{"id":478,"date":"2008-12-22T12:27:59","date_gmt":"2008-12-22T12:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/12\/god-is-wonderful.html"},"modified":"2008-12-22T12:27:59","modified_gmt":"2008-12-22T12:27:59","slug":"god-is-wonderful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/12\/god-is-wonderful.html","title":{"rendered":"Heaven and nature sing!"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a ‘right’ time and a ‘wrong’ time for everything, i think. Not in the sense of being morally Right or Wrong, but simply in the sense of being in harmony with the vibrations of the moment.
\nIn that regard, I have to agree with the person who posted the following remark in the Comments section of this blog a couple of days ago…
\n<\/p>\n

Within a week and half period before the celebration of Christmas, the author of this blog wants to have a conversation regarding suicide and murder as being acceptable. Impeccable timing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/strong>
\nWonderful observation. I wish that person had signed a name to the entry, then I could offer kudos more personally. I am reminded of the wonderful line of President John F. Kennedy who said at a press conference many years ago: “I’ve just returned from visiting my constituents in the State of Florida and I’ve decided that I’m against my entire program.”
\nMy friend who posted the entry above hit it right on the head. It WAS and IS a bad time to start talking about all this…and I didn’t see it until this morning, when I realized how terribly close to Christmas we are. Gosh, I’ve got tons of things to do.<\/em>
\nBut I started the exchange and I should quickly finish it. I really didn’t mean to throw a pallor on this wonderful holiday time of year. But I asked the question last Friday…
\n“How can God stand by and let terrible things happen to wonderful people—to say nothing of little children? Where is God when misery visits the earth?” I answered my own question by sharing that CwG states that we are all responsible for everything we see on the earth. Then I asked a second, rhetorical, question, which, essentially, came down to this: “How in the world can I be blamed for the terrible things happening in the world?”
\nFinally, I challenged the Class here to answer, out of the CwG material. Thanks to all of you who responded. It was fascinating to read your replies. I promised a signed copy of Happier Than God<\/em> to the first person who came up with the accurate answer.
\nWell, many of you did. In fact, most of the entries hovered around the response that CwG gives to this question. So I had to go with the person giving the FIRST such very accurate response…
\nThe person posting as “Teja” entered a reply on December 19 at 7:51 PM that pretty much hit the mark, in a roundabout way…
\nSaid Teja, in part…
\n<\/p>\n

\nBecause God is one, we are all creating it together.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/strong>
\nYes, in brief, that is the answer. We are all creating everything that we see in the world. As others pointed out in their replies…it is a matter of collective consciousness, and what that is producing on the earth. To the degree that our collective consciousness produces violence and killing, and in some cases even condones it, to that degree we will see violence and killing on the earth and in our collective lives.
\nWhat can one person do about this? Can one person impact in any real way the collective consciousness of humanity? Yes, indeed, one person can. Never imagine that there is “nothing that one person can do.” We’re going to be talking more about this is the weeks ahead, as we move into the New Year.
\nBut…speaking of One Person impacting, and changing, the world, we celebrate the birth of one such Divine Being this week. Let us turn the energies toward that miracle — and the many other miracles it has produced — this week, shall we? Let’s drop all this discussion of violence and terror for just now and see if we can’t get back our sense of timing here…
\nI’d like to re-print here the transcript of a talk that I gave on December 24, 2000 at the annual Christmas Eve Service offered by the ReCreation Foundation in Ashland, Oregon. It is much more in keeping with the season…
\n= = = = = = = = = = = = =
\nI couldn’t sleep last night.
\nI was up from 2 until 6, having another one of my Conversations with God.
\n“Tell me about Christmas,” I said. “What is it really all about?”
\nAnd I heard, “What do you mean, what is it really all about? I’ve told you a million times what it’s all about.”
\nSo I said, “Tell me again. I think I may have missed it.”
\nAnd suddenly my head was filled with a Christmas Carol – one of the happiest and most triumphant of all the melodies of Christmas.
\n“Joy to the world,” the song began, “the Lord has come.”
\nBut I couldn’t get into it. I kept wondering, what is joyful about the coming of someone who is going to be a lord over us?
\nGod! I said…I don’t understand this!
\nAnd God replied, “You’re right. You don’t.”
\nThen God said, “But at least you’re asking a question. And that’s good. It’s really hard to understand something if you think there are no more questions to ask. You can’t be given an answer if you think you already have the only answer there is.”
\n“Well, I don’t have the answer,” I admitted. “So what’s the answer?”
\nAnd God said, “The answer is that the Lord….who has come….is not a lord over you, but in you.”
\nThese words came to me at 2:57 this morning, and I pondered them in my heart.
