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Permalink Reply by James C Schultz on 6th mo. 12, 2015 at 12:07am

Personally I think it's one of those "what goes around comes around things"..  It's just good advice that follows the "Golden Rule".  I guess that makes it a rule but probably more like the law of gravity - what goes up must come down.  It's not like God is going to punish you for not obeying it, it's just part of the natural order of things in the spiritual world that ends up affecting you in the natural world.  If you don't do it, you set off a chain reaction that eventually comes back to haunt you. 

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Permalink Reply by Forrest Curo on 6th mo. 12, 2015 at 12:55am

True enough... but there's also a Stephen Gaskin line I think expresses the kind of 'advice' this is. Gaskin lists some of the kinds of things God really wants, ending with "If you understand that's what God wants (ie good things and good lives for people), you'll help out along those lines."

People (counting me) can really tie ourselves into verbal knots about "How can I be sure this will really help this person?" and "Am I doing wrong if I really don't have time or spare money, and just keep going?" -- There's a natural temptation to make some kind of decision-making procedure based on this precept.

Really, though, Jesus has in fact been talking about what God really wants and how to fit into that happening.

There's a sense in which you can say that people are  'granted a certain measure of independence' by the Universal Consciousness of itall. But to arrive at a more 'wholistic theology' -- at least, a more accurate one -- We really ought to consider ourselves as independently functioning parts of one big activity.

The left brain is supposed to do its job independently of the right; the right is supposed to do its job (including deciding whether a little left-brain consultation might be a good idea about now) independently -- and the two together are supposed to merge their results into one experience, one sense of what's happening and what it means. They tend to have different strengths and different blind spots; it's very strange that they can look at a scene two different ways and form one picture... but neither by itself, nor hampered by the other, could do as well.

The relation of God to us and us to God -- Hey, that's a real mind boggler; but it clearly isn't like a hierarchy of one Boss plus one uppity, heedless, stubborn, ignorant and lazy subordinate. We can and do often think of it that way; but I think it's a misconception.

There's one thing happening ['God is bringing about God's Intention' -- which you could also describe as: 'the events of this world are following each after each']:

and everything we do, thinking we're somehow 'independent' -- is part of that 'thing.'

There was the kid whose guru told him to cut his hair. "But I don't want to cut my hair!" After a little thought: "Okay, I guess I'll go get my hair cut." So the guru tells him, "Okay, then you don't have to cut your hair."

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Permalink Reply by James C Schultz on 6th mo. 12, 2015 at 10:11am

Did you ever wonder if God was trying to clone himself?

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Permalink Reply by Forrest Curo on 6th mo. 12, 2015 at 10:32am

What someone told me was the reason for the universe: "God got lonesome."

You really can't clone 'Being'; but you can spread it around so it can talk to its other end?

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Permalink Reply by Forrest Curo on 6th mo. 13, 2015 at 10:49am

This thought is blowing my mind! --

There's one thing happening ['God is bringing about God's Intention' -- which you could also describe as: 'the events of this world are following each after each']:

and everything we do, thinking we're somehow 'independent' -- is part of that 'thing.'

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In one sense that makes every dumb or wicked thing we've ever done a part of God's learning process. As Mona tells Kurt Vonnegut's overwhelmed protagonist: "It is not possible to make a mistake."

Even "Good Friday" becomes, after all, 'good'.

This is only saved from being sheer meaningless nonsense by the fact that we do, in fact, prefer some outcomes to others.

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Permalink Reply by James C Schultz on 6th mo. 13, 2015 at 12:53pm

The thought is blowing your mind because it's so enlightening.  Most mornings I join my wife in front of our tv and with her indulgence switch to the device that lets me watch Utube where I have created a playlist of Christian music, mostly from my past.  Lately I added a very nice rendition of How can I keep from singing.  One line that speaks to me  in a similar vein goes "And day by day this pathway smooths, Since first I learned to love it,  The more we realize that all things work for good for those who want to do the right thing (Rom_8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.), the easier it is not to carry the burden(s) of regrets, guilt, and/or sorrow we felt at the moment for the rest of our lives. 

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