgen. In order for such things to become possible we have to imagine a superior technology and a superior personality to employ that technology in our behalf. In consideration of my own personal experiences, I'm convinced that such a person and technology do exist within our Universe, able to serve my great cause yet perhaps unwilling. Its hard to imagine how such a person could be convinced to serve a personal plan at the direction of one of us. Perhaps there is some service it requires that only a human-being may provide. Perhaps this is the way our Universe is governed, if we imagine a greater community of intelligent species and for every intelligent species there must always be one great patriarch or matriarch to serve as ambassador. A person who is able to make a durable commitment to be a companion and a peer, co-creator and servant. To do the job, one of us must win this great game of life decisively and overcome mortality in order to live and serve forever, or at least for a very very long time. In order to cover the cost of this great big piece of real-estate and become the Landlord our prospective saviour must be considered creditworthy. While many good people may prefere the salvation that Jesus offered, and prefer him for a King, he shows a preference to those people who should be considered meek. It appears that his version of salvation may be exclusive to true-believers and not all-inclusive. It appears to me that the most fundamental truth of creation that we have uncovered is it's underlying Unity. No amount of distance within the Universe represents meaningful seperation; there is always a relationship between ourselves and absolutely everything else. Now I'm well aware of a few idealistic individuals (and if i don't include myself in that group please forgive me) who believe in something called the Rapture. According to them our wonderful and remarkably strange Universe is meant to be a temporary thing only for the benefit of us human-beings. A true Heaven exists behind the world that we know, and that is the place we are truely meant to live forever, not here on planet Earth. But personally I like the Universe very much, the Earth is still a beautiful world despite human habitation, and perhaps it even has a purpose which does not depend on us. I guess that this is what faith is for.

Unlimited Responsibility

At the age of 19 in 1982 I stumbled upon my greatest discovery, I made a decision and I made a commitment. I chose my own noble cause, the Mormon's refer to it as the 'General Resurrection'. I simply choose to believe in this as a possibility even though it's completely irrational and doesn't seem to fit the nature of our Universe.

The General Resurrection represents the Ultimate good fate for Humanity in my estimation, but I have always felt that while possible its still conditional. Certain things have to happen in Human history, and while its not always clear what those things amount to, the Millennium of Peace on Earth kinda stands out. I was willing to pay a personal price to get the world a guarantee, and just because I was willing, I was rewarded. Ever since that day I have always known beyond the shadow of a doubt that there is some kind of Higher Power in the Universe and it was paying attention to us, and to me. It was a personal experience of which I've never doubted the authenticity. Subsequently I met a woman by the name of Yvette Parker, I called her Eve. Eve was one of the less fortunate people in our world, I met her in a psychiatric ward. At a time in my life that I was feeling betrayed and abandoned by my family and friends, Eve believed in me. She said on more than one occasion that, "You'll save the world." And I agreed with Eve of course, it was my job, I had volunteered and I got a positive response; but I replied to her, "while it may be true, I still don't know what needs to be done." I've dedicated hours upon hours of my life to worrying about our future, and not just my personal future but the future of my species. I have worried to the extent that it made me sick. I have had to suffer numerous Bi-Polar Manic episodes and hospitalizations, but I have a pretty decent memory of all that personal history and I think that I've managed to bring something back from all the natural highs. I have grown older and hopefully a little bit wiser, I have learned a few things of value from over 47 years of personal experience, at least these lessons are valuable to me.

For a very long time I have felt that all my life i'm just waiting for the right opportunity, trying to prepare for that critical moment where everything changes. And I have always imagined that Faith is the key, to really understand what it is and how it can empower a man, that's the greatest secret. A secret which no other person has ever yet fully discovered. Most of us think we know what Faith means, it means that we believe in something with all our hearts. Over the years I have put that theory to some serious testing and I've concluded that mere belief has no real power in it. You would think that it might matter, what we believe in; but that's far less important than what we do. It doesn't really matter how strongly we feel about our ideas of divinity or who's authority we trust, our own power and authority has certain limitations. We can not change one true thing, or historical event simply by wishing. No-one ever gets to make all the decisions, and even if you manage to have a majority vote on your side of the arguments, that's still not enough to overcome the ultimate minority, the Individual. Still the great secret of Faith is well beyond my understanding, I've never managed to figure it out. But I know which things I believe in and which things I doubt, and I'm more or less satisfied with my current understanding of our Reality even though it may be woefully incomplete.