\n“Then,” I ventured, “the Christmas season is not just a remembering of the birth of a Babe. We’ll sing about that Babe tonight, and honor his arrival, for he brought a new TELLING of a great truth – and a true LIVING of it – to the world. And these truly were tidings of comfort, and joy. But this is also a celebration of the birth of the Christed one in all of us.”
\nAnd God answered softly, “yes.”
\nAnd then I wondered what all the songs, and all the messages, and all the feelings of Christmas would mean if I accepted this truth. If I really understood that the message of this season is not about one bless\u00e9d being, but about all beings, being bless\u00e9d.
\nNot about someone else, but about us.
\nAbout me.
\nBut oh, my gosh, did that sound bad. I mean, it actually sounded like blasphemy. How could Christmas be about me?
\nOf all the self-centered, ego-maniacal thoughts!
\nThis is about the coming of the Lord! This is about the Gift of the Magi!
\nBut, my heart insisted, what if the gift was me? And what if the Lord HAS come to be in me, not over me?
\nI know that I can find a place for him over me, but can I find a place for him within me?
\nAnd what would it mean for me to do that? What would it mean for me to be not only a person who has been blessed, but a person who is bless\u00e9d? And for me to think of you in the same way? What if I saw you as bless\u00e9d? Would I act differently toward you?
\nI’d like to think I would. I’d like to think that I would be more kind to you. More gentle with my words, more caring with my actions, more compassionate in my thoughts, more honest in my dealings, more patient and generous and…and more aware of the wonder of you.
\nAnd if I thought that I was a blessed person, would I act differently toward me?
\nI think I would. I think I’d be more kind to myself. More gentle with my words, more caring with my actions. I think I’d be more compassionate with myself, more patient and generous and…and more aware of the wonder of ME.
\nBut is it possible that we are all bless\u00e9d?
\nThis I asked in the middle of the night, and the answer came back, stunningly, simply: “Yes.”
\nSOOO, I mused… this is the meaning of Christmas. That… that which is Christed is born in all of us. Lives in all of us. IS all of us. We simply do not remember this. And so, Christmas was created to remind us.
\nChristmas, it turns out, is not about a particular religion, but about all religions. It is not about a particular person, but about all persons.
\nIt does not matter tonight whether you are Christian or Muslim, Hindu or Jew, Baptist or Buddhist.
\nOr none of the above.
\nWhen you give birth to the lord within you, you give life to a wonder and a majesty and a wisdom and a love that can flow from you to all the world, and change the world forever.
\nIsn’t this the Christmas Story?
\nAnd when we live this story as our story, are our lives not renewed, our separated selves made whole?
\nIndeed.
\nOur souls are stirred, our hearts are filled. And then it is we who bring…joy to the world.
\nThe gift of Christmas is us, fully expressed and fully realized. It is us — completely willing and totally ready — to love without condition, to give without restriction, to share without limitation, to create without fear, to celebrate ourselves without shame or embarrassment.
\nIt is us, choosing to forgive without hesitation, to help without being asked, to rush in where angels fear to tread. Indeed, to lead the way for angels.
\nAh, to lead the way for angels. That’s why we’re here. That’s why we’ve come to the Earth. To be a herald!
\nHark! The herald, angels sing. Glory to the newborn king.
\nAt this moment we can give birth to the royalty within us…the royalty that we are in God’s eyes.
\nYou know, someone once said…if you saw you as God sees you, you would smile a lot.
\nWell, tonight is a night for smiles. For tonight, if we really try, we can almost see ourselves as God see us. We can feel it.
\nYou can feel it right now, here in this room.
\nThat feeling is called love.
\nYour love for life, and all those you love in this life. And God’s love for you.
\nNow, the Magic of Christmas is that it gives us permission to take that feeling, to take that love, and share it with all those whose lives we touch.
\nWith friend, and with stranger.
\nWith those who agree with us, and with those who disagree.
\nWith those who look and act like us, and with those who do not.
\nWe are invited tonight to feel this love, and to give it permanent place within our heart. To be the source of peace on Earth, and goodwill toward men and women everywhere.
\nWe are invited on this night to walk the Earth not only as one who is BLESSED, but as one who is bless\u00e9d. Not only as the Lord of the manner, but in the manner of the Lord.
\nFor that is what we are. We are the lord of our inner kingdom, and thus, of the outer one as well.
\nAnd when we understand that, everything changes. We begin to experience the world, and to affect the world, in a new way.
\nThat is the Christmas invitation. We are invited to begin that experience on this night.
\nOn this….silent night.
\nAnd if we do, we will make it a holy night. And we will begin to create a world in which all is calm. All is bright.
\nJoy to the world! The Lord has come. Let Earth receive her King. Let every heart…prepare him room.
\nAnd heaven, and nature, sing!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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