Spirituality

60

Religions have brought parts of humanity together, but they have also kept the whole divided: we have yet to learn that different forms of worship can reside as equals under the umbrella of a single sovereign Creator.

Ancient scripture based in fear and superstition is expected to take precedence over modern science and the hindsight offered by recorded history. While we have grown in many ways, we still lack our saving grace – knowledge that we are all children of a loving God, that our relationship with this divine parent is personal, and that we are expected to care for our planet and each other.

Drawing on the Urantia Revelation, God Refined describes an expanded view of Deity, one founded in truth, beauty, and goodness. We are offered hope of a better day and a path through the chaos consuming the world. Teaching that spiritual progression is decision-based, we are shown how to evolve: our goal – a higher order of existence from where peace will have it first true chance.

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God Refined: A Proposal for Peace

EXCERPT (1927 words)

God Refined: A Proposal for Peace, by Robert A. Kezer

Part 1: At Issue

How do we create a better world – a place without warfare, genocide, and environmental destruction? Some of us charge this responsibility to our leaders while others expect their god to save those of their faith. Many more people feel they have no voice because they are only one among so many. These attitudes have held us back: today’s problems are the result.

True change can only happen if we focus on elevating the fundamental basis from which we make our decisions. To not address our world’s problems at the individual level means we continue to place the responsibility elsewhere: we are the face in the mirror, and recognizing this is our first step.

The premise in this book – and this has been offered by others – is that every decision we make is either based in love or results from fear. These two fundamental ways of relating to our world are the polar opposites that condition every action we take. On the surface they often seem similar, but at a deeper level they are much different.

One person embraces peace out of profound love for their neighbors: they have no desire for personal gain. Another acts in almost the same way but does so out of fear of retribution – either from some god, karmic debt, or belief in universal justice. While neither person hurts others, their motivation for not doing so is different. So are their levels of commitment to these principles guiding their conduct: fear does not serve us in our darkest hours. Only love can draw forth the passion needed to sustain our commitment to peace.

Fear based personalities stem from ancient concepts of God: this continues to direct much in our societies. Most people have been taught to fear their creator – to believe in hell, damnation, and God’s wrath. For them it is logical to believe that if there is a god, then this god will judge, condemn, and punish us upon death for our infractions during life: there is good and evil and whether we understand this or not, we are held responsible. They then copy this pattern into their lives, our society, and the global institutions dictating our existence.

Today we have a world economic system that continues to allow 800 million souls a year remain chronically malnourished – not because we do not have the food to feed them, but because they do not have the money to buy it. Placing the quest for power above all else has resulted in profit becoming more important than people: we have allowed, and continue to see happen, the wholesale eradication of most of the indigenous cultures that once thrived in our world.

Tradition has been overwhelmed by progress leaving a legacy of genocide in its wake. With little thought given to our collective responsibility as stewards of the planet, many people have selfishly taken all they could and left almost nothing for future generations – their inheritance is a destroyed environment they cannot repair, only adapt to. Rather than accepting our individual responsibility for this, we often claim impotence and blame others.

We are disconnected from the institutions framing our world: what is correct personal conduct gives way to power based policy. The whole does not represent the parts: truth, fairness, and responsibility - necessary attributes for a healthy family - are not the guiding principles of our world community. Perpetuating the economic model, not recognizing our interdependence, dominates our reasoning. We have the obligation to expect better.

At the family level we promote the improved welfare of our offspring, while in the global sphere we allow our leaders to legislate in ways that destroy their future. People of high moral character are promoted as models to exemplify, yet these traits are not appropriate foreign policy. We are expected to obey the rule of law for the greater benefit of all, while our leaders maintain a global system of anarchy where the biggest stick rules.

Some people argue that without fear humanity would never have advanced – that it was necessary for strong leaders to command loyalty. This may be true, or not: all we know for sure is that we have never tried another way. Fear has always reigned in our collective consciousness. This grants that at some level anger and impatience, criticism and judgment, and violence and revenge – the common fare of today’s global stage – become acceptable.

Concepts of scarcity, superiority, and religious intolerance dominate our cultures. Competition overrides cooperation in almost every area. It seems that no matter how much we have desired a better world, we have always allowed that for one group to have, another must not. Do we really wish to continue like this?

Our other option is to release the fear that holds us back, generate the necessary momentum for change, and then create an environment conditioned by love. To make this happen enough people need to believe the very essence of God is love. When we know God as perfection of love we realize that anger –the worst of human emotions - can never be attributed to this deity.

