My Path

MY PATH

Within me (and I believe within all of us human beings) there has been, as long as I can remember, the drive for joy/happiness/pleasure.  This drive/hope includes that this joy would continue forever and include my personal aware existence with my history and experiences intact as the ordained, gifted foundation for that eternity (with that growth and joyful companionship continuing eternally in that existence).

As I grew from childhood to adulthood and on, I progressively came to understand that this earthly existence is consistently the opposite of what my human “wiring” longed for.  This earthly existence was/is primarily difficult/tragic/painful and for most humans, substantially, a horror.  But that innate drive/hope for unending joy was and is undeniably there in all of us.  From an early (6 y.o.) age, I was one who passionately hoped for and searched for the assurance that this life is not all there is.

That internally placed drive has made my life’s primary passion that of searching for a vehicle that might take me to my goal: a solid hope in the possibility of a Creator/God who was all-good, all-loving, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise and therefore, who ordained everything that occurred in this difficult world for the higher purpose of our being made into His and each other’s eternal companions: A Creator who was capable of and committed to giving an end to the Human Story that would satisfy my own and mankind’s hunger and make sense of what we had to go through here.

It is important to note that my real desire was not primarily for the existence of a “god” himself, but for that eternal joy for myself and other humans.  And it seemed that finding out the likelihood (or not) that He might exist and what His nature and relationship to us humans might be, was the most logical step to my honest ultimate desire/goal.  I find this human desire very logically supported in the following quotation from the Bible, “We love (agape - care for/about) Him, because He first loved (agape -cared for/about) us.” 

We are formed to “love” a God as a response.  It is His job/responsibility to first convince us that HE exists and is continuously and perfectly caring for and about US for our best and most joyful destiny (since we see that His primary and highest agenda is obviously NOT our happiness, or even our survival here). 

When we are “persuaded” (the root Greek word for the English word that we translate as “faith”) of His existence and absolute caring provision for us, it is our “hard-wired” response to – “love” Him (and be willing to submit to this difficult life with an increased amount of patience, peace, and tolerance of His ordained pathway for every other human).  If He has not fulfilled HIS responsibility in convincing us of His existence and care, we will not be able to respond in the way in which He has fashioned us to respond.  Any failure in our not trusting/caring for Him is on His part in either His provision or His timing. If “we are the clay and You are the Potter [Former], and we ALL are the work of Your Hand.”, each and every one of us are formed according to His design and purpose, not our own.  And if He is all-loving and perfectly providing toward each human – If “the I AM Always Am (YHWH) is my/our Shepherd, I/we have no lack.” – then we will ultimately see that the path He has given to each and every one is perfect for the preparation for the eternity He has planned/dreamed

/predestined for us since before the world began.

My early years were spent in the framework of traditional Christianity.  I was told that the Bible held the position that the large part of humanity, who would reject the traditional concept of Biblical God in this life (either because of genetics, ignorance, culture, character, or the non-existent, illogical premise of “free will”) would be tortured, or exist eternally in dark and terrible separation from joy or hope through eternity, or at best, simply go into “oblivion”/non-existence.  This contradicted everything in my logic and heart as to the reasonable end to the human “story” IF, in fact, there were a Creator who was all-good, all-loving, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise.  It was only logical that a Creator with those attributes would insist on and be capable of securing a truly happy end to the human “story”.

 As a young adult, I began looking further for something that might make more sense to my logic, my human need, and my heart.  I pursued the idea of reincarnation, the philosophies/religions of Islam, Buddhism, non-traditional Christian groups (Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witness, Science of the Mind, Unity), etc.  Still finding nothing that really met the mark of my need, or my mind.  In middle age, I began looking into the original languages of the Bible, particularly ancient Greek, the original language of the New Testament.   I looked up words and passages that appeared to support the punitive, exclusionary interpretations and found that the translators had chosen the English word from a number of alternate options that was most supportive of their prejudice toward a god with an exclusionary/punitive destiny for most humans.  But that there were alternate choices for those words in the original Greek that were consistent with ALL humans being created and destined/ ordained for an eternal, joyful existence.

About a year after beginning to study from the Greek in this way (~ 1994), I found resources that put forth the translation  and interpretation that the Bible tells the "story" of Universal Salvation (all humans companioning with the Creator and with each other in joy in eternity) and that this Biblical message had existed in a large portion of the early Christian church (which was driven underground – and many leaders martyred - by those with opposing views when they came into political and financial power in the dark ages).  I also found that, with the advent of the Internet, individuals and groups in the last 10-15 years, who believed/hoped in this view were finding each other and writing supportive literature for others to find the way to this amazing hope.

On this website, God willing,  I will share and encourage others and I anticipate my own continued enrichment and growth through them.  I will be including my theological writings, poetry, music, , devotional selections, and resources that I have found helpful, in hopes that others will see their own hunger, pain and hope and might receive amazing comfort from the hope and practice (still growing) that I have found. 

This is not to say that “I KNOW” that this is The God who exists or even that “I KNOW” that a “god” exists.  I shudder and am particularly cautious when I hear other human beings saying “I KNOW…” what they cannot “know” until they see it “face to face”.  And the arrogance of that “I KNOW” that leads them to judgment of others based on what they THINK they KNOW, with all the purulence that ripples from that view.

The only thing that “I KNOW” is that “Acting As If” this is the destiny for us all and the God who is providing everything for us to be that and receive that is the most joyful, productive, loving way that I have found to live in this existence.

And I believe I can share strong justification that the Bible, in the original languages, gives us this as The Completely Joyful End to the Human Story.

My career prior to my retirement was as a psychiatric nurse.  I have children and grandchildren with the joys, pains, and lessons that come from that “gift”. I also have had a large portion of the life wounds that I get to frame as “the refiner’s fire”  that are always used to burn off the “dross” until the Goldsmith sees His face in US.  More of my personal history will be interwoven in my postings.

Rejoicing for ALL as from the Hand of the Loving, Wise, Omniscient, Omnipotent Creator who has destined us all to a Joyful Eternity and who I ACT AS IF is there,         June