{"id":190,"date":"2008-01-19T07:18:34","date_gmt":"2008-01-19T07:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/01\/must-life-have-lots-of-pain.html"},"modified":"2008-01-19T07:18:34","modified_gmt":"2008-01-19T07:18:34","slug":"must-life-have-lots-of-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/01\/must-life-have-lots-of-pain.html","title":{"rendered":"Do we need God?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nNOTE: Saturday is Prose & Poetry Day here on the blog, a time to take a moment once a week to relax the mind, open the heart, and access the soul through the gift of prose from one of the many books of The New Spirituality, and through the poetry of m. Claire, author of the forthcoming volume, Openings & Deepenings.<\/em>
\nThis week’s prose…the fourth in a series of excerpts from Happier Than God<\/em>.
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\nNot needing God is not the same as not having any use for God.
\nI want to say that twice because it\u2019s too important to be glossed over. I said, not needing God is not the same as not having any use for God.
\n<\/em>
\nIn fact, it is precisely because we have an extraordinary use for God that we have no need for God.
\nHow can we \u201cneed\u201d something that we always have, that we cannot not have under any circumstances, that we can always use, and that we cannot not use no matter how we might deny that we are?
\nYou cannot not have God in your life, as part of your life, and this is something that many people cannot believe. They can\u2019t believe the highest promise of God: I am always with you, even unto the end of time.
\nYou cannot not use God, even if you deny that you are, and this is something else that many people cannot believe. They can\u2019t accept the most wonderful truth taught by all religions, each in their own way:
\nAsk and you shall receive.
\nBecause people can\u2019t accept this truth, they completely and utterly misunderstand the formula by which they can create what they wish to experience in their lives.
\nI call this formula the Process of Personal Creation\u2014what some people call the \u201cLaw of Attraction\u201d\u2014and it does not render God obsolete, but exactly the opposite. It makes our experience of God more present, more relevant, and more real than ever.
\nAll great truths begin as blasphemies.
\nGeorge Bernard Shaw famously said that, and he was right. His observation explains why so many great truths must be very gently introduced, with voices soft and the truths themselves understated.
\nYet there comes a time when they can\u2019t be understated any longer. They bubble up to life\u2019s surface and burst forth in all their glory. These are times of great moment for humanity, for it is through such bursting forth of great truth that our species evolves.
\nTake the idea that you can be happier than God.
\nWhat a thought! What a concept! It\u2019s revolutionary! So a lot of people have been resisting it. For years they\u2019ve been pushing against it, denying it, even making it \u201cwrong.\u201d
\nYes, people\u2014and, ironically, religions\u2014have been making it wrong to be even a little happy, much less happier than God. (Well, maybe they haven\u2019t made it wrong to be happy, they\u2019ve just made it wrong to do most of the things that make you happy.)
\nMany people believe that life was meant to have a lot of pain in it. Suffering should be \u201coffered up\u201d to God. It should be endured in silence. That earns you points in heaven.
\nOur culture has so completely adopted this idea that some people don\u2019t want to be happy all the time. When you talk about how you can be \u201chappier than God\u201d they become fidgety, uncomfortable. They warn that you\u2019re being \u201cunrealistic.\u201d You may even be \u201ctrafficking with the devil.\u201d
\nThey will tell you that life was meant to be unhappy. Life is a trial. It\u2019s a school. \u201cNo pain, no gain,\u201d and all that. People in large numbers believe this. When you say to them that life was never meant to be unhappy, that no one has to be unhappy ever, they look at you cross-eyed.
\nThey don\u2019t know what to do with that. They don\u2019t know where to go with it. Often, they\u2019ll tell you where to go with it\u2026
\nYes, this is blasphemy, this idea that you can be happier than God. Yet it\u2019s true. It is not too good to be true, it is too good not to be true.
\nThe Good News is that you do not have to go through hell to get to heaven.
\nDid you hear that? Let that be shouted from every rooftop! Let that be heard from every pulpit and lectern. Let the word go forth from this time and place: Happiness is your natural state of being, and you can occupy that space all of the time. You never have to be unhappy again.
\nThis does not mean that you\u2019ll never be sad again, but sadness and unhappiness are not the same thing. We\u2019re going to explore that here, as we look deeply at how you can be happy all the time.
\nAm I happy all the time? No. I\u2019d by lying if I said I was. Am I happy more of the time than ever before? Yes. Is this starting to feel like most of the time? Yes. Do I really think I can be happy all of the time? Yes.
\nAnd you can be, too. You can be happier than God.
\nNone of this involves materialism, or \u201cme-first-ism.\u201d In fact, the formula doesn\u2019t work that way.
\nThe formula does allow you to create anything and everything you want, and I know that sounds like materialism, but once you know the whole formula, once you hear the Unspoken Truth in full, you\u2019ll be very clear.
\nSo let\u2019s start with a basic truth, and then we\u2019ll get to the truth behind the truth\u2026more of that Unspoken Truth.
\nThe basic truth was given to you in the first six words of this book.
\nLife was meant to be happy.
\n(This series of excerpts from Happier Than God<\/em> continues in this space next Saturday. The book is scheduled for release March 1 and may be pre-ordered at www.Amazon.com)
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\nThis week’s gift of poetry<\/em>
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\nYou
\nunderstand my need
\nfor Beauty.
\nWhy it might be only Your eyes
\nor a rose
\nthat I need
\n– though a rose has been written of
\nthrough many histories of a Love –
\nit doesn\u2019t pale,
\nor dim
\nthe light
\nfor a Seeker,
\nwho\u2019s only purpose
\nis
\nto See.
\n(Need for Beauty – m. claire – copyright 2007 – all rights reserved)
\nFor more of the work of this new poetic voice you are invited to www.mclairepoet.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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