{"id":300,"date":"2008-05-12T05:59:43","date_gmt":"2008-05-12T05:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/05\/what-really-matters-in-life-an.html"},"modified":"2008-05-12T05:59:43","modified_gmt":"2008-05-12T05:59:43","slug":"what-really-matters-in-life-an","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/05\/what-really-matters-in-life-an.html","title":{"rendered":"We need new ideas about God"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ideas — fresh, new, exciting, innovative ideas — have always been the lifeblood of any evolving society. Yet in the area of religion, new ideas are almost always discouraged. No new ideas, please. No new thoughts.
\nI am familiar with this opposition to new ideas in theology because, as the author of the nine-book Conversations with God<\/em> series, I have come face to face with it all over the world.
\nI was thinking about this the other day while I was flying back from Chicago, where I delivered an evening address for the Infinity Foundation, and offered a one-day seminar the following day. I was thinking that unless humanity is willing to embrace new ideas — ideas about God, about Life, about who we are in relationship to each other — our species may very well be doomed. Not doomed to extinction (although that is possible if we don’t do something about the environmental crisis), but doomed to altering irrevocably (and for the worse) the way we live our lives on this planet.
\nWe need new ideas about who and what God is, about what God wants, and about what it means to be fully human. We need new ideas about how we can live together in peace and harmony — something we have been trying to do for thousands of years, to no avail.
\nWill we have the courage to consider new thoughts about these things? Or will be insist on hanging onto our old concepts and our ancient understandings, even when many of them are demonstrably no longer valid and no longer serving us—?
\nThe is a passage in HOME WITH GOD in a Life That Never Ends<\/em> about this topic of “new ideas” that I love to turn to whenever I am challenged to embrace, or to offer, revolutionary new ideas about the most sacred aspects of my life. That passage reads…<\/p>\n

Play with ideas. Play with them. Never let them become work. Play with them. And play with life.
\nAnd play with each other, while you are at it. Learn to play well.
\nI have sent you to the Garden of the Gods and offered you the whole world in which to play. I have provided sufficient bounty to make certain that there is enough for everyone. No one should go hungry, least of all die of hunger. No one need be without clothing to keep warm, nor should anyone be without shelter from the storm. There is enough for everyone.
\nBeyond that, nothing is needed to play well. Nothing more is required in order to have a glorious experience of Who You Are. You have imagined that there is so much you need in order to be happy, and even to survive. You have made this all up.
\nAs you approach your death you will realize how little any of this matters. Any of this.<\/em> At the moment of your departure from physical life you will know that you have struggled for nothing. And then your long struggle will be over.
\nYou may arrive at this awareness at any time, and end your struggle in any moment. This opportunity and this experience is not held in reserve for only the moment of your death. If you watch closely you will see that each day of your life is crowded with \u201clittle deaths.\u201d You may use any one of them as a platform for this realization.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I am taking a look now in my own life at what really matters, and what does not. I have some new ideas about that…and about life itself, and my place in it. Perhaps we can discuss those here in the weeks ahead.
\nHow about you? What do you think we are here for? What is our purpose? Who is God? What does God want? What are your ideas about these things? Are they new? Are the old? Think about this. I mean, think about what you think about these things.
\nGive me some ideas, below. Let’s have a discussion. This is called Beliefnet<\/strong>. So tell me what you<\/em> believe.
\nMEANWHILE, ON THE ELECTION FRONT: I think we should adopt this strategy in the Democratic primaries that are remaining. Let’s do whatever we can to embarrass Barack Obama, and let’s say whatever we can to make race the point. Let’s tell people outright and direct: Obama simply cannot win the white vote of working class Americans. He only gets the “uppidy” white vote…Americans with college degrees and higher incomes and college students, and oyu can’t beat John McCain with that.
\nLet’s make the point so loud and clear that the Democratic super delegates have no choice but to abandon Obama in his campaign for the presidency. Let’s not even be graceful about this. Let’s just say it right out loud, and dare people to make an issue of it.
\nOBAMA CAN’T WIN BECAUSE HE’S BLACK.
\nYeah, that ought to work…okaaay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ideas — fresh, new, exciting, innovative ideas — have always been the lifeblood of any evolving society. Yet in the area of religion, new ideas are almost always discouraged. No new ideas, please. No new thoughts. 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