We are intimately known, we have no secrets, not even our thoughts can remain hidden from all the higher powers of Heaven. The physical evidence suggests that the Universe has a way of remembering itself, so everything historical is part of a great record and no small thing is ever forgotten. Presumably all that could be revealed to us, God willing. In my humble opinion, personal experience is the true meaning of wealth, and it can always be shared out without suffering a loss. We don't really want all of our private lives to be revealed, but we don't always get to make a choice and its not quite the same thing as 'intellectual property'. If we are willing to grant the possibility of a general resurrection to immortality on planet Earth, it becomes imaginable that we would have the opportunity to converse with every other person who ever lived. The famous and the infamous alike could be interviewed by us, if we are to be judged then perhaps we will be judged 14 billion times over. We judge one-another, just as we've always done; but we will be denied the possibility of killing one person because we think them deserving of punishment for all of their deeds. Death and escape from accountability would not be a possibility for us in this new and future world.

The Mormon prophet Joseph Smith claimed that beyond the General Resurrection (which very few if any people would be denied) that humanity would be divided up into 3 different groups. No one group would actually be punished but each group would receive a different degree of favor. I admire Joseph because he proposed no punishment, but I hope and feel that he was wrong about the separation. Clearly some kind of separation is considered to be desirable and necessary, otherwise there can be no justice. For most of us can judge someone deserving of punishment; for most of us, some deeds are unpardonable. We don't really care if the other person didn't know better, and they harmed us in some way. If a person has caused much suffering they deserve a fair return of suffering, the old adage "An Eye for an Eye" represents Justice, even divine Justice. Clearly various people have been more or less favored in mortal life, more or less successful, more or less influential, more or less important. In my humble opinion the truth is that none of us can be more or less important. I mean it does seem that President Obama is a very important man, and a person such as Oprah Winfrey has been more influential. But the honorable person is really no more important than the least honorable person. Every single one of us changes the World a little bit simply by living in it. Whether we've changed it in small or large ways matters not as much as simply having been a part of it.

My favorite pastime and constant occupation is playing a lot of online computer games. The games I like best are complete virtual worlds with their own set of rules, multiple players and some kind of economy. While I can spend a great deal more time on a game than the average player, I've still never been the best. I'm hardly competitive at all, but I enjoy spending the time on it. Even in a fantasy world our accomplishments are still meaningful. I don't need to be better than the other players in the game, I just need to make personal progress; and its very easy to measure progress in most of these MMORPG's. I imagine that some people would think less of me for spending so much time on "Video Games", but I think that our games provide us with valuable learning experiences. The games which I've spent the most time on are far more complex than a typical "Video Game", and as a bonus involve thousands of real people. So there's some real problem solving involved here, and interpersonal relations are important too. The World itself is very much like a great big Role-Playing Game; I call it, "The Great Game of Life." If all the players in the great game of life could be ranked, I imagine that I'd be near the bottom of most scales. But the game can be ranked in such a large variety of ways that its hard to determine where we really stand. But in this game its entirely possible for everyone to be a winner, participation alone constitutes a winning condition, especially if we get some enjoyment out of it. That's the way all the very best games always work, one of life's lessons for myself and something I value highly.

Still no-one has ever managed to win the Great Game of Life decisively, no-one has ever managed to overcome their own mortality in order to avoid death completely. No-one person has ever dominated and governed the entire population of our species, but I don't think that such a monarchy is entirely impossible. These are things which just haven't happened yet, the fact that no-one has ever done it before does not prove that no-one will ever do it. If the future of our species could be determined entirely from historical precedents, then I don't think there's much hope for world peace and disarmament. The Children of Humanity are not about to start beating their swords into plowshares just yet, too many people would have to give up too much of their personal power. The American people for example might lose a great deal of their influence in the rest of the world if we had to sacrifice our military superiority. And its very hard to imagine what would set our world on that path; in my estimation nothing short of an ultimatum would work. The clear and present danger of our immanent extinction, subject to the choice of one of us. Ultimately we must prepare for and follow the path to peace in order for our species to survive, sadly it looks like we must be forced into it.

