DIVINITY WITHIN

Warning: If you are easily offended or have a barn full of sacred cows, please do not continue reading. You have been warned: feelings of nausea, dizziness, hoof and mouth disease and incontinence may follow.

A wise man said, “When I criticize you I am criticizing God’s handiwork.” Does this mean we should avoid criticism? Well, yes and no. Care for some syrup with that waffle? When we shoot from the lip (or keyboard if you prefer) before thinking it through we place ourselves in a precarious position spiritually. The spiritual concept at play here is contempt prior to investigation. With today’s immediacy of contact through e-mails, blogs, comment boxes and social networking sites people are quick to share their thoughts. Thoughts generally based in emotion, how they feel about something or someone, with little regard for investigation. Pick any topic: politics, celebrities, health, religion, Hollywood, the climate, you name it and someone has and will opine bereft of any actual knowledge or investigation. Movie reviews by people who haven’t bothered to see the flick but “know” it must be a hit/dog because of who made it or is in it. Broken glass political supporters, you know them; they support/vote Democrat/Republican parties regardless of any facts or truths, willing to crawl through broken glass to do so. Then there are those so convinced, one way or the other, on climate change that all rational discussion is impossible, in fact, if you do not agree with them, you must be a tool.

Worried about the swine flu “epidemic”? Did you know that over 60,000 people die every year in the U.S. of the flu? That is in the neighborhood of 5,000 every month. The best government statistics recently updated the deaths from swine flu since its outbreak a year or so ago at 4,000. Bet you haven’t heard it presented in that way before, not enough Chicken Little value. To be clear, every passing affected the family it touched dramatically and I pray for peace and healing in all those families, the point being the purposeful lack of perspective provided by those we trust to tell us the truth. Please, take all the necessary precautions to avoid getting sick, but the sky really isn’t falling.

Might as well keep rolling on health issues. The House of Representatives recently passed health care bill is over 1900 pages long and not one member, by their own admission read it before passing it. Hear that sound, that is sacred cows revving up. Does the health care system in this country need an overhauling? Yes. Is it too much to ask that our elected representatives actually take the time to read and understand what they are presenting to the American people and then give us, the people they are supposed to represent a chance to participate in the process? If your sacred cow just mooed no, than you really need to read the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence again (maybe for the first time?) for this country is founded on the principles of a representative republic and if you don’t know what that means, shame on you. Ah, ah, ah, you were warned at the beginning.

Sacred cows and religion go hand in hand. Living on the Spiritual Basis anything that limits God’s love or ability to touch us regardless of circumstance or personal shortcomings is clearly not the path. God is many things, but limitation and lack of His availability are not among them. See the Power of the Presence in everything and everyone, including yourself. If there is any area in your life that you have closed the door on make the decision today to throw the door open and reexamine the contents in a new light, the light of Divine knowledge and power.

“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man (or woman) in everlasting ignorance-that principle is contempt prior to investigation.”

Moo.