As a child I would often wonder with my limited view of the world, why bad things seemed to happen to really good people. My mom would often respond with the famous phrase “God works in mysterious ways” and then she would go about her business like nothing happened. This actually worked for me until I got older and learned to identify that as the biggest excuse ever for not saying “I don’t know, it seems kind of fucked up doesn’t it?” I mean it would make perfect sense that if there was a God, then he’d step in like a giant super hero and save us all. Organized religions have capitalized on this though, so if bad things are happening to you, it must mean you’re a sinner and have angered God. In some faiths, bad things happen to you because you did something bad to someone else and so you’re paying back spiritual debt or as it’s commonly referred to, karma. But what if God has nothing to do it and there’s a reason why these things happen… what if it’s you?
Now before you get ready to burn me at the steak (not the first time I’m sure), I need to preface this by saying I don’t know all the answers. I think I’ve said this before, but let me say it again… the only thing I know for sure is that I don’t know. With that out of the way, let me just think out loud for a few moments and attempt to explain where I’m coming from. I’m not trying to convince you about anything, religion and spirituality is a very personal journey and I’m not going to attempt to change you mind. Not that anyone can. If there’s anything we should have learned by now with thousands of years of religious based war and conflict, it’s that you can’t change people’s mind about religion. You can sometimes scare people into believing, which isn’t true faith since it’s just fear masked as spirituality (which is how much organized religion operate), but you can’t change their minds. You can try sharing your own perspective and if it resonates with them, perhaps they’ll explore it. And that’s what I’m doing here, just sharing my view.
There was an episode of Star Trek Voyager called “Death Wish” where a member of the “Q Continuum” asked to die because he was literally bored shitless. If you’re not familiar with Star Trek let me know after reading this and I’ll unfriend you, but to briefly explain it, the “Q” are a race of omnipotent beings, able to instantly manifest anything they desire. They can go to a new planet at the blink of an eye or even create one. They know everything since they’re been everywhere and they don’t die. Well turns out life isn’t all peachy for these folks because there’s no fun in being all powerful when there’s no challenges. They just sit around doing nothing since they’ve done it all… in other words, they are bored shitless. So this particular Q asks to have his powers stripped and to be allowed to die, permanently.
Many people believe in an afterlife, and in that afterlife, or heaven as it were, you can having anything you desire or want. There’s no tears in heaven, no strife, no pain or suffering, just lots of really good times. Every question that you’ve ever had in heaven is answered, and you’ll live an eternity worshiping your God, eating grapes, having sex, or whatever your version of heaven is like. On the surface heaven sounds like a pretty awesome thing, but don’t you think after a while it would get pretty boring? I mean if nothing bad was ever to happen and you didn’t have to worry about anything, wouldn’t that just make you almost a Q? Wouldn’t you want to discover new ideas and new concepts… go on an adventure perhaps? As humans we often pay to be “scared” or “challenged” whether it being climbing a mountain or going on a roller coaster. If money isn’t an issue for you, and you can literally manifest anything you want in your life with a swipe of your credit card, perhaps you take on something bigger than what your money can do… like vaccinate the world Bill and Melinda Gates style. So being challenged and avoiding boredom actually seems pretty damn important for us. Just ask anyone that’s ever jumped out of a plane over and over again…. while many of us might just ask “why would you do that?” Why would you think this desire goes away after you die?
Imagine now that you’re a being made of pure consciousness and you want the thrill of being alive and being able to actually feel. You want the opportunity to live and to make mistakes and to learn, you want to know what it’s like to feel unconditional love and to have someone risk everything for you. You want to know what it’s like to have someone take care of you in your time of need, even if it was back breaking, and to have that someone give anything just for one more day to do it again. You might want to experience a sunset knowing it may be your last. You want to feel the most deepest of emotions because where you’re from, some of them don’t exist. Perhaps your state of pure consciousness is an adrenaline junky and wants it all in a single lifetime, or perhaps they’ll take it slow and enjoy it little by little. And what if you could do it all again under different circumstances and learn new things and have new adventures? What if what we are learning is the art of feeling itself?
” If a perfectly wonderful and amazing being created me for the sole purpose of worshiping him and telling him how great thou art, he’s an ego manic and not that great. “
You might surmise I’m thinking we’re all in some sort of giant simulator but I don’t think that’s accurate. This is bigger and much more important… I would dare say there’s a crucial mission to for us to accomplish individually and collectively. The human race advances not only technologically but emotionally and spiritually with every day that passes. What was considered acceptable behavior thousands of years ago, is now looked at as barbaric in some cases. We have setbacks, but we also have giant leaps forward. While we think of new ways to kill each other more efficiently, others are figuring out how to save lives and make us live longer. Why would anyone just want to leave and never come back? Don’t you want to see how the story ends? It would be kind of like reading your first Harry Potter book and enjoying it thoroughly but not finishing the last chapter because 10 PM came along.
I know I’m opening myself up to some criticisms, there’s lots of philosophical questions to ponder… but the nature of one’s existence has never been solved. I know some people will make the assumption that crime and things like murder must be okay then, because if this is all just a giant learning experience why not just do what we want? I would answer that question in two parts, the first being that I believe what we do here actually matters and secondly, a blog post wouldn’t be sufficient in any way to completely answer that question. I don’t know if a book would even do it. There are also complexities here that a human mind operating in three dimensions can’t completely understand. But I’m tired of thinking that somehow God is working in mysterious ways… because it doesn’t make any sense. If a perfectly wonderful and amazing being created me for the sole purpose of worshiping him and telling him how great thou art, he’s an ego manic and not that great. There’s a reason so much bigger and better than that… and if we knew, what would even be the point?
So I don’t think God works in mysterious ways, I think we signed up for much of what we experience with the freedom to change our minds at any time. Why? I’m not really sure. I’m also wondering how many people have completely turned their back on spirituality and or religion because of that stupid phrase. We love to assign blame as humans, so why not blame the creator? This could either rule you by fear, or cause you to hate the entire concept and decide the most supernatural thing in our existence is carbon. And yes, even that is a personal part of your journey and should be respected. Or you could come to the conclusion that we’re here for something beautiful, important and overall unknown. Although I greatly suspect we’re trying to advance the physical world and make it more like heaven… for everyone. But for that you’ll have to read my newest book, available in-stores now or an Amazon. It will dramatically change your life and make you successful.