My True Realities

I am proud to be an American. I love my country, and I think it is the best place for me to live. I know that freedom is a fundamental element of our history and our present. I also know that freedom has not been given equally to everyone. I used to believe that I couldn't be proud of my country or a patriotic citizen if I acknowledged or decried any of the issues that existed throughout our history and still exist today. Yes, I acknowledged slavery, "but that was over a hundred years ago, let's get over it." Yes, I acknowledged racism, "but it's so rare and most people aren't racist today, let's get over it." Or so I thought. I was raised in the dichotomous mental concept of good and evil. Something and someone was either good or evil, never both. Or if they were both, "that was a while ago, let's get over it." And maybe they still had a few issues, but we could only acknowledge the small ones and maybe excuse them with "t...

Toxic positivity is a new term going around social media these days to describe what it's like when someone pushes down all negative emotions and experiences instead of processing them. Instead, they focus only on the positive. Some examples of this can include "fake it til you make it" or "speaking only beautiful words."  Before I get into why toxic positivity is so toxic, let me just say that I'm not saying positivity is toxic. It is important to have a healthy mindset which includes hope, the ability to see the good in life, and the ability to plan for future beautiful things. Affirmations and mantras can be wonderful, but they're not enough on their own. Unfortunately, toxic positivity doesn't allow for a brighter future because in order to have all of these things, one must heal from the negative experiences that have happened in the past. In order to heal, one must acknowledge what happened, talk freely about it, and process through to t...

There is this idea of a universal truth of right and wrong. In this idea, God makes a blanket statement and rule for all of humanity, and it is the duty of humanity to follow it without question or fail. The problem with this point of view is that it does not allow for individuality. There is almost no situation in which a blanket statement applies to everyone all of the time. I suppose there are some, all humans being worthy of Love for example, but even that appears different in application. (Each human needs different expressions of Love at different times). Thus I would say that any blanket statement of right and wrong is inherently legalistic, but perhaps that is a blanket statement, so I won't be a hypocrite. I will just say that I am learning that we don't have the omniscience that is needed to impose our view of right and wrong upon another person and that our sovereignty extends only to our own lives, never to another's. Some of the biggest religious rules, o...

Every religion has this idea that their theology is the best. Many have this mentality that they have to convert others to their religion because their way of life is the only really, truly good way of life and all others are secondary, are less-than, are not as good. When I was a Christian, I loved others as best I could, but I did so by wanting to change them, to give them the things I thought were the best things in my life. I thought the best way I could love people was by making them like me, by making them believe and do what I thought was right, and I thought that was what God wanted because I had been told what I was telling others: this way and no other is the Word of the Lord. I hate theology because it takes the inherent goodness of a person's heart and makes them hateful and abusive toward people they're trying to love or save. If I take a person, a unique individual expression of Yahweh who is doing and being themselves and I tell them that the way they are is in...

There's this idea that creation is waiting for the sons of God to take their places and make the world what it needs to be, this idea that some day out there Yahweh will come back and take us to Heaven and reign from His Throne. Once we remember sovereignty and that we are One with Yahweh, we realize that we are the ones sitting on this throne with Yahweh. We also need to remember that time and eternity are One. Time is the instrument of Our growth, and We actually use it to grow eternity. Once we realize these two things, we can see that We are sovereign in our own lives and ruling and reigning from this throne right now. The instrument of Our dominion is Our choices. This is what Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians 3 where he talks about how we each choose what materials to build our lives with. Some choose jewels, some choose clay. I, as the sovereign in my own life, get to decide what materials to build my life with. However, I cannot judge another's life. As each of u...

Scripture says, "Submit yourselves one to another." It also says "submit yourselves to your elders." These are two different statements. The first statement addresses the sovereignty of each human individual, which means that ultimately each person is responsible for his or her own life, and that each person cannot be judged or forced to adapt to another's lifestyle. Each person has every right to make whatever choice they want, and if another person doesn't like it, they have no right to violate that person's sovereignty in order to force compliance with an external theology, set of rules, or expression. The second statement addresses authority, in which a sovereign human may choose to submit a part of their lives to another sovereign human in order to learn from them, receive wisdom and revelation from them, and relate to them in love. This submission to authority should in no way violate sovereignty as it is the choice of the one who submits to su...

Each human being ultimately has sovereignty in their own life. Each of us has a place in Yahweh where it is just Him and us. My friend calls it the "universe of two." I call it "I am first." It is important to understand that time did not start with Adam and Eve one day and then move forward in an endless line from there. Time is more like the inhaling and exhaling of the Breath of Yahweh, and therefore there is a place in the universe where each of us was the first created human being due to the fact that each moment IS the Beginning. Don't get all caught up in being confused by the mystical, just go with it. Because if you accept that fact, then you can accept this: At one point in time, only you and Yahweh existed. At one point in time, there was nothing else attached to you. Nobody was above or before you. No one in your lineage had sown things into your family. No one in your church had established an acceptable theology. It was just you and Yahweh togeth...