I never thought I'd write a book. And now I'm writing my second. Oh yes, you really have to do writing badly to get it right. A book is a mountain, somewhere near the top you think you're not going to make it. Good questions you asked!
Eileen, what an accomplishment! And great words to remember- "...somewhere near the top you think you're not going to make it...", but you kept climbing.
In Natalie Goldberg's book "Writing Down the Bones", she talks about writing badly, getting everything out in all the forms, not aiming for anything good or tame, then allowing all the right words and the good ideas to fall through and collect. It was freeing to be given that permission.
Samantha I appreciate how you grapple with the big questions here. We are told to stay within the clearly drawn lines, but then can’t find the lines!!! Yes, yes, yes, I too cannot find the lines. We have questions and are told to trust. That’s not quite good enough.
I still don’t have it right but I can look back and see that all my stumbling questions, or lack of them, about my relationship with God may have felt like failure at the time but led me here to this point of understanding.
The questions we ask bring us further into relationship with anything we are involved with. It brings intimacy, and trust, and of course the basic understanding of something you didn't even know before. They are so important!
I can relate to your story entirely, having been raised a conservative Lutheran but never really feeling what I was supposed to be feeling. I went through the motions because that's what one did. But the hunger was still there, which led me eventually to spiritual path that wasn't based on the idea of a wrathful God, but a truly loving God, and provided spiritual practices (including raja yoga/meditation) that helped me attune to God. Then I found that I was fed, even for as much as I still have to work on the details and my many imperfections.
Kiran, yes! God can be found in all things, and, at least for me, that means through practices and ideas not traditionally associated with christianity (yoga, meditation, etc). The idea of a wrathful God never felt very true to me either. Follow the way God speaks to you.
I never thought I'd write a book. And now I'm writing my second. Oh yes, you really have to do writing badly to get it right. A book is a mountain, somewhere near the top you think you're not going to make it. Good questions you asked!
Eileen, what an accomplishment! And great words to remember- "...somewhere near the top you think you're not going to make it...", but you kept climbing.
In Natalie Goldberg's book "Writing Down the Bones", she talks about writing badly, getting everything out in all the forms, not aiming for anything good or tame, then allowing all the right words and the good ideas to fall through and collect. It was freeing to be given that permission.
Samantha I appreciate how you grapple with the big questions here. We are told to stay within the clearly drawn lines, but then can’t find the lines!!! Yes, yes, yes, I too cannot find the lines. We have questions and are told to trust. That’s not quite good enough.
I still don’t have it right but I can look back and see that all my stumbling questions, or lack of them, about my relationship with God may have felt like failure at the time but led me here to this point of understanding.
The questions we ask bring us further into relationship with anything we are involved with. It brings intimacy, and trust, and of course the basic understanding of something you didn't even know before. They are so important!
I love your writing!
I can relate to your story entirely, having been raised a conservative Lutheran but never really feeling what I was supposed to be feeling. I went through the motions because that's what one did. But the hunger was still there, which led me eventually to spiritual path that wasn't based on the idea of a wrathful God, but a truly loving God, and provided spiritual practices (including raja yoga/meditation) that helped me attune to God. Then I found that I was fed, even for as much as I still have to work on the details and my many imperfections.
Kiran, yes! God can be found in all things, and, at least for me, that means through practices and ideas not traditionally associated with christianity (yoga, meditation, etc). The idea of a wrathful God never felt very true to me either. Follow the way God speaks to you.