Sunday, July 14, 2019
Continuing With 2 "new" Books
7/14/2019
Hello, Everyone!
I HAVE BEGUN! In assessing past articles not included in prior books (now: 8),
I inventoried those past articles to be 68. In looking at them, however,
I noticed some have songs to highlight lessons, so to speak, and some do not.
So, rather than compiling one book to print unused articles,
I am going to compile two books - one using songs and one without songs.
Not sure what I will title the book without songs, but I have pretty much decided on
the book with essays and songs to be called AN INVITATION TO JOY - based on
the final essay of that work being one called An Invitation To Joy.
Just for the heck of it, I will feature the first article of the past
that has not yet been included in prior works below. Given that article -
A LITTLE ABOUT GOD - has an attending song, it is being compiled
in the work I am calling AN INVITATION TO JOY; but earlier this morning,
I began the intended work that will be without song (unnamed in title)
with an article I wrote 3 days after the wreckage of the Twin Towers in
New York. The wreckage happened on 9/11/2001; and I wrote my essay
about it on 9/14/2001. That essay is called
A GENTLER REACTION TO SEPT 11, 2001.
It will be interesting to see how it all turns out. Be in touch as you wish -
and Wish me Luck as you will. OK? I am committing myself to an online
company called PMSL (Premier Media Solutions Limited) to promote
past works. Thanks to Ray Kurzweil for connecting me with PMSL.
Forward this article to PMSL if you want, Ray. Alright?
With luck, I see no reason I cannot complete both "new" books
by end of year since the contents have already been written
and only need to be compiled and reviewed for errors.
That should not provide much of a task at all.
I must say I am rather excited about this project;
and I hope the two works will be a worthy extension of books
already published and ready for a willing or unwilling world
to enjoy or damn as each reviewer might choose.
If you wish, analyze and criticize my article below on God
as you are so inclined and I will add your criticism
as a blog to the Blog section of my writings website.
See below for that website.
Thanks!
Gently,
Francis William Bessler
and wife, Nancy Shaw
Laramie, Wyoming
www.una-bella-vita.com
A LITTLE ABOUT GOD
By
Francis William Bessler
Atlanta, Georgia
May 5, 2001
Revised slightly on Sept. 7th, 2008
The conversation begins: Who is God? One asks that. And I say, my impression of God is that God is not a Who, but a What. You mean, God is not a person? And I say, Yes, God is NOT a person. And from that small beginning, I can proceed to offer my impression of God.
I think all any of us can do is offer an impression of God. None of us can define God as God really is. All we can do is say, God is like this or that – in our mind. That which is important when we talk about God is that there is no final objective in detail we all can know for sure. The better the explanation, the better the chance of one being a better description of God than that of another; but in the end, your version of God may be more like the real God than mine or mine may be better than yours – though neither of us can tell whose version is closer to the truth. All we can do is surmise.
Now the problem with most religious people is that they do not know they are surmising. They think they have the real thing and act like they have the real thing and go about prancing and dancing and preaching as if they actually have the real thing. More than likely, however, they don’t have the real thing and any demands they may make based upon their actual ignorance of God could amount to real tragedy to their students. That goes on all over the world. Teachers who know nothing teach what they think they know; and students of ignorant teachers walk away with more of the same – ignorance – posed as knowledge.
Having said that and hopefully having made it clear that I do not know God anymore than anyone who is reading this, let me offer my impression of God. Like so many others in this world, I think God is important because without an impression of God as source, I can know nothing of me as product. Since I do want to know at least a little about me as child of God, then it is good that I know something about my Father – God. Or just as accurate, it is good that I know something about my Mother – God – though in my impression of God, God is neither male nor female. God is an IT.
Why do I think of God as an It? I do so because my God is all over. My God is In everything as It is Everywhere and thus my God cannot be limited to any form that would say It could be male or female. It just IS. Those who make God a man have another impression of God than my own. My God cannot be a man with penis and testicles anymore than my God can be a woman with a vagina. My God can be neither male nor female because my God cannot be defined.
My God is Infinite. The very definition of infinite is “indefinable." How can an entity that is “indefinable” be defined as male or female? Yet, there are many who start their impression of God with a definition of God being male. In my view, those who do have already stepped way over the acceptable rules of dealing with God. They have violated proper intellectual behavior that requires honesty.
No one can be honest who starts with a contradiction – an insistence on defining that which is known to be indefinable. Almost everyone who believes in God believes that God is Infinite. Yet many pretend they can define God and go forward in life like the definition of God is as sure as the blue in the sky. Then, having defined an indefinable entity, they offer all sort of commandments based upon their ill conceived definition – all having come from their indefinable God of course.