God has never gotten mad or impatient or lashed out at creation: these beliefs come from the days when sacrifice was routine. We know better now. To believe that after death we are greeted by an empathetic, compassionate, and merciful divine parent – one that loves us, understands our natural failings, and who forgives us for them – releases us. We begin to live our lives with joy, abandon, and excitement absent the criticism, judgment, and inevitable violence of the past.

Embracing our unity – realizing we are all siblings of the same divine creator - removes the idea that some people are more worthy than others because of wealth, religion, or ethnicity. We are all children of the same family: we have an obligation to help each other.

We have experienced the truth that for any of us to suffer hurts us all. Just as we would ensure that all of the members of our personal family are cared for, we need to have consideration for those living in hardship around the world. Our disparities in wealth, resources, and education need to be reduced. If not, what can we expect to happen when those without similar opportunity demand their accounting?

When the people who have more begin to care for those who have less, we will heal. This accelerates when people gifted with greater abilities use more of their energy for humanity’s welfare, rather than their own gain.

It is time to drop our grudges: we all bear a degree of responsibility. It may not be right to forget everything that has happened, but it is essential for us to forgive. Seldom a rapid process, this is not one we often wish to begin: many times we expect the other person to apologize first. We allow ourselves to be controlled by our emotions, which come from our human side, and not our feelings, which stem from the Divine.

We act out of fear when we try to insure our place in life by accumulating material things: we hoard, become static, and hope to buy our way out of any problem. Holding on to our stuff becomes more important than anything else. We learn to only associate with those of similar status: people’s bank accounts start to mean more than their characters. This process separates us from each other and our common heritage: we turn into fortified islands built to hold off the rest of humanity.

Love though, is a reciprocal process of giving and receiving that increases in quantity and quality with each cycle. We cannot receive love and keep it, only bask in its healing effect as it flows through us and on to others.

Love allows us to release our hold on the material. We live with greater spontaneity trusting more in the relationships we foster. Our true rewards do not come from riches, but from the return of loving consideration we first spread ourselves. This provides us our best security in an uncertain world, and forever conditions our memories of this first life. As we have been told, it is in the giving that we receive.

Can we ever achieve a more equitable distribution of the world’s resources without fairness becoming a guiding principle? Should violence – whether physical, passive, or social – be tolerated any longer, or can we replace it with dialog, consensus, and understanding?

For the first time in history we have a framework of belief that allows us - with intent - to reach for a higher level of conduct. As some people break the generational cycles that have destroyed their families, we can change the historical trends that define us. In doing so we achieve a greater revelation of God and remake ourselves in that divine image.

With the god of this presentation, every meaningful action is scaled by the degree of eternal truth, divine beauty, and infinite goodness it contains. Little in our world is black or white. Evil is not a force in and of itself, but rather the degree to which these traits are missing. Knowing this helps us learn how to live, act toward others, and shape our future global government.

Only by gaining a more refined image of God can we both follow our hearts and trust our actions are grounded in love. Using these criteria to judge whether thoughts we consider from God are valid helps us to separate divine guidance from human garbage. Would a loving parent ever tell one of their children to harm the others in their family? To think God would, is absurd. This misunderstanding has brought much horror, and no longer is this teaching appropriate.

The power of choice is ours. As people increase the number of love-based decisions they make, they change. Those who have done this know the process cannot be rushed: each of us must have the time to fail, reassess, and experience the eventual outcome of our efforts. Wisdom is knowledge combined with experience, which is not gained just from greater time on planet, but through the active process of making difficult choices.

As with the parts, so goes the whole: as more people change, so does our world. Like with the balance beam scale held by the lady of justice, every decision counts. Each positive choice has weight and works to affect the momentum directing our planet. At first we are unable to see the progress: the other side has great weight and movement will not happen until we almost reach equilibrium. Then everything accelerates, good over takes bad, and peace comes to the Earth.

Bringing forth a new system is a process: we allow the old to fade as the new takes form. Our hope resides with better choices being made by a new generation, not converting those in charge now. People seldom change when they want to, much less when they do not. With time, room is made for those with a different vision.

Our children need a world in which the results of their choices are clear. Fear has left its legacy: we must now build ours. Anything we use to create our future will remain a part of it. This means not placing our focus on fighting what is wrong, but rather on promoting what is right - people putting their time, money, and energy into love-based action. To do otherwise is to remain anchored in the past using anger, animosity, and personal indignation against ourselves.

God Refined: A Proposal for Peace by Robert A. Kezer, 2006. First Edition. 6 x 9; 60 pages. ISBN: 978-0-6151-3810-7. Available through bookstores and in paperback ($12.99 + p&h), e-book ($6.98), and complimentary download at http://stores.lulu.com/bobkezer. Publication Date: 1 March 2007. Thank you.