Resist the Hate

One of the things that so upset me in my old church was its attitude to LGBT issues.

Brave & Beautiful

“There is a wonderful mix of beauty and hope and pain in this collection of parables. I especially love the integration of strong feminine aspects of spirituality.”

Extract from a lovely review on Goodreads today.

Unexpected Revelations and Living in The Past

I think about unexpected revelations…

How there are no colours in the world.

No audible sound.

That we live in the past: our consciousness lagging behind actual events.

Humans do not know how conscious awareness arises.

A large amount of our brain circuitry comes from social interaction and language is an imperfect construct formed from those interactions.

If I time travel into the future I will die in the vacuum of space.

If ice was denser than water the world’s lakes and perhaps even its oceans would freeze solid.

Time will flow faster for you ontop of Everest than at sea level.

And I think about how I feel when I am told by many churches that they have beliefs which they refer to as “closed handed” and others that are “open handed” beliefs. They explain that closed handed beliefs are ones that they will not budge on. There is no room for negotiation.

And I wonder at it all.

There is no room for negotiation?

Strange for a creature that isn’t sure how it is conscious, that is always living in in the past and is hurtling through space with its brain floating in darkness and silence can be sure of anything? A creature trapped within a closed system that we call the Universe with no way of looking in from the outside.

We can make a guess at things. Test those as far as we can.

We can have faith, we can choose to believe.

But there is always room for negotiation.

There is no closed hand.

And if you really believe there is a closed hand for you, then you really are living in the past. Faith is dynamic and changing, you should always be open for the unexpected revelation.

Love: Decision vs. Feeling

As humans we are propelled forward by our emotions and our subconscious however much we like to think the rational part of us is the captain of our ship.

Love flows from our emotional state – it is not, as is so often preached, a statement of will. I have lost count of the amount of times I have heard preaches or have been told by Christian friends that, ‘Love is not only a feeling, it is more than a feeling. Love is a decision.’

That is folly.
It is a cold stark view of your innermost desires, which will harden your heart – it is not the poet’s or author’s view of life and it shows no understanding of how our brains work: of what being a human is.

It is far better to see love as a wild sea full of adventure, excitement, sorrow and grief. To sail into those waters means you have to make yourself vulnerable. You need to be ready for your emotions to be battered on the rocks and for your emotions to voyage to places you never knew existed. There will be days when you will be glad that you are alive and sharing the wonder with someone, others that you barely speak to each other as you cling exhausted to the mast.

It’s all emotional. It’s all about connecting at your core with another person. You do not brave the lashing waves and the salt stinging in your eyes and say, ‘Love is not only a feeling, it is more than a feeling. Love is a decision.’ For if you have become to believe that, then you no longer know love at all.

Think about what drives you to do incredible things. It is not a decision that is ‘more than a feeling’. It is your passion, your love for something that allows you to push through hardship, setbacks and disappointments. The intensity of your feelings will fluctuate, but it is still your feelings that will push you onwards, not a retreat into statements of intent.

I know why preachers say these things. They do not want people to throw away relationships when things become hard. And they are right in their intent, but not in their method. They tap into their belief that you should not live your life for yourself but as a sacrifice for others. This denial that life was given to you, for you is highly destructive. It is empathy and love that should flow out of you, not a death to self.

Better to come to know yourself and understand what it is to be human. To understand that to love someone will tear open all the boundaries of your emotions and feelings that you have known. And that this is good. Stay in that place and live a life that is full of love.