In my last blog entry I mentioned a book I read at night called Around the Year with Emmet Fox. I’ve come across two different passages this week that I want to share with you.

The first has to do with the Third Commandment, “Thou Shall Not Take the Lord’s Name in Vain.” I always thought that simply meant not to swear using God’s name in vain but Fox presented a whole different way of looking at this commandment. He says it has to do with speaking ill of God at all and we do it all the time:

God gave me cancer. God made it rain on my wedding day. God made the tornado hit our house. God didn’t help me win the lottery. God made me lose my house.

Why is God punishing me? Why is God doing this to me?

God must not like me cause my life is a mess. Why did God make my baby die? And how about the biggest culprit of all: the Insurance companies that call any negative act of nature an “Act of God.” Talk about breaking the third commandment!

Shifting the Thoughts

Ever since I read that the other night, I’m really trying to stay aware of my thoughts when negative things happen. Last week in northern Minnesota there was terrible flooding. Many animals were killed at the zoo, huge sink holes lined the streets, peoples homes were flooded out.

The worst story I saw was of a young couple. She was nine months pregnant and the night before the floods came, she could feel that her baby wasn’t moving, so they went to the hospital and the baby had died. Then the next day their home was ruined by the floods. Can’t you just imagine how many people in that area were wondering why God was doing this to them?

Can you see the conflict that people live with? Jesus tells us God is a loving God and would do anything to keep us safe and happy, so then why is God creating all this havoc in the world?

We need to get rid of that old Biblical thinking that God is vengeful, spiteful, jealous, downright nasty and schizophrenic. We live on a planet where anything and everything can happen and all that goes on is not God’s Will for us. God’s will for us is to reach out to Him/Her in tough times and ask for all the help he/she can give us. God’s Grace can hold us up from the pain, comfort us, help us feel loved and know we’re not alone. Making this shift in our thinking is all part of the suffering we’re trying to heal.

There in Spirit

Another awareness I want to share with you is one of those “aha moments” that I had a couple of nights ago. A very dear friend of mine lost his sister last Saturday and the wake was Wednesday night. I really wanted to be there with him but I had to teach class and they were both happening at the same time.

I laid down for a nap about 4:00 o’clock because I suddenly felt so tired, I could barely keep my eyes open. I’ve learned over the years that when my body suddenly gets exhausted, it’s because my soul needs to do something and my body goes to sleep while the soul goes out to do its business.

I woke up about 5:30 and began getting ready for class even though I knew my soul was only half in my body. It was a struggle to get ready and drive to class because my energy was so low.

I had a strong sense that my soul was over at the wake with my friend and fortunately I had enough energy to teach the class. Since it was an advanced psychic development class, my students are well aware of out-of-body experiences, so I told them half of me was attending a wake and to bear with me until the other half of my soul came back.

At 8:30, I suddenly felt whole again and knew my soul was back.
When I got home from class I emailed my friend and told him that I was literally by his side the whole three hours of the wake and then came back into my body at 8:30. He emailed back saying that he felt a strong spirit presence next to him the whole time he was at the wake and got home at 8:30.

The awareness I had is about the statement many of us make when we can’t be in two places at the same time: “I can’t make it, but I’ll be there in Spirit.” It kind of boggles my mind that we say this but probably haven’t given much thought to what it means.

Understanding Your Life’s Purpose

Another cool thing I read in Emmett Fox’s book has to do with our purpose for being here. I would guess in 95% of the readings I do, people ask me what their calling is. For July 1st, Fox writes about Your Heart’s Desire, and this is part of what he has to say:

But how is one to find their true place in life? Is there any means whereby you may discover what it really is that God wishes you to do? The answer is divinely simple–already from time to time, God has whispered into your heart just that very wonderful thing, nothing less than what is called your heart’s desire. The most secret wish that lies at the bottom of your heart, that is just the very thing that God is wishing you to do or to be. And the birth of that wish in your soul was the voice of God telling you to arise and come up higher because God has need of you.

A therapist I knew many years ago asked me a question and my response was “I don’t know.” He then asked me: “If you did know the answer, what would it be?” and it was surprising how the answer popped out of my mouth. We know a lot about ourselves that we pretend not to see or know, but the answers are there inside.

If this is something you’re struggling with, keep it simple and ASK. Ask that your heart’s desire be shown to you and stay out of your head. Ask your heart what desires it’s holding.

A Final Thought

It’s all food for thought in breaking these darn beliefs that we are supposed to suffer.

It’s about the way God wants us to live according to Jesus, and not what we’ve been taught by manmade religion. Jesus always tells us that we have the answers, the truth, in our hearts…so let’s keep  finding out what that means as we travel this road together.

Until the next post, listen to your heart, but always trust your gut.