Dreams/fear/faith/love

My good friend Mark, a monk at the Monastery in Conyers GA, emailed me. We sometimes drift apart, like people do, but recently we did connect again and I'm so glad. We should try to keep up with each other because you know???? My sister died yesterday and when I got the call I was so sad. Not because we were close, actually we hardly knew each other and never had the opportunity to change that, but I was sad because we didn't know each other. What does it mean to come into this life, have a family, share the same blood with people and never know them for one reason or another? I think it sucks!!!

Anyway, I've been having weird dreams and not sleeping well, and I think it was a warning that something's not right. My dreams aren't precognitive but they are unsettling and that's what happens to me when they, (YOU KNOW THE BEINGS) download information. I'd rather blame everything that goes wrong on Mercury and the planet Mars because it's the War planet and RED... you know it's really close to earth right now and aren't we all burning hot?????? And aren't we hearing and seeing the rustling of both supporters and anti-war demonstrators finally speaking out? Hell I don't care if it's both sides raising Cain, let's just speak it, shout it out, get passionate about what you believe and own it! The silence and trying to be politically correct is what I think is dangerous. War is definitely a hot subject... especially with the anniversary of 9-11 approaching! I believe the rush to War can lead us to Peace on Earth.

But Brother Mark and his friend had a sharing about their precognitive dreams for an hour and it finally got around to dealing with the nature of evil and 'why' God is seemingly indifferent to the suffering of those in the world. Mark's friend said his dream had stripped him of a certain kind of 'childlike' innocence; the belief that many have, consciously or not, that a deep, loving relationship with God, will somehow spare them from the injustices and bone crushing suffering that seems to be the lot of us all.

God is not separate from us, living in a heaven looking down. The term 'God With Us' means just that. God journeys with us, is one with us, experiences life with us, and all that it entails; such is the nature of infinite love. Our projecting our own humanness onto God only adds to the problem of how to understand this mystery of God's infinite Love for us all, since we tend to think of 'that' love in human terms only. For instance God's love is not based on hormones, instinct or deep need. God's love is not based on human emotion as we experience it; if it were we would be in deep trouble for sure. Human emotions are inconsistent, volatile and often very subjective in nature and narcissistic-nothing wrong with this; this is simply who and what we are, and what we have to deal with as human beings.

So what is Infinite Love? It is something beyond anything we can understand and comprehend. Our present understanding merely mirrors back our own level of development and maturity. Our faith mirrors us, just like our society, and government, but perhaps on a less obvious level.

Horrible things happen to all of us - situations that seem to be absurd with no redeeming factors involved at all. The death of children, disease, and injustice, etc.; the list is endless. If God exists (and I believe He/She/It does), and if this God is personal (again I believe this); what that 'personal' means is something beyond anything that can be comprehended. God's love is interested in what we 'will' become, or perhaps what we already are, since with God time does not exist.

We are pilgrims, on a very rough journey to our true home - not some pie in the sky, but Reality. In order to arrive there we must embrace life and all it seemingly throws at us. The ups and downs of life fling us back on ourselves and force us to make conscious choices about how we live our lives and find a deeper abiding union with God. In the end it is all Grace. Life is about something, we are here for a purpose, we are impermanent, on a journey, and the train we ride is time.
- Peace Mark

I want to thank Brother Mark for writing so beautifully and reminding us that God is living with us, not looking down at us. The harsh reality is true, we walk the road of life and all we really have is the mystery of it. The only thing that matters is Love, and how we treat others. Death is part of life, the recycling of 'spirit' and the evolution of each soul. It's just as you might expect really; would you think the Universal energy that created the concept in which we live, would have a plan that was thinkable by us? That's ludicrous.

It just makes sense that the maze is simple to follow with no right or wrong way out. That's what we got - Life without judgment. As we cross over to the other side we will be judged then, but in a loving way that embraces us and gives us another change to do it all again.

Bye honeys