I survived Sodom and Gomorrah, barely.

I have walked countless miles in the shoes of a contemporary Christian. Now, throwing off all false humility, I count myself worthy, and very fortunate, to have been led through a spiritual Sodom and Gomorrah, where the fire of God has consumed nearly all of the religious dross that over the years has accumulated and crystallized on my heart, and clogged my veins with the molasses of law. Not yet having the strength of Lot, like his wife I turned around to observe the charred devestation which I left behind. Perhaps, like Lots wife, I shouldn't have as a part of my heart, the part that was cleansed with fire, has hardened in anger toward that which has robbed my youth of freedom, and replaced my clean and bright youthful innocence with a heavy yoke of moral and religious duty.

This "goodness" being taught from pulpits across the globe could have, and should have been borne and raised within me without even one pulpit propelled sermon.

As I stare at the fallen remains of my former self, I see a pulpit still standing defiantly in the center, hurling countless sermons, heaping countless obligations, burdens and guilt upon countless unsuspecting and innocent souls. I would be a rich man if I had a dime every time I heard the phrase "What a great sermon, I really needed to be reminded of this or that." followed by the moral act as instructed by the usually well-meaning pastor. I have to ask, why then do we need the Holy Spirit, which the Holy Bible teaches that it (holy spirit) reminds, instructs and reproves.

Right or wrong, I am headed toward the conclusion that firstly, a once spirit driven life of following Christ has, over a short span of 2000 years been replaced with a pulpit-centric sermon fueled existance. Is it no wonder miracles, in the Biblical sense, rarely occur today? If this is true, as I obviously believe it to be, then it could be said that every-Sunday-sermons keep us weak, and dependant on food that keeps us hungry and water that does not quence our thirst.

The best healer

I believe that the most efficient thing in the universe is the universe itself. Whether you believe God created the universe as a perfect creation, or that the universe itself is an intelligent God, or if you are an athiest and believe that the universe is it's own creation; every way you look at it, the universe and everything in it is perfect. Imperfections exist only when that which is perfect is perceived through the lens of convention created by one species - humans.

Then, if the universe is the most efficient creation as well as creator and we humans are an extention of this universe, it can be said that our bodies - fleshly, chemical and spiritual, have within them perfect mechanisms for perfect health. I suspect that the best way toward perfect health, whether emotional or physical, is to release worry and the stress of "How?" and simply Trust that which we are equipped with as being sufficient.

Listen to your body, it will not misguide you. When you become ill, throw worry out the window then with peace in your heart trust that your body will do all that it can to make itself whole again, in the most efficient way possible. You will know what to take and what not to take, what to do and what not to do, on your path to healing. This applies to emotional, spiritual and physical illness.

At least, this has been my experience.

What are you thankful for?

We sometimes come to God, not because we love Him best,
but because we love our possessions best; we ask Christ to
"save Western civilization," without asking ourselves whether
it is entirely a civilization that Christ could want to save.
We pray, too often, not to do Gods will, but to enlist Gods
assistance in maintaining our "continually increasing
consumption." And yet, though Christ promised that God would
feed us, he never promised that God would stuff us to
bursting.
... Joy Davidman (1915-1960), Smoke on the Mountain [1955]

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Andrew's comments:

Take a slow look around your home. Now think about what you are truly grateful for, and what you have been praying for. The fact that so many in Western culture are so very thankful to be bursting at the seams with stuff we don't need, tells us that there is something very wrong with the direction we are going in.

The earth is bleeding; the air is rotting; 90% of the world lives in poverty; and we continue to accumulate, continue to be slaves to what we want rather than simply attaining our needs, then helping others do the same.

I am convinced the Good Life excludes excess in materialism, and includes more striving for community based on love, equality and the elimination of poverty. The two cannot go hand in hand.

I believe the Good Life is about freeing ourselves from the facade of materialism; facing the truth of Why we feel we need so much stuff. Truth is, most of us are bored without the stuff. And we are bored because our life has no Real passion or purpose, other than raising a family and working, then playing now and then (vacation, weekend party binges, etc).

Our salvation, and freedom, lie deep in our hearts; beneath the countless layers of false desires brought upon us through a synthetic lifestyle. Beneath everything we have accumulated. That's where the truth is. The truth about who we are, and what brings us alive and keeps us free.

Bacon and Eggs, anyone?

Breakfast of Champions... or a successful experiment on public manipulation?

