“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” ~Rumi
“Your vision will only become clear when you look inside your heart…Who looks outside dreams, who looks inside awakens.” Carl Jung
I have been doing my own soul searching and discovered so much of life is filled with not only inconsequential things, but also trivial talk. I attempt to meditate, or my version of it, and frequently attend church services for the benefit of the sermons. Of course they are not always enlightening, but often offer wisdom to carry me through the week. It is most often a message worth hearing, and carrying it with you.Sometimes it is frustrating when the ministers go off about issues, not relevant to a person’s life. They are so off base. I wonder about why these preachers can’t see how important it is for them to concern themselves with the sermons. That is what people listen to, and attempt to base their current circumstances in life, on. If ministers profess a haphazard speech, then they shouldn’t wonder why they lose the people. We all want to be inspired. It is worth a priest or ministers effort, to produce a worthy sermon.
I’m not down on church people, but they have lost the ability to recognize their own power. Maybe they are so caught up in making money to run the church, that they are giving less attention to what has the most meaning in peoples’ lives. I know they attempt to minister to the home bound, teach the young members in their parish, attend to the sick and aid the mourning and the troubled. There are still a great many souls searching for enlightenment.
I equate this to constantly giving all of the resources to those who are failing at school. The children who are just passing get few of the benefits, and thus barely pass. We almost drag everyone down, by not helping the average and the top students. I am not politically correct to say that, but the truth is we should serve all of the kids. By focusing on the failing few, we alleviate the responsibility from the home and the parents. In the end result, we have just fair grades from everyone, if even that much.
Likewise religion appears to be doing the same thing. they are attending to the pursuit of nice things, such as the grounds and gatherings, but they have forgotten to face the actuality of life’s mixed bag of confusion. It becomes another area where some people are left feeling unfulfilled and ignored. There are those middle ground followers who don’t have a marriage crises, or money problem, yet things are not always perfect either.
There are many who face problems within a marriage, and they work it through. They bank their money, as best they can, while saving some for college and unforeseen issues. They don’t ask for help, but they worry constantly about their finances. They do their share, but perhaps they are not the front runners of leadership roles. They come through many times in minor roles, so their contributions are not as vociferously honored, within a religious system.
Whenever I hear of an institution giving praise to certain individuals, I question their reasoning. The people who do it out of the goodness of their hearts, do not need praise for it. I would just like to see more effort placed on spiritual matters. How are any of us doing soul wise. We face our problems sometimes alone. After all, there are only so many ways we can spend our time. If Churches sponsor bazaars and a suppertime get-together that is very nice, but these things should never be at the loss of time to the crucial benefits of support groups. Sermons that benefit those middle of the road attendees, who need to be inspired, are vastly underestimated.
I have to admit, I hate to see the rules bent in order to keep attendees coming. It is as if we make the rules as we go along. If we are not politically correct perhaps we might lose the parishioners. How ludicrous is that. Churches should be challenging us to think about our souls. They can’t be afraid to say it. When we meditate, we are reviewing our spiritual side, and working on becoming a better person. Leading an improved life is our goal. The same is true with attending church. We are aspiring to build up our souls, to face the challenging issues, they will confront, on a daily basis.
I don’t envy the ministers task, but I do have faith that they should reflect a lot, perceive the issues of the world around them, and rather than attempt to change their own platforms, try to evolve the inner spirit of the people towards good. It is a tougher job, but the product of it is honest virtue and integrity. We all search for truth and meaning. We can find it within ourselves if we look hard enough.
I know that churches fight their own battle to keep their flocks, but in such a demanding and temptation filled world, I think the focus should be on the spiritual neediness of the people . We understand and recognize our imperfections, but we are looking for the encouragement to do better. We are acknowledging the dignity of leading a virtuous life. All of us want to do our best and become the best we can. With solid unbending support we are uplifted. I don’t want to bend the minister to a lower level, I want to be lifted up above where I started.
As much as I like the idea of ministers offering blessings to sports teams and governments, I must admit it feels like a waste of my time to listen to a drawn out production. I would prefer it done in a private, swifter fashion, and devote the leftover piece of time to those of us who attended church services for inspiration, to lead a worthier life. With everyone and everything else getting uprooted, it becomes more necessary to stabilize our beliefs in love, empathy, virtue and forgiveness. I want to be fortified to face the week, without compromising my integrity. In this world that is not an easy thing to accomplish.
In the end I must admit, it is up to us to take the responsibility, to nurture our own souls. Deep down we know what is right. We like to ignore it because it is not an easy way to follow. If we allow reason, instinct and spirit to blend, we will find our truest answers. Who is there better to trust and have faith in than our own instruction. We have always had the choice, and we can choose wisely. We simply lost our enlightenment amongst the brightness of the false attractions calling out to us. It is time for us to take control of our own destinies.
“The world is full of people who have stopped listening to themselves or have listened only to their neighbors to learn what they ought to do, how they ought to behave, and what the values are they should be living for.” ~Joseph Campbell
“One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.” Carl Jung
“Spirit, like God, denotes an object of psychic experience which cannot be proved to exist in the external world, and cannot be understood rationally.” Carl G. Jung