We've never before seen the powers of heaven move with a will and on such a grande scale. If such an army exists to be commanded, what deals will have to be made? How does one go about winning our Lord and Creator as a personal ally? If Planet Earth might be sold for a price, what is that price and how would a person go about paying it? But Jesus suggested that the Earth is like a field with a great hidden treasure, and that it might be purchased for a price and the treasure claimed; he said that this is what Heaven is like. Such a deed, if purchasable, may require an extensive amount of work and effort; our buyer needs to be a very creditworthy individual and perhaps very long lived. What could one of us possibly have to offer a supreme creator and the host of heaven's armies, to be appointed general of those armies? Clearly no amount of material goods would suffice, we can not take a portion of the world to pay for the whole world, it would never balance out that way. Presumably there is something that a Human-Being can do, which a Supreme Being can not do for itself. Becoming the great Patriarch of an entire species to mediate for Humanity to the greater community of Heaven and a possible multitude of Higher Powers, and a possible number of civilizations of living beings, much like ours. It's a difficult proposal to fill that position, the Good Father must not make distinctions between his children, favoring one over another. Every child must receive favor in turn, every child must be loved in spite of his or her deeds in mortal life. Every child of humanity must be blessed with the opportunity for more life here on Planet Earth, and of course the Earth itself must be preserved. IF there really is one single fundamental truth to this Universe, it would have to be the underlying unity of all things created. Every part exists in relationship to the whole and every other part. No amount of distance between us is enough to break the ties that bind us together, the fact that we are Human-Beings and born to the Earth is something that we will always share in common no matter how much time comes to pass. There is a personal relationship between myself and every other person who lives, has ever lived or ever will live; and nobody can choose differently. The Truth can not be annulled in order to make the people happy, we have to be happy with the fact that we have so many companions of great diversity and personal experience. If you have read any of my past posts, you would likely know that I think of the Universe and Heaven as the same place and NOT separate places. I'm sure that my personal ideas conflict with a whole lot of Religious thinking. I just don't see how we can ever allow one single person's notions of whats right and just to rule the day, and determine where the lines must be drawn.

But I'm committed to granting Christ his final plea upon the cross, and to give every person a full pardon, if we can take every condition into consideration, no-one deserves to be punished. If all the people deserve anything at all its an education, and it may take a great deal of time and personal experience to learn the things which are truly important and to unlearn other things. I'm dedicated to do whatever needs to be done in order to get ALL the people that much time, and I'm exactly the kind of soldier who would leave no man behind. There is no other great cause in life worth fighting for, and nothing more noble. Dignity is something we can not deny one person, something that can never be sacrificed or lost, something that is always deserved. My version of salvation is inclusive, and isn't that the best possible offering if it can be delivered?

Dependance and Dependability

I have taken a position with an organization that advocates for mental health patients, It's called Mental Health America of Greater Saint Louis. My job is to teach a class called the Bridges Program, it's meant to inform and empower our clients to reach their life goals. Personally I can't think of one unaccomplished goal in my own life which would be obtainable. After years of personal experience dealing with disability and treatment, my own coping skills are still inadequate I feel. The next time i am facing a difficult and stressful situation in life I don't know how well I will fare. If I have anything to share that would help others cope better, I would be surprised. But the content of these classes is perfectly represented within a teacher's manual; and teaching the class consists of reading the material out-loud more or less. So I wouldn't say that its a difficult job for 2 hours per week over 10 weeks.

One of my good friends says I need to do this so that my life can have purpose again, but I think that my life is already meaningful enough, I don't really need to do more. But I took the teacher training years ago when it was available and now they need someone to do the work. I have been pursuing my case for disability benefits from our Social Security System here in the USA for many years. I once had them but I was taken off because I tried to work; unsuccessfully in my opinion. I maintain that I am unemployable and uncompetitive as an employee in the field of unskilled labor. A couple of Social Security Judges have already decided that I am able to work, but they've never taken the time to convince me they were right. In fact time is one commodity in short supply for a professional judge's it seems, they hold interviews which is not quite the same thing as a simple conversation.

