Scripture: Isaiah 35:3b-4
Tell fearful souls, hospital
 “Courage! Take heart!
God is here, right here,
on his way to put things right
And redress all wrongs.
He’s on his way! He’ll save you!”

Thought for the Day: There is nothing to fear, because God is with you and within you, always. Trust God! Recognize God’s activity within you, within all being, and choose to become active partners in God’s transformative actions. How?  Follow Jesus’ lead (or Buddha’s, or Lao Tzu’s, or Mohammed’s, etc.). Think like Jesus. Act like Jesus. Recognize that the salvation through Jesus so many Christians talk about is an archetype, an Aristotelian ideal of the perfect human. Been told it’s an impossible ideal? Of course you have! There is no better way to control a large mass of people than to convince them they are worthless, keep them in constant fear, and lead them around by the nose. Been told only the elect go to heaven? Of course you have! What better way to get people to act the way you want, than to threaten them with eternal damnation?

But I hope some of you will reconsider these ideas. Religion should never be about control through fear. Faith should never come to you because of fear of punishment. That’s a very weak faith. God is love, so faith should be about love. A loving God would never condemn creation, even if it rises up and spits in God’s own face, because God is simply love. As creatures made in the image of God, we are love as well. We don’t act like loving creatures, because we have been brainwashed into thinking we are sinful, worthless, condemned, kicked out of our home in paradise. But God didn’t do that to us, we did that to ourselves, thank you very much.

What if paradise is actually all around us, right here, right now? What if this is paradise, and we’re simply no longer aware the garden is all around us? What if, rather than being kicked out of the garden, we’ve simply convinced ourselves it doesn’t exist? What if we’re simply in the middle of a bad nightmare, and God is constantly nudging us awake?

I say it’s time for humankind to wake up! The world is changing, but it needs our help! Wake up! Cast aside the demons of the past, the chains of oppression, fear, and consumerism that keep us from thinking, from acting, from being free, from being one with God. Wake up! The world needs us, every single one of us—we loving, caring, worthy, wonderful human beings, whom God loves indiscriminately, no exceptions. Be not afraid. God is here, right now. Open your eyes and see, open your hearts and feel, open your minds and think, open your souls, and change the world.

Prayer:  I know you are with me more intimately than I can even conceive, my Lord, my God. I know that through me you put everything right, replacing my fear with love. Show me, beyond a doubt, that you are with me, Lord. Wake me from this human slumber, so I will finally claim my birthright, and become like Jesus, consciously one with you, God who is and is in everything. Amen.