What's in your Highter Power?
So I was sitting this morning and thinking about that Abraham guy. You know, guy who put out the whole Monotheism idea which at least half of the 7 billion on Earth ascribe to. Love it or hate it, via the Jews, Christians, and Muslims, it's sure caught on. Ironic thing, Abe's family business was idol making... yet he comes up with the whole 'one God, invisible but living, and don't make an image of him at all' idea which kinda messes up the home situation. Maybe it's a teenage rebellion, but his foray into becoming a wandering goat herder seemed to make him the 'father of nations', so maybe he did have a revelation of the singularity of the Higher Power. Was willing to sacrifice his only child because of his visions.
Pretty brutal. Maybe there is purpose in it all. But I was thinking about what it means to have a Higher Power, and I think everyone does, whether they are spiritually minded or not... perhaps even MORE so if they are not. In the Abrahamic religions, thou shalt not have any other gods before "GOD"... but doesn't everyone? Family, work, TV, recreation are what we spend WAY more time on. In fact, religious types tend to be the worst offenders, because those who wave signs and say they believe in 'family values' are actually creating an idolatry. (Author Karen Armstrong came up with that irony, which I totally agree with.) Of all the things in the Bible, picking a phrase to justify your social view seems a little petty. Religions fall into violence when the social practice seems to take precedent over the call to a higher nature.
Alcoholics replace the bottle with a Higher Power so it pulls their chins out of the glass and makes them take a look around and up. Religious leaders seem to care more about The Law or Tradition or the Church than what the Big G might actually be rooting for. "Jedi" IS a religion, because everyone I know can quote every line of Star Wars but have given up reading this blog after the word 'Abraham'. I apologize to the Good Lord all the time because I know I would honestly put family in that highest position; my wife would say my Higher Power is somewhere between the computer I'm on right now and the cable tv box... with family a distant fourth to whatever thing next pops into my distracted mind. Environment, science, tanning and looking awesome, 'bedding the attractive person just sitting over there' can all be our All Out Obsession at any one time.
Maybe all of our petty Powers that Control us in our individual lives give us an indication of what could happen if we actually, all out, work towards something. Some goat herder 3000 years ago promotes a revelation that moves humanity forward; people went to the moon because it was their big goal; global warming could be arrested with a similar effort.
I think that the real Higher Power sits above the pyramid of reality, and keeps saying "keep climbing, little ones, don't give up and don't get stuck. You'll like the view from up here."
Pretty brutal. Maybe there is purpose in it all. But I was thinking about what it means to have a Higher Power, and I think everyone does, whether they are spiritually minded or not... perhaps even MORE so if they are not. In the Abrahamic religions, thou shalt not have any other gods before "GOD"... but doesn't everyone? Family, work, TV, recreation are what we spend WAY more time on. In fact, religious types tend to be the worst offenders, because those who wave signs and say they believe in 'family values' are actually creating an idolatry. (Author Karen Armstrong came up with that irony, which I totally agree with.) Of all the things in the Bible, picking a phrase to justify your social view seems a little petty. Religions fall into violence when the social practice seems to take precedent over the call to a higher nature.
Alcoholics replace the bottle with a Higher Power so it pulls their chins out of the glass and makes them take a look around and up. Religious leaders seem to care more about The Law or Tradition or the Church than what the Big G might actually be rooting for. "Jedi" IS a religion, because everyone I know can quote every line of Star Wars but have given up reading this blog after the word 'Abraham'. I apologize to the Good Lord all the time because I know I would honestly put family in that highest position; my wife would say my Higher Power is somewhere between the computer I'm on right now and the cable tv box... with family a distant fourth to whatever thing next pops into my distracted mind. Environment, science, tanning and looking awesome, 'bedding the attractive person just sitting over there' can all be our All Out Obsession at any one time.
Maybe all of our petty Powers that Control us in our individual lives give us an indication of what could happen if we actually, all out, work towards something. Some goat herder 3000 years ago promotes a revelation that moves humanity forward; people went to the moon because it was their big goal; global warming could be arrested with a similar effort.
I think that the real Higher Power sits above the pyramid of reality, and keeps saying "keep climbing, little ones, don't give up and don't get stuck. You'll like the view from up here."
posted by MylesH at 7:08 PM
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