Friday, March 27, 2009

Share And Share Alike!

ministerbutler@BitWine

As a son who lives far away from home, I like many others I'm sure have made it a ritual to call my mother about every other day or so. Checking up on things at home aside, me and my mom usually have some great conversations. I doubt she realizes but over the years. she has been responsible for sparking some of my most thought provoking spiritual journeys and contemplations. Though I'm not quite sure that she would approve of some of my conclusions where these matters are concerned, I do know that she would probably appreciate that compliment.

One of the most wonderful things we can do as people is share with one another. It doesn't matter whether or not we share the same ideals or beliefs, just that we take part in the sharing. I don't think enough people realize that it is possible to gain a great deal of strength from such exchanges. In church, we called sharing of this kind testimony and while the theme in Christian testimonies is usually the same, the essence of what it is can be a powerful experience across the entire spectrum of spirituality and religion.

One of the ideals I've been studying recently involves the concept of a collective consciousness which we all share. Without getting into a lot of boring detail here, the idea is basically that the human potential to tap into a universal consciousness exists. This facilitates and unheard amount of sharing. I believe when we take a physical part in sharing our life's stories and journeys with one another, we are in some way, breaking into what a collective consciousness such as that must feel like.

Imagine if you will, being able to take whatever problem or situation you are going through in life and searching the vast amount of human experiences through that collective consciousness to see if anyone else has had similar events in their own lives. Can you begin to imagine the problems we could solve on levels such as those? In some ways, we're already doing that with the internet. Social networks and blogs have become a forum for just this type of purpose.

I believe that the road to realizing a spiritual evolution so to speak in the direction of a collective consciousness concept is to start in the here and now. The only thing that needs to change about sharing is the way in which certain information is received by others. What I mean is, sometimes we react badly to different opinions when they attack our own or disagree with ones we find to be of a fundamental nature.

I have said this now for a few years and I will continue to say it until the day that I die, open up your mind to the possibility of what seems impossible or unlikely. I have ran into so much closed mindedness over the years where spiritual matters are concerned and I am here on the other side of that to tell you that out of everything you believe, you're probably wrong about half of it. Goodness, I'm probably wrong about a fair bit of my own spiritual beliefs.

Spiritual growth should be progressive, you should always be learning something and as a healthy counter balance, you should be having personal spiritual views proven wrong on a fairly regular basis. Why is that? Because, being wrong is part of what triggers growth! If you think your personal ideals are the absolute truth, how much room does that leave for expanding those beliefs and ideals?

Sharing with others is an excellent way to trigger these growth spurts of the spirit and when it's done in the proper mentality, you gain a good deal of satisfaction and fulfillment from the sharing *even* if you are proven wrong or challenged to the point of having to reexamine your belief system. In other words, your spiritual development won't stagnate from lack of stimulation.

In fact, I believe so strongly in the idea of sharing not just spiritual ideas but life experiences as a whole, that at twenty eight, I'm working on an autobiography of parts of my life. From disabled farm boy, to pastor, to personal struggles with my personality and identity, and everything in between. I believe that my story will have use to someone out there. More importantly, I believe your story could do the same.

We are creatures built for communal sharing. So I say, let's get together more often and bring that natural design to it's fullest potential.

1 comment:

  1. As a followup, that entry was *supposed* to be about the issue of death and belief, not about sharing! Isn't it awesome how the mind works? So now, I got two really nifty blog entry ideas forthe price of one! Awesome.

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