Sunday, July 5, 2009

Salvation from Judgement

Yes, the title means exactly what it says. First, let me say I am not Christian There are years of learning that brought me out of the Christian world I grew up in. I had questions about all things mystical from earliest memory. I used to sit for hours thinking. "Get your had out of the clouds," my mom would say. My report cards were alright, but the teachers always added little notes such as, "Candy would be a straight A student if she spent less time day dreaming."
To say there is no creationary power is a little further than I can go. There is a mystery within us all. I hesitate to call it god or goddess. It is simply a conciousness of spirit. It's what makes us laugh, cry, ponder and wonder.
I thought deeply about judgement. And that led me to thinking about guilt. The Judeo/Christian bible tells us in many placement that we shouldn't judge. Judgement belongs to God. That pretty much makes sin nobody else;s business. Yet the pulpit lays constant guilt on its parisioners.
Preachers scream at their congregations, rant and rave all to the muttered {or shouted} "Praise God" or "Amen". They pass around a tray to collect money. I don't have to look far to know how their Jesus felt about that.
I once heard a preacher say, "Don't worry if your children need things. God will provide." He said this as the offering plate was passed around. As the plate passed before me, I could not resist. I dropped a bag of peanuts in the offering plate along with a note that read, "I work for peanuts. Here is my children"s snack." Needless to say, I wasn't welcomed back. Did I feel guilty for not giving my children's grocery money to that paster? Hell no! I would have felt far worse seeing my childrens' hungry eyes.
I believe that judgement is between each of us and our concience. If we know it's wrong, we have made the judgement. Judgement is no far future thing that awaits us and salvation isn't either.
We face ourselves every day. We see ourselves, make our judgements and move forward. Guilt is a lesson killer and probably the worst kind of sin we commit against ourselves. Guilt keeps us living backward instead of forward. We can be sorry for past mistakes but holding onto guilt is unnecessary. The truth is, every mistake we make is one step closer to getting it right. And every lesson we learn through life adds to us. We become who we are because of and in spite of the things we do. And therein lies our salvation from judgement.

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