There are those who believe that THIS IS IT! We live this one, little, short life and then we get tossed into the abyss – into nothingness. If I believed that, I guess I’d fear death too. However, if we did do that, then we’d just cease to exist and therefore we’d have no awareness of not existing. Nothing much to fear there. Really depressing though.
People really sell God short. We anthropomorphise God. We create God in our image, instead of the other way around. We make God an insecure, limited, judgmental, nasty, vindictive, mean, unforgiving, angry, fearful, loveless, jealous diety. Yes, I do believe in a God. I don’t believe in the god of my youth – the one I was taught to fear. I mean, I was taught that if I ate meat on Friday, missed Mass on Sunday, or masturbated on any day of the week, I was going straight to hell as soon as I “died”! And in the next breath I was told that God loves me.
And that’s another thing! What’s this place called “hell,” and who’s this monster called “Satan?” If those things exist, then God must have created them too, and why would God do that? I used to wonder about these things when I was a youngster. I was taught to love God! I was taught to fear God! How can I fear someone I love or love someone I fear? I know now that “hell” and “Satan” were made up a long time ago by people who wanted power over us, and boy it sure worked, didn’t it? They really put “the fear of God” into us!
Where does our fear come from? I believe it comes from all of the lies we’ve been told for generation after generation. I have three grown “children,” and four grandchildren. I love all of them with all of my heart. I would “die” for any of them if need be. I would forgive them anything and everything! If I can say that about my children, as imperfect and limited as I am, how much more is that true of God? I’ve heard it said that, “God created us as imperfect beings, and has been punishing us for that ever since.” Pretty silly, eh?
I read a touching story that I’ll paraphrase here:
A woman was on her death-bed and was tormented with guilt and filled with fear. Her minister sat by her side and asked her why she felt as she did.
“I’m dying!,” she cried, “and I’m going straight to hell when I do!”
“Why do you say that?,” asked the minister.
“Because of all of the horrible things I’ve done in my life. God could never forgive me!”
There was a picture of a beautiful young girl on her bedside table. “Who is that?,” asked the minister.
“Oh,” she beamed, “that’s my daughter! Isn’t she beautiful?”
“Yes, she is,” the minister said and then asked, “Is there anything she could do to make you stop loving her?”
“No! Of course not!”
“What if she did something really horrible? What if she killed somebody? Would you still forgive her?”
“Oh Yes! There’s nothing she could do to stop me from loving her! I would forgive her anything!”
The minister smiled and said, “God has a picture of you on Her bedside table.”
The whole reason I’m writing this blog is because I want to do whatever I can to free people from their fears – especially their fear of death. I lived a life filled with fear for many, many years. I’m free of that now, and I want you to be free as well. Of course, I also want to pique your interest in the book Darlyne and I wrote so that you’ll purchase a copy and read it. When you do, I know you’ll be glad you did. It’s a beautiful, healing, life-changing book. Please click on the “Darlyne’s Book” page above and take a look. Thank you and blessings to you.
Love and Light . . . . .