God First

The Ultimate Solution

A friend sent me a very well thought out article detailing how “the elite” control us. His solution was to execute what he called a “national divorce,” and then develop our own parallel community/society. It all sounded reasonable EXCEPT it didn’t address the elephant in the room: what created this sociopathic elite?

Disconnection from God.

It’s so obvious that we just can’t see it. Here are people - and we don’t really know who they are - who have self selected themselves to rule us. As one of them said, “The world should be run by those who own it.” Really? They own the world because they have a lot of money which they used to gain control?

Are the super rich really qualified to control us all? On what basis? While many wealthy people amassed their fortunes through hard work and service, there are many others who cheated their way there. Like the infamous Sackler family who became billionaires by selling oxycontin to addict and kill millions. And these are the very same who want more and more and more control and even more money!

Why? Because disconnection from God creates a soul poverty that can’t be healed with material possessions and by manipulating others. What they strive to create on the outside is a projection of what they are lacking on the inside. It’s an addiction, an infection, and for many it’s become incurable.

Meanwhile, nature demonstrates the truth of control… which is not hierarchical but collaborative. Everything is connected to God. Everything IS God… no separation, just a present moment dance of mutuality. Imagine that in human affairs!

My wife and I are currently staying in Mount Shasta. The view from the front window is spectacular… when the clouds dissipate. Here’s the mountain in all its glory. And here’s what it looks like when the clouds roll in. The mountain didn’t go anywhere; it just became invisible.

If God is invisible to someone, that doesn’t mean that he/she/it isn’t there right here.

God First… how’s that for a mantra to live by? But what would that mean, exactly?

I doubt there are words to describe it because it has to be an experience. But what if we changed our beliefs, right now, to embrace the idea that this is our natural state? It’s not something we have to reach for, it’s something we are. This would mean that we bring it, rather than seek it.

Maybe we could reverse that famous cartoon of Walt Kelly’s:

The word God has fallen out of favor in the self-help movement. Let’s bring it back, not just the word - although I feel proud to use it, not apologetic - but the identity, the experience, and the resulting change in our behavior.

On this basis, surrendering our limited human ego based identity in favor of oneness in God, it’s not arrogant to say: “I am the light of the world.” And if I am, if you are, then it’s proven by the way we are in the world, a purveyor of light rather than an agent of darkness.

This doesn’t mean that we ignore darkness, as in never reading the news. We shine light into the darkness, we light things up. Here’s where it gets challenging. When light illumines darkness, you begin to see what’s there, what’s been hidden. And that’s disillusioning. It hurts! This is why the spiritual bypass is so popular. “Talking about the news just lowers the vibration!”

God First can become a wonderful mantra to repeat over and over again until it’s once again our natural state. But our experience gets tested when contrary information / emotions intrude. What do we do then? Can we maintain our center and shine light into darkness or do we retreat / complain / attack / argue?

Ideally, enlightening darkness can reveal not just what’s “wrong” but a present moment strategy to lighten that darkness, which might be as simple as a silent moment of blessing for the disconnected perpetuators of evil. As Jesus said, “Forgive them… they know not what they do.”

Some have no interest in what’s hidden in the dark of this world. Others get obsessed with it and disappear into fear and judgment. A very few study the challenging art of being “in the world but not of it” and learn how to navigate the light/dark reality of this human adventure. Could that make enough of a positive difference to interrupt the serial disintegration of one promising society after another, as documented by archeologists who discover layers of ruins buried by nature?

Maybe.