Think about it. Am I not correct in thinking that an entity that goes on and on cannot be defined? That is to say, such an entity cannot be limited. For an infinite being, an end cannot be conceived. If you think you can conceive of an end to God, go ahead and try. I dare you. You will soon realize such a feat is impossible because an infinite God that ends is impossible. An unlimited being or a being that cannot end is infinite. That is the very definition of God – an unlimited being or an un-definable being. Is it not?
No one can say, there is the face of God. See the eyes and the mouth and the ears. See how plain they are. See here is where the eye begins and there is where the eye ends. It cannot be. All that is God must be without capability of definition. So how can one say an eye begins here and ends there? And yet if you cannot claim to know where the eye of God begins and ends, how can you know where any other part of Its body begins or ends? It is such a game those who claim God as a person play. God can come to them like a ghost in the air or can go from them like a tire being deflated. Their God is not infinite at all – but a finite one that can come and go as it pleases – or as a believer pleases. God-come. God-go. The believer is in control. God is not.
Having the impression, then, that my God must be indefinable, how can I proceed? I can only say that God is “like” this or that. That is the best I can do – and that is the best anyone can do. Knowing what God is like, or what I can best conjure about what God is like, I can go forward and understand more of myself than if I did not have an impression of what God is like. I have already concluded by making God an entity that must be everywhere that God can’t be male or female with dangling participles.
So, I have an impression of what God is not – as something that can end; but who can imagine much about something that is endless? That does not do much to clarify who or what I might be as a product of something that is endless. Does it? Now, what impression of God do I have about what God IS – other than that God is endless? As best as I can imagine it, God is like THE LIGHT. Try as my little mind might, I can find no better impression. But what an impression! Though many who have different impressions might disagree, “the light” is my best impression of God. Of course, I am not alone in my impression. I am not claiming that. I am only claiming that I am one of maybe some who see God more as “the light” than anything else.
Now, let me make it clear, God is not only “the light” because God exists in the dark too. Whatever that is in the light is also in the dark in terms of God. At least, my God must be everywhere – light and dark. So, God is not only “the light” because to be so would be to limit God to the light. I can’t do that and be fair to my impression of God.
But why am I so comfortable with saying that for me God is like the light? Because for me, whatever God is, God is the SOURCE of all that is. From the light that we know on this earth comes all things that we know on this earth. From the light that comes as energy from the sun, all that exists on earth owes its origin. Without the light and the energy that is in the light and perhaps is the light, nothing as we know it could be. We, as earthlings, owe everything to THE LIGHT. Accordingly, that is why I would describe my God as being like the light. For me, there is no better explanation possible.
The light shines on all and judges none. The light makes all thrive and all perform. The light provides energy to all – and refuses itself to nothing. The light continues even in darkness because what is started in the light and because of the light still continues in darkness. Without the light, nothing that lives in darkness could exist. So, God is more like the light than anything I can know.
That mysterious thing called light makes for all of my food and energy. The light is the source of all that I am. If I have a soul that is an entity itself outside of my body, and I believe there is such a thing, my soul, too, owes its existence to the light. So, what is my impression of God? God is that which is in everything – like the light – that makes everything go. May I repeat:
God is that which is in everything – like the light – that makes everything go.
God is not a male standing outside of life. That is the worst impression of God I can imagine – though it is the most popular impression of God that humans love. It is, for me, irrational; and I cannot abide by it. When God is made male, God is made a judge, offering fruit to one and denying it to another. When God is made male, God is limited to providing the money I need to buy my food rather than seen as the food itself. God is food, not the money to buy it. God can’t be delved out in parcels as if some deserve and some don’t. So God can’t be male because all males by nature can only give to some and not all. All males are limited. So God can’t be a male that is limited. Can It?
And since God is the light – or like the light – that makes me a son of the light as it might make you a daughter of the light. Each of us is an equal child of the light. If someone asks you, who are you? Say, I am not sure who I am, but I do know what I am. I am a son or a daughter of THE LIGHT. It really doesn’t matter who I am – in terms of who my finite parents are – but it does matter what I am. I am a wonderful mystery of life that has as its source – God. I am a son of the light – not “the” son of the light – but “a” son of the light. I am “a” child of God.
Now, wouldn’t it be nice if we all thought that way? Wouldn’t it be nice if we all believed that we all come equally from THE LIGHT? Then we could all be free to skip in life as a butterfly and touch upon everything we could, in a way, devouring all on which we land as food for our souls. And you could reach out and touch the body of light that is you and I could reach out touch the body of light that is me – and there would be no shame.
