Faith

 When I was young my Mother tried to introduce us to Religion. The Christian Methodist brand to be exact. I do not know if it was because she believed, I do not think that she did, or that she just thought it would be a good influence on us kids. Probably the latter. Maybe I am wrong.

And even then, at that very young age, none of what they were telling us made any sense to me. Not only did it sound ridiculous, there was nothing about it that connected with me at all.

And then, I learned to read. And one of the first things that I read, about a zillion times it seems like to me today, was a large book, with simple pictures and words, that recounted the Greek Myths. As stated, I devoured that book over and over again. Not because I believed anything about those stories, because I did not, because they were good stories and gave my imagination things to work with. All of a sudden I had Gods, and Demons, Demi Gods, Heroes, Villains, and a framework within which to lodge all of these things.

And, I began to see similarities between what I was reading in here and what was being told to me on Sunday's. And yes, I saw the differences, there were many, and strip away all the settings etc and there were many similarities.

I began to understand the saying "All Gods have feet of clay". Much, much later I began to understand the idea that we had made God in our own image.

After a short while I began to study other mythologies. And began to see that they all have massive similarities. And that the differences really were more of character and style than of substance.

From all of this I began to want to see why the people who believed things to be true believed them. That lead me to History. And I began to devour History. Both official texts and many that were written outside of the academic system.

And, at first, it was all about what happened and when. Dates and times kinda thing. After a while that got kinda dry and I began looking at the people involved and wanting to understand what drove them, why they were the people that they were.

And that was when History really opened up for me.

And all during this time my Mum is still dragging me to church. And it still made no sense to me. None of it had any relevance and I found it boring. Would wander down into the basement and wish that I could spend this time bowling instead. They had a 9 pin bowling lane in the basement that one had to pinboy by hand.

After many years of a lot of reading, messing my life up with substances, and other really bad behavior, I entered into recovery in Narcotics Anonymous.

And these people (Who are totally my people) kept talking about this God. Being desperate I stayed and tried to get with the program. After all, people whom I respected, even love, kept telling me "You gotta find God or your gonna use again".

So, after years of trying to believe I finally had a "revelation". Just because that was their experience did not mean it had to be my experience. And the steps with God in them all of a sudden became manegable to me.

Because instead of trying to find this "God" out there that does not exist I began looking inward. Because it is an inside job. And I began to see that the Power Greater then Myself was US. The collective We of Narcotics Anonymous. Whether it was myself and someone on the phone, my Sponsor and I talking out stuff, all of us in the meeting, or any other collection of Us together, this all added up to something Greater than I. A Power Greater then Myself.

I began to get a real feel for something that I had read a long time ago, "Thou Art God". And to me this means that we, everyone of us, every thing in this Universe, is God. We are all Creators of our Existence. "God" does not live Out There. "God" does not live In Here. God is us and we are God. No separation.  No difference.

And Science backs me up on this. Quantum Physics points out that on a very deep and fundamental level of the Universe that we are all connected. That we are One with Each Other.

We Are One. There is no Other. There is only the We that makes the Me that is I.

So now we get back to Faith. That is, after all, the title of this piece.

I do have Faith today. I have Faith that the Human Race is, and always will be, Human. With all of the Wonderful Quirks, Miraculous Ways of Being, and Flaws that go with that. I have Faith that we will All continue to be God or Not be God to exactly the level that we are comfortable. I have Faith that when we, collectively, act for the Good of All then we are Truly exhibiting God behavior. I have Faith that Love is the most Powerful tool that we have to create Good in this Universe. I have Faith in YOU.

So, what do you have Faith in? What do you truly believe?

Let the fun begin 😇