Perhaps the only thing which is disabling me today should be defined as a Personality Defect rather than a medical condition. But I am the product of my life's experience; and it hasn't all been good or pleasant experience. Even though I have worked in the past, I never once managed to obtain financial independence. I was never able to support myself, let alone a family; I have always been dependent on my parents for support. They have always paid some of my bills, they paid for the cars and the car insurance, when I lived on my own they paid my rent. Still Dad has never once claimed me as a dependent in his tax filings even though that is the truth. If I fail to qualify for the disability benefits I also fail to qualify for the medical coverage from Medicare, which is something that I really do need. Otherwise all my medical expenses will be paid by my father, which I deem to be unfair because Dad worked and paid for the disability insurance all his adult life, and he shouldn't have to bear the full burden of my care. He paid for protection as every US citizen does; my psychiatrist is of the opinion that my case has been denied on the grounds that Dad is well-off financially.

Admittedly I've spent long hours worrying over the possibility I'll be drawn into court over my unpaid child support. But i'm unmoved to take any action in the matter that would eliminate that possibility, my attitude is one of waiting out the situation. I've also spent long hours worrying over such problems as the eventual extinction of my species here on planet Earth. I'm sure that most people would agree that it's well beyond my individual power to influence the outcome of historical events. And of course if we are truly powerless to change a thing, we should try not to be too concerned about possible futures. I would love to save the World for Peace on Earth, but clearly that goes well beyond my abilities. And to be honest, should I be the one to say how other people should behave; because changing the world means changing human behavior more or less. If I could do one thing to improve the quality of life for my own children, by all means I should try to do that thing.

My daughter is a bit older than the two boys and she's become disenchanted with the world and committed to serve God in some way. By serving God I think she means to convert people to the doctrines of Christianity, she's been posting a sort of video blog on youtube, airing her own convictions. If I could do one thing for my children they should see the Earth as I see it; as a wonderful and beautiful place to live. But then I would have to prove to them that Humanity only makes the world a better place, and that's a hard thing to credit. We know that bad things have happened in the past and that bad things continue to happen in modern times. And I want to sell them on the idea that this is HEAVEN, the world is perfect just the way that it is. I want to convince my daughter that everyone makes their own choices in life and that God guarantees each of us free-will; but she's already convinced that some higher-power is in control of the world for ill, the personality of the devil or Satan. If I try to suggest that no such spirit of pure-evil exists or has influence over the world she would be vehemently opposed. Conveniently this is exactly what our friend Satan wants people to think, I've been duped into believing it. Ultimately we ourselves are responsible for conditions here on planet Earth, we can not easily lay the blame on some higher-authority than humanity itself.

But still there really is a God who cares about us, at least I am convinced of that. A God who has everything and needs nothing from us not even our love. We are the ones with needs and desires, God is unlike one of us and we can never become like God or a God. We are entirely dependent upon God every moment of the day and we can never become independent; not even God can give us independence from his grace. The only thing that one of us really needs to feel happy, is to trust God to be dependable. "I know that I will never be forsaken, I've found my way into God's heart." If we can say this and believe in our heart that God is trustworthy, then we have won the greatest victory in life. And in this respect I have been remarkably successful, and I have never achieved a lot of success as the world defines success in life. I don't have to be the better man, I just have to improve myself. If life on Earth could be described as once Grade Role-Playing Game, then clearly the player's could be ranked in any number of ways. But once the full story has been told, our individual ranks don't matter. It doesn't really matter how well we compare to one-another, that some form of progress was made makes all the difference.