I believe it is as I have stated. We all should have no shame because, in fact, we are all children of THE LIGHT. We can have no sin because sin is simply being without light. Since no one can be without light, then no one can sin – in terms of be “of sin." We can sin in terms of harming individuals, including ourselves, but we cannot sin in terms of being of sin – or full of sin. To sin is to be without light. Since no one can be without light as a creature that it is, being dependent upon the light as its source, then no one can be sinful by nature. We can sin and do evil to one another, believing we can sin or be without light, but as evil as we may act, we can do no sin in terms of we cannot defy the light. We cannot dismiss the light. We cannot dismiss God. Can we?
So, if we are all of the light and in the light and cannot dismiss the light upon us or in us or through us, let us start acting like it. Let us all go natural in the sunshine, knowing that nothing that comes from the light deserves to be hidden; for to hide anything that comes from the light is to try to hide light itself; and to try to hide that which comes from the light is to try to hide God. It’s really simple. Isn’t it? Who among us should really dare to hide God? We are all equally worthy of life and love and happiness because we all come from THE LIGHT.
Keep in mind that when I think of God as The Light rather than as Father, I am playing a game with my mind just as those who think of God as Father are playing a game in their minds to describe God. No one can know God – not me who wants to think of It as The Light, nor they who want to make God a male in their own image. We are all just doing the best we can to help define our source, but my definition of God as The Light leaves me with an impression of God as ONLY source whereas those who have an impression of God as Father have God as not only source, but also as firm disciplinarian.
Many who are religious do not want to leave God as only the source of life, but also as judge and jury of each who are brought into life. Fathers discipline and scold and punish and reward. So those who would make God a male and not an It define God in an image that lends to discipline. They call God a Father so that God can be used as a tool of discipline in terms of serving as one who will punish for supposed misconduct. I doubt that God was made Father in the minds of those who originated it as a him out of loving respect for God as source. For sure, they wanted God as an image of judgment too; and that is why they called God a him and a Father. Don’t you think?
“Wait till your father gets home!” Has not many a mother used that to terrify a child into behaving? My mother certainly did – and it worked too. My father – like Father God – was the disciplinarian in the family. All Mom had to do was threaten me with punishment by my father and I became the nicest kid in the neighborhood. And sometimes when I was not so nice and Father did wield his power and authority, I was reminded that Dad did not have the strap in the pantry dangling there just to decorate the room. When the occasion called for it, Dad used the strap on me and my siblings – and I was immediately made aware that Leo was not only my Dad, but also my “Father." Leo the Lamb became Leo the Lion when little Sonny misbehaved; and the lion in Dad growled and snarled and clawed me into submission.
And so it is with those who want God as a Father and not just as a non judgmental source. Behind their desire to see God as loving source, they want so much to be able to claim that others who do not do as they would do should be punished. It is reward for themselves and eternal punishment for offenders. Both desires are fulfilled with just one word for God - Father. “Wait until your father gets home” becomes “Wait until Judgment Day." Both a spanking in time and an eternal punishment on Judgment Day has a father lurking in the shadows.
To each his or her own, but I no longer need to fear a father in God because I do not need to see God as a person who wields anything for me or against me, but as a SOURCE which provides the mysterious energy that allows me to live and die – or pass on and perhaps spring forth to life again from whatever seeds may have accompanied my passing.
The mystery of life and death is at is and I cannot change it. I can only render respect for it all as a process and give credit to The Light for making it all happen in the first place. I do not fear The Light as it will take me and support me and change me as It will in Its own way without regard to my understanding any of it.
Perhaps when I die, my soul will be released from my current body within The Light to assume another body within The Light. Indeed, I have personally researched logic pertaining to the soul and have reason to suspect that souls are reincarnated to continue in a subsequent life, but even if it is not so and my being is totally consumed by The Light when I die, it would be a fitting conclusion because all belong to The Light. No one can escape The Light. So, we might as well enjoy It.
Go now and act like that which you are – a child of THE LIGHT!
The poet in me offers a poem in me below. Sing it, too, if you wish!
Note: See my book – EXPLORING THE SOUL AND BROTHER JESUS – if interested in my assessment of the soul. FWB: 7/14/2019.
Child Of The Light
By
Francis William Bessler
Atlanta, Georgia
5/2001
Oh, Child of The Light, play as you will.
You have but to live to find your fill.
You can’t understand from whence you came.
Just embrace it all joyfully as if it’s a game.
For a game life is, or should be for all.
Oh, Child of The Light, have yourself a ball.
Look at the earth and the sun and the moon
and know that they are all in tune.
The wonder of all of God’s great creation
should fill your mind with jubilation.
Oh, Child of The Light, you fit in well
and you ring as you should as one of the bells.
So, don’t fret and worry and live in fear.
As God is your source, It’s also your care.
Be not afraid as you go forward in time.
Oh, Child of The Light, you’ve a life that’s Divine.