Shifting Slowly

So sitting in church Sunday the Monsignor began to talk about a group of non religious people that are overtaking the masses in the world.  They are called the ‘Nones’ as in, not having an affiliation to any one sort of religion but being spiritual. He proceeded to say that a group like this was not accepted by God because if you’re not considering yourself Christian or any other religion than you don’t have a relationship with God. That being spiritual is not enough.

Well, that’s a damn lie! Being religious and following an order out of duty, obligation, shame, guilt; THAT’S not Christian. When you follow God wholeheartedly, you are spiritual because God is Spirit and therefore you are building a spiritual bond with him.

I am at a place in my life now where I can separate myself from what people preach to what I choose to listen to and believe in. I will not choose a belief for my child or a system for her.  I want her to be able to make her own choices when it comes to beliefs and structure for her life. When she comes of age, she can decide that.  Her father and I teach her that there are other beliefs, that there are many paths to God and not just one.

I was a Sunday school teacher & I took the role because I do love speaking about God and Jesus and Spirit but I grazed over the curriculum where it brings up sin and the Church because it is not something I believe in and I can’t teach these young minds that. Most of my lessons I reiterated the fact that the relationship is to be with God and them, not God the church and them. That they can choose to speak to God directly and they do NOT need the church or priest as the middle man. I say this a lot in class because the church, for me, has no place in my personal relationship with God. The only place the church should have in your life is to find a community of people, for companionship.  Not to segregate yourself to one people or one way or path.

I didn’t learn this new path to God until recently. I’d say within the last few years. I knew of it, I tried unsuccessfully in the past but it never stuck because I didn’t have like-minded people around me to teach me what they know, to pick their brain, to not feel like such an outsider. And so it was always easier for me to follow the masses. To go along with what felt right for others because if it felt right for them then it would eventually feel right for me too, no?  But it never did.

Following the path of others never brought me joy because the path was interpreted by man and man had no right to tell me how to live.  Instead if you still yourself enough, if you do your own research, if you truly follow your heart and go with what it tells you feels right, you’ll be led to God. You’ll be led to an all-loving, all-encompassing, compassionate God that you don’t fear.  A God that is understanding, that is listening and that is responding back to you.  A God that is funny and charismatic and non-judgmental.  A God that is truly a figure of all sorts; mother, father, brother, and sister.  A God that is forever smiling and not pointing a finger at you or shaking its head.  I love this God.  This isn’t a made-up God either. This is the real God.  The God religions don’t teach about because they want you to fear God in the way a child fears his parents and so does what his parents tell him/her even if it means being unhappy.  That is not at all what God wants from us.  He wants us to be happy and to live lightly and to live in the light and to give and receive as much as he gives and receives.

The God I am learning about is a giver and he allows you to love yourself and doesn’t let you feel selfish about it. I was taught that if you loved yourself more than God or put yourself first before others, that you were selfish.  But if you don’t love yourself, how can you learn to love others and God?  The conundrum.

I am a none and I am proud. I am spiritual and I will scream it to the masses. I don’t want to be part of a group to tell me how to do and feel and walk and talk because it’s “what God would expect of me.”  I know what God expects of me.  To love myself, to not hurt myself or others, to love nature, to respect the laws of the Universe, to share and talk about Him openly, to rely on Him and not think we are alone, EVER.  God is Spirit, I am Spirit, therefore, I am Spiritual.