Born in Vienna, Edward Bernays was both a blood nephew and a nephew-in-law to Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, and Bernays's public relations efforts helped popularize Freud's theories in the United States. Bernays also pioneered the PR industry's use of psychology and other social sciences to design its public persuasion campaigns. "If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it? The recent practice of propaganda has proved that it is possible, at least up to a certain point and within certain limits." (Propaganda, 2005 ed., p. 71.) He called this scientific technique of opinion-molding the "engineering of consent."

One of Bernays' favorite techniques for manipulating public opinion was the indirect use of "third party authorities" to plead for his clients' causes. "If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway," he said. In order to promote sales of bacon, for example, he conducted a survey of physicians and reported their recommendation that people eat hearty breakfasts. He sent the results of the survey to 5,000 physicians, along with publicity touting bacon and eggs as a hearty breakfast.

Source: Wikipedia
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Imagine that, Bacon and Egg's was "invented" as an American breakfast in the 1920's. And we thought bacon and egg's has been a staple breakfast since the time of Adam and Eve.

Or do we think about it at all?

How many other routines have we become chained to without knowing why? Are these routines helpful or harmful? Who is behind them, and what is the motive?

By asking tough questions, and searching diligently for honest answers, I believe we will move closer and closer to freeing ourselves from superficial modern conventions and keep us moving on toward The Good Life.

Unconventional wisdom

"Softness triumphs over hardness, gentleness over strength.
The flexible is superior over the immovable.
This is the principle of controlling things
by going along with them,
of mastery through adaptation." -- Lao-Tzu.

"Talents are better nurtured in solitude,
but character is best formed
in the stormy billows of the world."
-- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

"What is to give light must endure burning."
-- Victor Frankl

"When I was young, I believed that life might
unfold in an orderly way, according to my hopes
and expectations. But now I understand that
the Way winds like a river, always changing,
ever onward, following God's gravity toward
the Great Sea of Being. My journeys revealed
that the Way itself creates the warrior; that
every path leads to peace, every choice to wisdom.
And that life has always been, and will always be,
arising in Mystery." -- from the journal of Socrates.

Love

Excerpt from "By the River Piedra, I sat down & wept"

Rarely do we realize that we are in the midst of the extraordinary. Miracles occur all around us, signs from God show us the way, angels plead to be heard, but we pay little attention to them because we have been taught that we must follow certain formulas and rules if we want to find God. We do not recognize that God is whereever we allow Him to enter.

Traditional religious practices are important: they allow us to share with others the communal experience of adoration and prayer. But we must never forget that spiritual experience is above all a practical experience of love. And with love, there are no rules. Some may try to control their emotions and develop strategies for their behavior; others may turn to reading books of advice from "experts" on relationships - but this is all folly. The heart decides, and what it decides is all that really matters.

All of us have had this experience. At some point, we have each said through our tears, "I'm suffering for a love that's not worth it." We suffer because we feel we are giving more than we receive. We suffer because our love is going unrecognized. We suffer because we are unable to impose our own rules.

But ultimately there is no good reason for our suffering, for in every love lies the seed of our growth. The more we love, the closer we come to spiritual experience. Those who are truly enlightened, those whose souls are illuminated by love, have been able to overcome all of the inhibitions and preconceptions of their era. They have been able to sing, laugh, and to pray out loud; they have danced and shared what St. Paul called "the madness of saintliness". They have been joyful - because those who love conquer the world and have no fear of loss. True love is an act of total surrender. Sooner or later we have to overcome our fears, because the spiritual path can only be traveled through the daily experience of love.

Thomas Merton once said that the spiritual life is essentially to love. One doesn't love in order to do what is good or to help or to protect someone. If we act that way, we are perceiving the other as a simple object, and we are seeing ourselves as wise and generous persons. This has nothing to do with love. To love is to be in communion with the other and to discover in that other the spark of God.

What's important to you?

The marketing power pushing for increased convenience, individuality and comfort far outweigh the attraction toward a life of fellowship, community and a connection to the natural world.

If this statement does not make you think twice before buying that new stainless steel coffee maker or micro-gradient toaster oven, then I would be as bold as to say you are one of those contributing toward a planet which will not withstand the weight of the trash we abuse it with for our grandchildren, very possibly even our children.

Spending a few hours researching the effects of our demands for artificial comfort, artificial sanitization and "individualism" (another farce worth exploring) should leave you with a healthy dose of what is actually happening to society and the gift of our planet, Earth.

Corallory: Someone once said that the earth produces enough to satisfy needs, but not enough to satisfy greed.