Happy Easter! FYI: My journey to sobriety began on
Easter weekend, 1987.
At A Course In Miracles (ACIM)
meeting this week one of the participants indicated she also had difficulty in
trying to comprehend “God is love.” I suggested she assume GOD is dyslexic and spells
His Name DOG [we laughed]. Without mirth, I went on and explained if we want to
see a perfect example of unconditional love, the best we have around is our
family dog – a total acceptance of us and itself, a total love and openness
that makes forgiveness moot, and a total lack of resentment, vengeance,
retaliation, or blame. If I want to understand God as Love (or Acceptance, which
I prefer), I look at the continual expression of unconditional acceptance from
our 15-pound Colonel Duffy.
We’ve all heard that “God is
love.” [I John 4:8] We accept that as a definition of the Almighty. The problem
is I cannot fathom that. I truly, intellectually cannot comprehend what
unconditional love means. That put me in a real spot until I began to understand
I don’t have to understand it. I simply
have to remember I have experienced it – and that experience changed my life!
I cannot imagine unconditional
love, and I am not alone. Neither can anyone else. Neither could the prophets,
judges, kings, seers, and priests in the Old Testament. Neither could the
Disciples, Apostles, prophets, preachers, teachers and healers in the New
Testament. Although they defined God as Unconditional Love, they described His
acts of salvation in very, very conditional and egoistic terms. In the Old
Testament they described how God would love and protect them IF
they would only give up idols, power, greed, or other gods. In the New
Testament they described the Father’s gift of His only Son – who, in death and
resurrection, offered eternal life IF you would only accept Him as your
Lord and Savior. As these biblical writers described God, there was always a
condition attached. There was always an IF. That’s just the way humankind
thinks, but that’s not God. That thinking, by definition, is not UNconditional
love.
I didn’t look for and “find”
unconditional love. It found me. I knew it not by its name of Love, but by the
actions, words, and mannerisms of accepting people. I didn’t find acceptance from these people in a church. I didn’t
find them in Mosques, or Synagogues or Temples. I didn’t find acceptance from these
people at Princeton Theological Seminary. I didn’t find them at a weekend
“spiritual” retreat. I found these accepting people in ACIM meetings and
especially in dank basements sitting in children’s chairs where they were
reciting “How It Works” by Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. In
AA I found them describing their life with an honesty that communicated to my
innermost Self. In talking genuinely
about themselves, they were describing me and I knew they spoke my Truth.
Watching them, listening to
them, and laughing with them transformed me. My compulsion to drink quietly
left me. I learned skills – chief among them, many times, was to do nothing –
that helped me deal with situations and people I had never been able to deal
with before. I made amends where I could. I became responsible for my actions
and reactions, as well as my decisions and non-decisions.
I was no longer who I had been,
but neither was I who I was to become. While
in this no-man’s-land, these accepting people nurtured me, shared their
experience, strength and hope with me, and gently guided me from adolescence to
responsible maturity – even though I was almost 50-years old. They did this for
me in a matter of 2 or 3 years. And they also did this for me because they had
to. Without doing this for me they would have lost their sobriety and serenity.
Without doing now what I do, I would lose mine, too.
In my book I defined the meaning
of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection based on teachings of my Systematic
Theology professor at Princeton, Dr. George Hendry. “Dr. Hendry, in his book The Gospel of the Incarnation, says of the life, teaching,
crucifixion, and empty tomb – the love of God met the sin of mankind, and love
won. The sin of mankind is that incessant egoism that wants to be as right as
God, wants to have things explained, wants to be in control, wants to have
figured out God, wants to be as God.” [How the Bible became the Bible, ISBN: 978-0-7414-2993-3, p. 252]
In another section of the book I
tried once again to explain this: “The conflict evidenced in Jesus’ life and
crucifixion is the conflict between the love of God and the shortsightedness,
selfishness, fear, desire to control, and egoism of mankind. In short, the love
of God met mankind’s desire to be in control. Mankind’s desire to stay in control killed Him, but the love
of God won. His spirit of love remained alive in these little groups that
continued to meet, to eat, to destroy all social barriers, and to simply accept
one another. The spirit of those groups was real; His spirit was among them.
The personal transformations they were experiencing were real. For them it was
as if Jesus wasn’t dead after all….” [p. 165-6]
God is love. Love is genuine
acceptance. Genuine acceptance is God. I have experienced it. It is the most
real thing in my life. It is not traditional Pauline Christian doctrine, but it
is everything that Jesus taught, did, and lived.
Give love. Accept love. Experience
the acceptance that transformed me. Again, I wish each of you a Happy Easter.
Although these messages are
mostly for me, thanks for listening. As always – feel free to forward this
message to your friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual
journey.
Don
#5 March, 2013
Copyright, 2013
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