Once we come to full appreciation that we are Established within the Kingdom of Heaven (this Heaven) we are forever separated from the circumstances of our lives here on planet Earth. We can not be defined by our accomplishments, and we are not defined by our intellect or rationality. We are only defined by the fact that we exist and have existed as a part of this greater whole, and that we have been blessed with the gift of consciousness. Perhaps we really do have some definate beginnings here in the Universe, but now that we are a part of it we will be a part of it for as long as it lasts. And it may very well last forever, despite the fact that it also has a definite beginning by all appearances. We have to be satisfied that we live in Eternity even though ultimately we ourselves (and this Creation) are not eternal. Will consciousness endure beyond our mortal ends? We have a few good reasons to think that it might. We have a good reason to think that all of this physical stuff is NOT the sum total of Creation, there is still something more to this Universe, something that has never really been seen. But when we look out to the distant stars and galaxies we find the hard scientific evidence that there really is something more. And how many of us have heard a tale of the near-death experience? A few of us have died and been revived, and some of these people have a story to tell. A story of an experience and of a memory when there was no brain to remember it.

If God or Creator guarantees us certain individual and equal rights, its difficult to define what those rights might be. Clearly we all want more rights than God does guarantee, to this end we have established governments backed by the threat of violent means to secure the desires of a few. A portion of the world's population is served by tyranny, and we do not fight against tyranny when it serves us. Life is very very good for those people who get to make the rules and conditions. Of course its not quite good enough to be able to make rules, you have to be able to bind other people to those rules. But clearly even the threat of physical molestation is not enough to bind some people; because if they have a good reason to feel angry about something, they are often willing to die (and to kill) for a cause. This will to violence shapes our world, "Peace through Strength," we say and the power to destroy guarantees our right to govern the rest of the world. So long as the people place their faith in the idea that, "might makes right" it will always be like this. Popular consent and numbers of votes provide all the necessary rational for doing things a certain way. But I think that history has proven well enough that a man may have good reasons and still do the wrong thing. Enough people would argue that the world shouldn't be the way that it is, and its not the place of perfection that it could be. Life doesn't have to be hard or unpleasant, it could be enjoyable and comfortable for all the people. No one should be made to suffer so that someone else can get ahead of the game, but some pockets are always growing deeper while many people go without food and adequate shelter. How can we make sure that everyone has enough, there's too many of us and our numbers are constantly growing while the world's natural resources are dwindling. And all the while it seems fundamental human nature to struggle for a larger share; we'll take whatever we can get and always want more than we have.

We are all-together on the road to becoming something more than we have been. Its true that we each begin life with some small power over creation or reality. We are endowed by consciousness and therefor volition, a muscle to move hands and shape the world around us. And we have created tools that extend our reach and our strength, they empower us to do more. And we have created the Hierarchy in order to better organize a group effort to change the world in ways that a single person alone could never accomplish. Even given unlimited time and intelligence no one person could ever recreate the world as it stands today. And someone decides which jobs will get done, and what needs we can afford to neglect. And we all make these kinds of judgments to decide who we would like to have for our friends, and which people we can afford to neglect. And I guess we have to make these kinds of judgments because our capacity to pay attention is limited. But so long as we are all on this journey together, is it even possible that we could ever become more than merely human? Perhaps, as many of us do allow for higher-powers, we have something more to aspire too. We can imagine a Creator, a person of greater authority and greater power with unlimited reach within this Universe. And as soon as we imagine such a great person, we can imagine a multitude of lesser persons, a population of Angels and Demons above humanity yet beneath God. And according to the evidence of our own eyes and experience, there is a multitude of persons within this Heaven. We are all aware of many other persons just like ourselves, our peers; although some we may think are less than peers. I stand above someone else and perhaps there is a lord above me, hopefully someone that I can admire and respect. Or perhaps we should only give recognition and pay homage to the Lord of all Lords, the Creator himself. But of course very few of us have ever been given the opportunity to meet such a person. If such a person exists they seem to be undemanding, content to allow humanity to govern itself, making no effort to govern us here on Earth. Of course a great many people trust Moses and believe that a God did give humanity a few rules, more likely Moses used his best judgment and scribed the 10 commandments himself. I can very well appreciate and feel the anguish of a man who desires guidance from the God of his own belief when nothing comes. At least nothing as overt as a booming voice from the sky, if men ever do enjoy guidance from on high its never clear and obvious how it comes to us. But as I've heard a few people testify, and as Moses did claim to experience, and which i myself have experienced, occasionally there is some sign which represents objective reality for the observer and is undeniably divine or at least super-natural.

