Help me out here

"Soon and late, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers."

I forgot which poet coined the above phrase. But we are, by and large, wasting our creative and godly powers on all kinds of selfish schemes, instead of using them on behalf of the ultimate cosmic creator.

We make choices every day, crazyheart.

It is that putting ones foot in front of each other.

Did we turn off the top when we brushed our teeth, or let it run.

What did we have for breakfast.  Did we turn off the lights, keep the airconditioning off, ride our bike to the mall?

Did we treat someone with respect at church today, or did we choose to discuss whatever....Did the name of Jesus come up, and if so, in which way

What about at work?  Did we address an injustice, or ignore it.

Did we name the politics of power which cause people to be afraid to upset the applecart in the church / world?

Do we give time to the world, how do we spend our volunteer hours? do we tithe our time?  10% of our hours to the greater good?

What you call "leaving God out of choices" seems more like "making idiotic choices".  God doesn't enter into it.

You don't need God to make good choices, and ignoring God doesn't necessarily mean you'll make bad ones.  Basically, you don't need God at all.

If we don't need God at all, what are we doing here?

Hi crazyheart:

When talking about God, we should really define God.

Maybe Chansen means that we don't need the supernatural Zeus type God who pulls the strings of fate and can be petitioned to pull the right strings for us. Perhaps you mean the creative power of the universe, who manifests ITself in us humans through unitive love.

To me, the self-creative universe, a.k.a. God, is in an inseparable state of synthesis. We are united with IT, but most of us are not aware of this. Attaining that awareness results in a upwelling of Unitive Love, hence: "God is Love."

I would say that attaining the unitive awareness of being at-one with God, and with everyone and everything, is not only beneficial to us but absolutely crucial to our continued survival as a speceis.

Arminius

"I would say that attaining the unitive awareness of being at-one with God, and with everyone and everything, is not only beneficial to us but absolutely crucial to our continued survival as a speceis."  AMEN

If we don't realize pretty soon that we are all connected , and that the planet doesn't need us, we need the planet, the sooner we can start fixing this sorry mess.

IT
 

Russ

Sometimes I decide on things like whether I want a vanilla milkshake or an iced cappucino without first praying about it.

When it comes to bigger decisions, however, I always try to include God in my decision making process. Indeed, I believe in looking to God first for the wisdom and guidance that I need.

My Russian friend was once part of an experimental learning program in his home country, where it was predicted that, eventually, these participants would take only some six months to go through a four year university program.

One of the experiments was that they were taught to remember the previous day's activities, from when they woke up to when they went to sleep. When they could remember a whole day's activities, then they were to go to two days...then three...and so on.

My friend told me that a lot of the participants stopped after a day or two...not because they were lazy or couldn't do it...but because they were disgusted at how much of their lives were spent doing nothing.

Going further on this, musing on it, I think it would be a mistake to, then, turn the program or teachings into some omniversal Noun that is to be venerated. The teachings have been passed on, each of the participants have learned new things, now they figure out what to do with them.

Just a Self-writing poem,

Inannawhimsey

You may as well ask, "If we don't need tea at all, what are we doing here?"  One has about as much reason for us "being here" as the other.

All I'm saying is the only thing you can use is your head, and your instincts (which are formed by prior experiences) when you make big or small decisions.  Any conversation in your head with a supernatural entity is entirely at the whim of whether or not that dark recess of your brain is feeling sadistic on any given day.

(I think she ment on wondercafe...more specifically, in the religion and faith section, moreover...on this thread).

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni

omni

crazyheart

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni

omni & crazyheart

I'm here because I need SOMETHING. Because I'm not as articulate as Arminius, I call it "God."

Ahhh...I'm so used to the typical debates about our origins, that I assumed it came up again.  My apologies.