Another way of seeing God if you’re turned off by religion
Feb 18, 2021. 49/365 days of Daily Writing Practice + life lessons journal of sorts. I’m committing to writing ~100-word article daily. Short or long-form. Ugly or brilliant. The objective is to write daily for 15 mins without fail, even when life happens.
I love journaling, writing on paper, seeing my handwriting, inked with my new best pens. I guess tools really make a difference. They make life better.
I also love how I’m much more interested in learning the bible now.
I love how I’m following my curiosities during this luteal phase of my cycle.
I love how I’m loving to cook.
I love how green tea affects my level of alertness, removes my brain fog. I guess this is what coffee lovers feel with their coffee.
Life is just good at the moment, now that I have a better relationship with God. It’s true, life is better when you have a relationship with God. It doesn’t have to be religious, but it’s definitely spiritual. It may be a form of meditation or a mantra, or just a core belief that you can anchor yourself into to keep you steady.
As they say, we all need to something to believe in. That belief will inform your decisions and the way you live your life. It keeps you steady and calm. It makes living more purposeful, driven, focused, guided, just generally structured, not, at all, floating in the air, super uncertain and volatile.
It’s nice to have a sense of certainty in the midst of all the uncertainties in the world, which makes us fearful.
God doesn’t have to be that something that people have become obsessed to challenge and prove with logic. It can simply be a school of thought, if that makes you feel better. It can be an idea that’s going to guide the way you live your life.
One thing Vipassana taught me is that God isn’t necessarily a person even if that’s the way the world has personified it and made us believe. The instrument may be a person who lived among us, if you are a Christian, but it can be in another form. God is love. God is the concept of love. Let your life be guided by love. God is patient. Patient is God. God is your reminder to be patient. God is compassion. If you are a believer of compassion, you live your life in compassion.
The problem with how God has been explained is that it has become so debatable, especially among the intellectuals. Understandably, because scholars have made the study of the bible and God to be academic or logical. It doesn’t have to be. It only needs an open mind. It is as simple as believing to be kind to everyone. Then kindness is your God. If you believe that we should operate in love, then love is God. That’s why they say God is love.
Strip away the personified, animated, visualized ideas of God with white ethereal halos and white smooth smoky light. It may have appealed and appeared to someone else in that form but it doesn’t have to be that for you.
The concept of God may be intimidating for others. It might be repulsive for some. It may be unrealistic, too righteous, a fiction, too judgmental, condemning, out of reach, out of touch, too abstract, too rigid. I know, because it did for me, too. But if you can only revisit the idea, give it another chance, question your age-old perceptions/impressions/understanding of it, you might open yourself up to a whole new world of awakenness/enlightenment/calm/peace, an undiscovered dimension of your life.
If on second pass, a third pass, you still don’t get it and don’t like it, then you can simply revert to your default.
But what if you’ve had a different understanding and take this time where you’re at in your life?
What if the anxiety or depression you’re going through now lies on uncertainty, or your lack of something solid to believe in? What if you can hold onto something and that can take away the uncertainties that’s triggering your anxieties? Wouldn’t you try it?
Remember, the quality of our life is the meaning we give it. If you can interpret your life events in a more positive, optimistic take — anchored in your beliefs, may it be in God (kindness, love, compassion, patience, etc) or otherwise, then wouldn’t you want that?
For example, at 30 you don’t have a house, a car, a spouse, or any of those things society said you should’ve had by this age. Which meaning will give you better thoughts and emotions?:
a) I’m a failure because I don’t fit in the social construct
b) These social constructs were only made by people. It’s okay to deviate from that. My own life, my own race, my own pace, my own process. If I’m not ready or I don’t believe any of those “social requirements”, then I won’t subscribe. If my desires aren’t here yet, then I’d like to believe the universe is still preparing me to receive it. It may be a sign, a reminder, a notice that if I still have unresolved past issues, time wants me to deal with that first before I will be able to take the difficulty of the next level.
Letter b sounds more of a growth trajectory for me so that’s what I’ll choose to believe in. Am I fraud if I choose to believe that? Am I wrong? Will it be better to just accept that I was, indeed, a failure? Am I less logical if I choose letter B. Will it be an insult to my intellect? Will that make me less cool? A pushover? Will I appear to have no guts/balls/ no hold/accountability in my life?
I don’t think so. Even if you do, then so what? Will thinking otherwise make you feel better, less anxious, calmer? Will it give you better emotions? Will that improve the quality of your life?
Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become words. Your words become actions. Your actions become habits. Your habits become your lifestyle. Your lifestyle becomes your values. Your values become your destiny. We all know this from Mahatma Gandhi and it’s true.
Choose beliefs that are aligned with your vision of your future self.
Your teen or 20s self may believe that hustling and money make the world go round because that’s how you see your future self — well-off, made it, has the house, car, the works. Your vision of your 40s self may be different. You may want peace and contentment. So in your 30s you’re starting to shift into a belief that you don’t need to kill yourself of overfatigue and stress anymore. As long as you’re free from unnecessary stress, noise, and conflicts, and you have enough of what you need, then all other things can go.
Yes, beliefs can change, too, as in everything in life.
The bottomline is whatever it is that you believe in, if that is your north star, your guiding beliefs in the way you live your life, then that can be God. If it’s good, it’s kind, it helps others, makes the world a better place, respectful, makes you a good person, then let that guide the way you live your life.
One etymology of the word God will say it to mean to call upon, invoke, implore.
Let goodness, kindness, compassion, love, among others, be one you call upon and invoke.
Whatever form your beliefs take, be like the best version of that.
If you believe in Christ, be Christ-like — compassionate, patient
If you believe in nature, be like nature — forgiving, growing, nourishing
If you believe in intellect, be like the brain — open, ever-expanding, helpful, resourceful
God doesn’t have to be religious. The only point is to be a go(o)d person.
