This blog is more than an account of Near Death Experiences. It ponders in detail the tough questions of life. Who are you, and why are you here in this physical world? What happens when you die, and is there a judgment? However, most anything could appear here. This is not a news blog, archived posts are just as relevant as new posts. Check the boxes at the top of the page for the Contents, Contact, Forum and other links.
Many times I have been approached by a person asking: “Are you saved?” I was raised in evangelical religion so I knew what they were asking. My common answer is yes. I try not to get involved in religious discourse.
But one day a young girl asked me that question. Then she told me she wasn’t worthy of God’s love until she accepted Jesus as her Savior. He had died for her sins. Accepting that belief made her worthy of God’s love.
I remembered my early struggles between religion and logic. I could not reconcile the differences and left the church. On one hand I was told God is love and on the other that He would sacrifice His own son to Himself for the sins of the world. Just didn’t make any sense.
I know well the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, I do not see the hand of God in it. It was the priests that wanted Jesus eliminated. Jesus was preaching love for all, forgiveness for all. Jesus was not preaching rules, rites, and protocol of a religion. He was preaching unconditional love for all. It was something new and the priests felt appalled that this teaching would excel their message and wanted Jesus exterminated. They were willing to tell any lie, go to any length to kill Jesus, and they succeeded.
I explained my thoughts of God to the young girl, telling her worthiness is freely given by God. Everyone is worthy of God’s unconditional love. It is the very essence of God to be forgiving, and loving. Jesus’ teachings tell us the nature of God. Jesus speaks for God, not man. The young girl relaxed her frown of determination to save me. Believing the teachings of Jesus, I was never lost.
A loved one dies and we feel empty. A large part of our life has vanished, we worry if we could have done something more. Sometimes we feel guilty, depressed, and even angry. Nothing is the same anymore, and nothing can be changed. It is over.
Our loved one has returned to the spirit world. Everyone comes from there and returns to there when the body dies. There is no judgment to endure, no pearly gates, nor lakes of fire. There is only love, unconditional love. We are created in love and live in love and return to love when we pass.
It matters not who we were or what we accomplished. It matters not if we believed in God. All, every soul, returns to the spirit world surrounded by unconditional love. There they review their physical life. Any judgment comes from them, no one else.
We, who are left behind, suffer from grief and worry. Our task is to forgive. Forgive ourselves and all others of any mistakes we may think was made. To send our love to the deceased on their continued journey through life in the spiritual. They are safe and secure, we are safe and secure in the unconditional love of the Creator. Only time will diminish the grief and emptiness. Then, when it is time, we will rejoin our loved ones in the love that never ends.
Standing in the middle of a playground with whistle in my mouth. When I blew my whistle the students of Lowell elementary school would begin the pledge allegiance to the American flag. It was a daily routine in 1945. But today was April 13, and the flag would not be saluted today.
Lowell school was built like a fort. The class rooms surrounded a large playground with softball diamonds and basketball courts in the middle. The whole area was covered with chat, no grass anywhere.
The school had a student guard that patrolled the halls, bathrooms and gates. You needed a pass to get through the school gates, common practice during the War. I was one of those student guards. I had the privilege of starting the pledge of allegiance in the morning.
On that morning I was interrupted by a special announcement over the loud speakers: “We are sad to announce that yesterday in Warm Springs, Georgia, our beloved president Franklin Delano Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
The stunned silence lasted barely a second. Then the cries of disbelief and alarm were deafening. There were over 700 students expressing their sorrow. Most were crying and hugging each other, some were sitting on the steps with head in hand. I was crying also as I looked around at the sea of sorrow. The teachers began to herd the students into the class rooms. There would be no flag salute today. Mr. James, the gym teacher, lowered the flag to half mast.
Lowell school was in the lower income part of the city, and President Roosevelt was loved for his guidance through the Great Depression. His New Deal had saved my family home from foreclosure by the bank. The WPA allowed my father to feed us with “make work” jobs for food.
Roosevelt also guided us through World War II with fire side chats, and finally he made Social Security a reality. My wife and I rely on Social Security checks to stay afloat today. Roosevelt was truly a peoples president. He cared for the American people, and they cared for him.
On April 12, 1945, President Roosevelt died and the people cried.
It happened in sixth grade. I was sitting at my desk in English class when it started to snow: big flakes. My English teacher walked over to a window and raised it. She reached out and caught some snowflakes on her sweater.
“Look! Look!” She said: “Did you know snowflakes are really ice crystals.” “The crystals start by forming small hexagonal shapes, and branches sprout from the six corners as the crystals grow.” “No two crystals are exactly alike.”
There arose a loud rumble as the entire class popped from their desks and ran to the windows. Soon all windows were open, with a dozen arms reaching out to catch snowflakes.
Seated close to a window, I was quick to catch the flakes and study them. The teacher was right about the diverse shapes of the snowflakes. It was amazing how unique and beautiful they appeared. As I looked in wonder at the tiny ice sculptures questions begin flooding into my thoughts. How, and where are they created, why are they so fragile? When I became older learning about snowflakes was often on my mind. I read all the available material I could find. I never lost my fascination for them.
In college I studied people, their psychology, religion, politics, and philosophy. People are unique, beautiful and fragile like the flakes, with no two exactly alike. Our world is made up of endless diversity. We truly live in a classroom of infinite proportions.
That English teacher sparked my curiosity as a child, and it lasted a lifetime. The more knowledge I acquired about diverse religions, cultures, and societies, the more I became transformed. I became myself. No images to maintain; no acting to exhibit; no list of achievements and acquisitions. I became humbled, not by knowledge acquired, rather by the amount unknown.
Embracing diversity can be a little scary in the beginning. But persistence will soon overcome the routines of past acculturation. Knowledge of others is your path to self-knowledge; your path to self-confidence; and your path to freedom from the confines, and conflicts of diverse thought processes. Embrace the diversity of others, learn from them. Share and coexist, you will be blessed.