I met one person via Facebook who claims a personal experience of Jesus in the flesh, and said that the Lord gives him instruction frequently. He suggested that I pray to Jesus for the things I want, and keep a written record of the prayers that are answered. I esentially told him i wouldn't presume to make a score-card for Jesus; and while he may pray for the things he wants, he doesn't really know who or how many higher-powers can hear those prayers. If we speak the words out loud or write them down then practically anyone and everyone could be a witness to our desires. We've all heard someone pray before, in-fact we have some Prayers of Jesus in a written record. And who did Jesus say we should pray to, himself? I think he clearly said we should pray to this other person he called, "Heavenly Father." The writers of the New-Testament books have confused the issue further by saying that the father and the son are one and the same person more or less; and Jesus is presented as the Creator. But evidently Jesus was a human-being like us, with a definite beginning at the time of his conception, and before this moment in time we are nothing that can be accounted for. The Bible suggests that Life on Earth began as the Angels and Demons fell from Heaven, and it's a favorite doctrine of some that we did indeed enjoy some pre-existence and that perhaps we even chose to be here. But for all these people it is not a matter remembered but an article of faith, they have made an investment in this thing as truth, and if it is wrong they only stand to be disappointed. I for one am satisfied that I did not come here from somewhere else, nor was a choice made, clearly we don't always get to make a choice and choices are always being made of which we are completely unaware. Inevitably some of those choices being made by other persons will impact our lives directly. The person in question may very well be dead and long gone from our world and still exert some influence by a decision they made. The past decisions or discoveries which matter the most in our lives are usually very well documented whether or not we ever learn to read and understand them ourselves. These are our arguments, our rationality, whenever we take action in the world it has to make some kind of sense. And when we can see the sense of it, it becomes justifiable; if we can not make sense of it then it may be deemed unjustifiable.

Most human behaviors and acts deemed criminal will be counted as unjustifiable. There may very well be some kind of rational behind such deeds, but the rational may be considered one of insanity. Of course we like the world better if it all makes perfect sense, we would like to have a reason for our existence, a reason that we can understand. The sane rational world is the one we want to live in, a world where every human behavior and deed can be justifiable. Well it is all justifiable, and because human behavior is always justifiable in consideration of all conditions and circumstances, it is not punishable. We can always argue for a case of ignorance, a person did act without some knowledge, their rational may have been erroneous but perhaps it can be understandable how the error occurred? Jesus himself used this argument to suggest that humanity deserves a pardon, and not just on an individual case by case basis but as a community of people. There are things we have done as a community that might be punishable, but the people simply didn't know any better.

So there is my rational and my argument, the sum total of human behavior is always justifiable, the Earth is and has always been a place of perfection. If we have been victims of Insanity we are not to blame for this, in most cases we have been taught what to believe in. If we have been given bad instructions we are blameless for this. Our intellect and rationality has faults, and we are often motivated to act out of very passionate feelings, we don't always need a good reason for doing the things we do. In most every case we are able to make some kind of sense out of our own choices, decisions and actions. If my beliefs or my feelings and my faith make no sense to anyone else its of little consequence to me, I do not take my validation from the community of humankind, I only need to be presentable before my creator. In my own faith everything that we do experience that is subjective, can be rendered objective before God. God is the one great observer of all things, all human experience is genuine experience. When we honestly believe a thing, God knows exactly what it is we believe, therefore he is always aware of how we have been motivated.

I trust God, he may not guarantee my life to be free of all suffering, but I know that he's dependable for something that I will always need. I would love to be guaranteed freedom from molestation, freedom to travel unhindered by worldly authorities and to make my residence wherever I choose. I would love to be guaranteed the means get all manner of material goods. And above all else, I would love to be guaranteed the means and capacity to become something more than I am today, a person far less limited and far more empowered. If I could get one thing guaranteed for the whole of humanity it would be the long life, that they should be made to live again and long enough to become wise. My family and friends should all enjoy the opportunity to learn history first-hand, in conversation with the people who lived it. I think it is not wrong that we might judge one another, but we should all learn to be kind and forgiving judges. We only need to realize that an opinion is not a thing set in stone, our feelings may be subject to change over thousands of years of experience. And in the long run, whatever the truth may be, we should be happy with it.