{"id":204,"date":"2008-02-02T06:37:16","date_gmt":"2008-02-02T06:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/02\/where-god-fits-in.html"},"modified":"2008-02-02T06:37:16","modified_gmt":"2008-02-02T06:37:16","slug":"where-god-fits-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/02\/where-god-fits-in.html","title":{"rendered":"Where God fits in"},"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 sixth in a series of excerpts from Happier Than God<\/em>.
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\nLast week I said in the book excerpt here that we\u2019ve heard a lot about how Personal Creation works, we\u2019ve heard a lot about the way it works, but we\u2019ve hardly heard anything at all about the reason <\/em>that it works.
\nThis has led to a lot of questions\u2014and one in particular that might just be the most important question of all time. We’ll pick up this week by me noting that I\u2019ve had this question asked at my lectures and spiritual renewal retreats often. Other messengers have heard it too, I\u2019m sure. And now it\u2019s been asked on global television.
\nWhen this question is answered fully and completely you will know how to be happier than God.
\nDuring a February, 2007 telecast of Oprah! a member of the studio audience asked it and darned near stopped the show. The broadcast was devoted to that motion picture that was capturing a lot of attention at the time, having to do with the so-called \u201cLaw of Attraction.\u201d This \u201claw\u201d is a phenomenon which has been described in the books and programs, classes, and lectures, statements, and sermons of many teachers and messengers throughout the centuries.
\nOn her worldwide telecast, Oprah used these words to describe this great principle of life:
\n\u201cIt says that the energy and the thoughts and the feelings that you put out into the world, both good and bad, are exactly what is always coming back to you\u2026so you have the life that you have created. I\u2019ve been talking about this for years on this show\u2026\u201d
\nOprah\u2019s on-set guests were waxing enthusiastic about using positive thoughts and feelings, consciously and deliberately to bring about desired results in one\u2019s life as described in the film, which was called The Secret, when Oprah called on a woman in the audience who, she said, \u201chas a question that many people want answered.\u201d
\nThe woman then rose to say\u2026
\n\u201cMy husband and I, we are Christians, and our kids are Christians. We teach our children to put their faith in God, and it seems that The Secret teaches you to put your faith in yourself. So I was wondering if God is anywhere in this.\u201d
\nOprah thought that was a good question, and I can understand why. Since we were children, most of us have been told that God is the One to whom we can turn if we need help, or if we desire something that is really important.
\nIsn\u2019t that how millions of us have been trained? No matter what the culture, no matter what the religion, if a person believes in a Deity at all, isn\u2019t this one of the most important roles that the Deity plays? Is God not the supplier of all good things?
\nYet what of the dramatic assertion in some teachings and writings that if we need a miracle or wish better health or want more money or ache for a perfect companion or seek right livelihood or simply desire a better life, all we have to do is use the power that lies within us, \u201cspeak our word,\u201d and everything for which we yearn will be ours?
\nWe must ask again, where does God fit into all this? If what was said earlier\u2014that we don\u2019t \u201cneed\u201d God because God is always with us\u2014is true, then just how does God fit into all this? What is God\u2019s role in the Process of Personal Creation?
\n(This is not an idle question, and the text that is being excerpted here offers one response that may be well worth considering. Happier Than God <\/em>will be released in late February by Hampton Roads Publishing.)
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\nThis week’s gift of poetry<\/em>
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\nI know, Dear Ones: there is much to say.
\nWhat artists use,
\nis their Life.
\nIf Your eyes
\nsee something not yet spoken for,
\nthen name it.
\nIt was waiting for You.
\nDo you not long to paint
\nyourself upon Life?
\nEvery anger,
\nevery lost dream?
\nThe Love you made,
\nand didn\u2019t?
\nYou must find a way to
\nsay everything.
\nShout the word that has been living
\nin your chest \u2013
\nthe one you imagine yourself
\nhowling from the mountaintop
\nscreaming into the deafening surf
\nbecause until then,
\nLife\u2019s Great Work
\nis
\nstill
\nUnfinished.
\n(Unfinished – m. claire – copyright 2007 – all rights reserved)
\nFor more of the work of this new poetic voice you are invited to visit www.mclairepoet.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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