Perspective 1:
By Marla Sanderson
“To say that we are free with the freedom of God does not mean that we are free to do that which contradicts the Divine Nature.”
—Ernest Holmes
Just how does this work?
We simply live, move, and think in harmony with the Divine, and all goes well for us. It’s that easy.
We CAN and sometimes DO operate in a way that contradicts Divine nature, and there are always consequences. They can look like poverty, illness, and countless varieties of unhappiness, and can last a minute or a lifetime.
So what is the Divine Nature? Let’s look at God as Life, Love, and Abundance.
DIVINE LIFE:
Every living thing has a continuous connection with the source of all Life. It’s a healing presence—a renewing presence. You’ve seen it at work in your body since the first time you skinned your knee.
It makes you want to live and breathe and play instead of being still as a post. It created millions of life forms on Earth and keeps them all active and breathing for the duration of their time here. (What happens after that is another subject.)
What would you do if YOU were Divine Life?
DIVINE ABUNDANCE:
If you live in lack, you might call it Divine Will, but that’s like blaming the bookcase for the hurt when I smacked my toe on it this morning. Ouch!
You only need to look around to see Abundance. If 8.7 million life forms on earth isn’t proof of that, just look around. Everywhere you look, there’s stuff. Walk down the street. Go to a shopping mall or a grocery store. Stuff everywhere—all kinds of stuff. And there’s always more.
As modern science finds universes beyond universes and universes within universes, might we agree that there must be some abundant and intelligent source of it all?
What would you do if YOU were Divine Abundance?
DIVINE LOVE:
Divine Love is constant and unconditional. It doesn’t judge or condemn. It is the Eternal Givingness that never withholds, and expresses through us when we turn to It. Imagine infinite, ongoing love, right where you are.
It supports our choices, and even when they “contradict the Divine Nature,” It loves us anyway. It offers freedom to be healthy and prosperous, or to smack any body part on any bookcase.
If you were God, the unconditionally loving creator of millions of life forms on earth and infinite abundance, would you intentionally bring suffering and pain and poverty on your creations? Would you pick out a few favorite people and shower them with all the good stuff of life and put it just out of reach of the rest of us?
What would you do if YOU were Divine Love?
DIVINE YOU
You have total freedom and all the resources of the Infinite Creator to do whatever you want to do. You can be happy and joyous and free—even creative and prosperous, as long as those things don’t contradict the Divine Nature.
You can operate in harmony with Divine Life, Abundance, and Love, or stray into the painful thoughts and behaviors that result in struggle and unhappiness.
Practice aligning your thoughts and acts with the Divine Nature and watch everything improve in your life.
And if you become a better God than I, my Lotto numbers are 2, 3, 7, 27, 37 and 9.
(Read Perspective 2 below…)
Rev. Marla Sanderson has been a student of spiritual practice for more than 35 years. She began as Assistant Director of The Next Step, a psychic and spiritual community in a New Mexico ghost town. She’s been a workshop leader, teacher, practitioner, and minister of Living Love, and the Science of Mind. She recently founded the New Thought Global Network, a virtual “church” that offers inspiration anytime, from anywhere. The site showcases many powerful Science of Mind and New Thought speakers and writers, and intends to expand these teachings to the world. Check it out at www.newthoughtglobal.org.
Perspective 2:
By Gregg Sanderson
Let’s talk about God—not the old guy sitting on the throne, but the Infinite Power that created the Universe.
I don’t believe in the bearded bloke. Think of what we call God as a Creative Power of Intelligence, Love, and Life. It is infinite, through dimensions beyond our ken. Picture yourself as that.
Think of yourself, not in any human form, but as a power and energy everywhere and everywhen. You are omnipotent, omniscient. omnipresent, and any “omni…” you can think of. Now go back in whatever would pass for time, to the First of Forever.
There you are; all knowing, with nothing to know; all loving with nothing to love, all power with nothing to drive. Let the eons go by and…
There you are; all knowing, with nothing to know; all loving with nothing to love, all power with nothing to drive. Let more eons go by and…
There you are; all knowing, with nothing to know; all loving with nothing to love, all power with nothing to drive. Let still more eons go by and…
Well, you get the idea. It’s boredom on a scale beyond imagination! What’s a Diety to do? What would YOU do?
I know…Let’s make stuff. All you have to do is make atoms and molecules and slow down the vibration. Lookey there. Now we have rocks. Isn’t that interesting!
It’s interesting enough to keep you entertained for an eon or two. You make rocks and put them together into planets and stars and such. It’s fun, but no matter how many fancy rocks you make, they’re still rocks…And eventually boring.
What now? Life is an unused part of yourself, so add life to the mix. Make plants, fish, bugs, and animals on the rocks and planets. Of course, you are every one of them all, everywhere at once because it’s all made out of you. You experience life through everything you create. That’s what infinite is all about.
Now it gets interesting as all the creations interact based on their instincts, and it can keep you amused for a long time…Almost an eon until you get bored with it.
The next addition is people with free will. They aren’t guided by instinct, but make conscious choices. That’s nice and interesting, but boredom looms on the horizon. The only emotion that exists is love, so everybody is nice and loving to everybody else all the time.
What a bore. It would be like a dull sitcom without a laugh track.
After too many ages of La Dee Dah, you get an idea to assure the elimination of boredom for all time. You invent a game with many ways to win and even more ways to lose.
Enter Righteousness.
Make being right a mental imperative, and you’ll have action. The people must prove they’re right or make others wrong. “La Dee Dah” morphs to “Shape You Up” and your amusement options grow exponentially.
Underneath it all, the love is still there and the game is to bring it out again.
Think of the variety of experiences you can have while the people try to find their way back to love. Each is certain happiness requires righteousness, and will go to great lengths to prove it.
Different opinions and values threaten righteousness in a variety of ways and you get to feel brand new emotions. All the aspects of fear are now part of your infinite experience. You get to feel everything from stark terror through anxiety, humiliation, and guilt.
Now you have pointless drama between individuals, tribes, and nations. They divide into groups by any criteria they decide are “right.” Some popular ones are skin color, gender, belief system, and favorite sports team.
You can experience divorce, war, politics, and lawyers. Each person thinks his/her way is right, everybody else is wrong, and it’s up to them to shape up the world.
Spread all this to the endless multitude of planets, and you’ll never be bored again.
Now THAT’S entertainment!
Gregg Sanderson is author of Spirit With A Smile, The World According To BOB. He is a licensed practitioner in the Centers for Spiritual Living, and a Certified Trainer for Infinite Possibilities. His earlier books were, What Ever Happened To Happily Ever After? and Split Happens—Easing The Pain Of Divorce. His latest project is the New Thought Global Network, where subscribers can enjoy the best in New Thought presentations from anywhere at any time. You can see it at www.newthoughtglobal.org.