Solving the World's Problem ...

Have you ever had a dream that was so poignant, so clear, so riveting ... a dream in which you grasped the very KEY that would solve all the world's problems ... I mean, the clarity was tangible, the joy was transcendent, and all you had to do was to wake up and ... remember ...

Remember ... what? Huh?!? What was I dreaming? What was that thing I wanted to hang on to and tell everyone...? Oh sheesh ... it's gone. Lost. Man, that was so close!

Actually, that's happened to me many times (must remember to keep a notepad by the bed!).

Also, on so many occasions, I'll be out race walking, the endorphins coursing through my body, my brain alive and awake and aware ... and all these amazing insights are just pouring in ... almost too quick to keep up, and I find myself wishing I had pen and paper, or better yet a recorder, so I could capture these things ... and so I try to cling to them, to retain them, 'til I get home ... and by the time I get in the front door, they're all ... gone.

Sigh. Here I am, finally connecting with God, and it turns out that my brain leaks.

We live in a world wherein agreement is a rare commodity. And yet, I dare to venture a claim, that if there's anything we would likely ALL agree with, it's that we're all in a mess. Yup - our world, the only planetary option we've got (that we know of!) for living this life, is all mucked up.

Now, some would say that it's because we went and blew it ... that God had this perfect plan, and we ruined everything, and thwarted the plan, and poor God has been working with Plan B to get us back on track, only it's not going so well, and unfortunately it's going to end *very* badly for *very* many of the Earth's inhabitants ... so the best we can do is to try to get them to believe like we do (& if they refuse, then we label them as the "enemy" which is useful, because nothing binds folks together quite like a common enemy!), so that they can be rescued when Jesus comes back with His Massive Evacuation Plan, blows everything up, banishes the ones who weren't smart enough to Make The Right Decision, and then starts over with a Perfect Utopian Scenario.

I don't buy that anymore. It just no longer passes the straight-face test for me.

Some others say that this is a political problem ... if we can just get "those" guys to think like "us" and get with the program, and then we can either implement a Comprehensive Government Takeover, OR arm every citizen and have a free-for-all, and may the best human win. Oh - and we really should take over all the other countries in the world and make them operate like we do ... never mind that we don't seem to be able to make it work at home.

And still others think that this is an economic problem. Of course, the solution varies ... either we imagine that somehow the system of Have's and Have-Not's needs to continue, with the Have-Not's graduating into Have's, and then we just import (or outsource) some more Have-Not's to keep the system going, OR we force the Have's to give to the Have-Not's so that everyone is a Sorta-Have, and then we can be equally miserable.

It seems to me that we all recognize the severity of the problem on this planet, but we don't agree on what's causing it -- so we can't figure out what to do about it. So we throw things at it ... whether it be laws, or money, or weapons, or medicines, or Bibles. We keep trying to solve it at every level except the one at which it exists: The level of BELIEF.

Our beliefs are systematically killing us.

We don't have a political problem, or a military problem, or an economic problem ... we don't even have a health problem. We have a spiritual belief problem.

Here are some of the beliefs we have, which are causing untold harm:

~ The belief that our holy book (pick one, any one) gives us the authority and the right to treat each other as abysmally as we're treating each other. We read on the surface of our holy books (literally and woodenly), and we project our egoic fears and hatreds onto the scape-goats of our choosing.

~ The belief in terminal-distinctions ... Us and Them. They are anyone we disagree with. They are wrong. They are evil. They are the problem. They must be blamed, and cast out.

~ The belief that God says, "Thou shalt be right." We are willing to give up everything in order to be right.

~ The belief that we are fallen, depraved, even separated from God.

~ The belief that we are separated from all other humans ... and that some are "better" (in whatever way) than others. Oh, and we just happen to be in the "better" camp.

~ The belief that there is "not enough" of everything we need (land, food, water, resources, money, provision, love), and we must take from another, in order to get our needs met.

~ The belief that some must win, and some must lose. Some must be right, and some must be wrong. The belief that competition is good and required.

~ The belief that while everyone is fallen and depraved, there have been a few through whom God chose to speak, to reveal Himself. And all these people just happen to be dead. The belief that God is no longer speaking, no longer revealing. Now we can only read about it (so be sure to pick the *right* holy book to read!).

~ The belief that we must cling to what we already think we know. New is bad. Change is bad. Different is bad.

~ The belief that God needs something; that God can fail to get what God needs; that God has separated us from Himself since we didn't give Him what He needs; that God needs what He needs so badly that He requires us, while in our separated-state, to somehow give it to Him; and that God will destroy us if we don't meet His demands.


These beliefs are *some* of the beliefs held by mankind, that have resulted in the mess that we now live in. We are incredibly self-destructive, even as we stubbornly cling to what we think we NEED to believe, without question.

Well, it's about time we did some individual and collective questioning ...!

There are some things we can each do, and encourage others to do, if we would like to change our self-destructive tendencies ... and indeed even change the world:

~ We can choose to admit that some of our old beliefs about God just aren't working any more (if they ever did).

~ We can admit that there are things we don't understand about God, even about life ... and if we understood them, it would change everything.

~ We can become wiling to have a new understanding about God, to be led into an understanding that could produce a new way of living, for each of us, for all humanity.

~ We can become courageous enough to examine and explore this understanding ... and, IF it lines up with what we deeply know (& have experienced) to be true, then our belief system can be enlarged to include and incorporate this new understanding.

~ We can choose to live our lives in accordance with this understanding of God, demonstrating our beliefs, rather than denying them.

Why is this important? Because our current beliefs are destroying us. Because beliefs create behaviors.

More on that next ...

Shalom, Dena