LSP4: Second Chances

Do you worry there's only one right way to find the doorway to God's help? Are you afraid that if you pick the wrong path, you'll be punished by God?

Most of the recent writers talking about God, the soul, and the afterlife are describing the early stages of the faith journey. They start with their observations about how messed up our human lives are. Then they offer their insights about how you can get onto the Spiral Path. This is fine. In fact, this is what you find at the heart of the world's great religions: the yearning to step onto the Spiral Path and stumble your way toward reconnection with God.

For many people, this is the longest part of the human journey, the part that fills up the bulk of their lives. Often people only find what they've been looking for as they draw near the end of their allotted time on Planet Earth. So they don't have a lot of time to "start again," so to speak -- to start again on the faith journey by asking all the questions they didn't think to ask the first time.

Each person's journey on the Spiral Path is unique. Like this rune stone that tells the story of a Viking expedition to the Far East that didn't go well, the narrative of our lives is filled with unexpected plot twists. Shit happens on the Spiral Path. Shown here is a reproduction of a Viking rune stone that was part of a special exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum. Photo credit JAT 2018.

The difference for me is that I've had plenty of time -- many years, in fact -- to come full circle on the Spiral Path and start again near the beginning with fresh eyes, fresh questions, and a healed heart. This is a chance not many people get.

I view myself as a spiritual muckraker, someone who's not afraid to challenge old ways of religious thinking that are holding people back as they try to reconnect with God. To be good at this, I had to draw a deep breath and accept a costly twist in the path: a return to university when I was forty-nine. Theological studies helped me examine religious thought patterns from the inside and compare what I was reading to what I'd been experiencing as a heretical Christian mystic.

I began my academic studies after I'd already come full circle on the Spiral Path -- after I'd already learned what it means to forgive, what it means to receive God's love, what it means to find redemption as a human being. I'll be very honest with you and say that a lot of the church's traditional teachings look like a pile of mouldy baloney once you've talked to God the Mother and God the Father about the soul's journey in Creation.

Nonetheless, I still self-identify with Christianity -- that is, with the teachings of Jesus son of Joseph. If you've read my other blogs, you know how little sympathy I have for the teachings of Paul. (I filled three books with thoughts about the contrasts between Jesus and Paul, so you know I take the subject seriously!) Having complained at length about orthodox Western Christianity, I still maintain there's good stuff hidden within Christianity (especially the idea of a personal God and a soul that's inherently good); so, if you need to know where I'm starting from, I'd reply that I'm starting from the same place as that well known heretical Jewish man who came full circle on the Spiral Path and restarted his relationship with God after he (the man) realized that questions are the doorway.

If you wholeheartedly believe in the Church's teachings on sin, separation, sacraments, and salvation ("the 4 S's"), you're not going to like my posts. If, on the other hand, you're open to the idea that God has never stopped talking to you, and never will, and that you're totally worthy of God's unconditional love, you may find something helpful in my thoughts.

God bless,

Jen

For Further Reflection:

Because God is always with you, and because God's angels are always with you, too, there is no limit to the number of times you can have a second chance. Right up until the day you die, God is presenting you with new opportunities for change, growth, learning, and asking logical questions. No matter how often you turn away from Divine Love, God will forgive you and find exasperating ways to challenge you to be your best self.

You know that saying about new chances? The saying that wisely reminds us,"When one door closes, another door opens"? It's true. I don't know who first came up with this maxim, but I know it's a timeless truth for anyone who wants to get closer to God the Mother and God the Father.

As humans, most of us have some pretty bad habits. We like to cling to things we know, things we're comfortable with, things we believe are right (even when they're totally wrong). So God and God's angels frequently close certain doors you're clinging to in order to shake you up and give you a chance to let go of bad habits.

Dr. Alexander's book, when looked at through the light of this maxim, is the story of how God firmly slammed the door on one man's narcissism and opened up a different door (previously hidden beneath layers of anger and status addiction) that showed this same man he's worthy of God's love.

It's important to keep in mind as you pursue your own journey of relationship with God that Dr. Alexander never asked for the journey he got. He never prayed for it. He never used any rituals to get it. He didn't, in fact, even know he was on a journey. Nevertheless, he got the journey God decided was best for him and for those around him.

Dr. Alexander wasn't unique or specially chosen in this regard. Everyone gets the journey and the doorways that are best suited to them.

Keep your eyes and ears open for the doorways God is showing you all the time. Keeping your eyes and ears open is a huge part of learning how to be in full relationship with God.