"Spiritual Welfare"

First and foremost I would like to dedicate this piece to an awesome new found friend. John this is dedicated you. Thank you for inspiring me on a daily basis and for inspiring this piece.



It's Sunday Morning and I'm doing my morning rituals. No, I'm not bustling around the house, like a chicken with it's head cut off, searching for the perfect Sunday dress that will be sure to impress all ~ I mean God. I am sitting quietly in my living room, drinking a cup of coffee, and I am surrounded by a plethora of books. What books you might ask? Well let's see, I have "Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire by Deepak Chopra, Living the Wisdom of the Tao by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer , In the Frame Helen Mirren "My life in Words and Pictures", Conversations with God, and the Bible, yes, the Bible. Excuse me for just a moment, while I light an incense in the lap of my Buddha ~ yes, Buddha is here also. I also have beside me, and I might wear it later, my Tallit, which is a Jewish prayer shawl, which was given to me by a Rabbi.

I am telling you all of this just to bring you into my world this morning ~ just a glimpse. I am sharing myself with you ~ a true gift. Okay, back to why I am sitting here and writing to you. Last week over a cup of coffee, with a new found friend, the subject, among many others, of salvation came up. It brought to my mind a Scripture from the Bible that comes from Philippian 2:12. In this scripture, it has a line in it that reads, "continue to work out your salvation", it goes on to say in doing this, do it with "fear and trembling". My friend and I were discussing how we believe everybody is responsible for their own journey, their path to enlightenment (which just means to lighten up), their salvation. I studied the Bible for years, I mean really tore it apart, read many translations, investigated each word straight to the root. I never knew why I did this or why it was such a passion for me at the time ~ now I know and that's a whole other story I will tell you some other time.

Getting back to this subject of "working out our own salvation". Let me share what the concordance at the bottom of the page of the N.I.V. Bible translated this scripture to mean. For those of you who don't know what the hell a concordance is ~ I will sum it up for you like this ~ it's an explanation written by a bunch of smart people, we will call them scholars, for those of us, myself included, who cannot, for the life of us, figure out what the heck these people were trying to impart to us! That was maybe the longest sentence I've ever written! It reads; "work out your salvation" meaning; Work it out to finish; not a reference to the attempt to earn one's salvation by works, but to the expression of one's salvation in spiritual growth and development. Salvation is not merely a gift received once and for all; it expresses itself in an ongoing process in which the believer is strenuously involved in the process of perseverance, spiritual growth, and maturation. Whew!

Now, as far as the "fear and trembling" part, it just mean "with reverence". You can relax now. So in a nutshell, you are responsible for Your-Self! Unfortunately, religion, especially Christianity, has become "Spiritual Welfare". Let me explain. Every Sunday, we all get "gussied up", thinking we are so "suchie much", and go to a building called a church, and we wait patiently, some more patient than others, for our "leader" to instruct us on how we should live. We wait for our "leader" to give us his or her translation of the Bible, and then put it into a message, that leaves us feeling either condemned or all gooey inside. It's either to one extreme or the other, never balanced. Then we leave, often we've given them our 10% (our moola) and feel good about ourselves for the rest of the week until we all meet again. What's wrong with this? Nothing, if that is all you require. I myself do not want someone to hand feed me my sustenance. I want to work ~ no welfare for me! Because, now listen to me, when we work out our own salvation ~ it is ours ~ your journey ~ my journey!

Happy Trails!