Dear Christian, It's Okay to Love Yourself

I first started this blog post on August 28, 2015. I picked it back up November 14, 2015. It's something that I've been weighing for a while, searching for the right words to properly articulate. If something doesn't come across right, please just follow along to the end.

One thing I've noticed among Christians is struggling to embrace the concept of loving oneself. This is due to one of the core ideas of Christianity being that we, as individuals, are sinful and cannot attain right-standing with God on our own. Many Christians come to view themselves as wretched individuals who can only be saved by Christ. So when the discussion of loving oneself comes up, many Christians have a hard time with this. I struggled with this myself, on my own personal spiritual journey.

We are taught that loving yourself is pride. I would argue that the egocentric, prideful "self love" of the greedy and arrogant is not so much self love, but rather self lust. How can one truly love anyone if their definition of love is bastardized by a perception of the world that's been so heavily influenced by negative experiences? It's like making putting peanut butter and jelly on two slices of bread, sticking the two clean sides together, putting it on a plate and saying you know how to cook.

In order to truly love anyone, we must first learn to love ourselves. And in order to love ourselves, we must learn what love truly is. Christians think that loving ourselves is wrong, but not only is it NOT wrong, it's the will of God. I've experienced more spiritual growth and understanding in a few months of learning true love and loving myself than I had in years of studying and learning "the walk."

One of the most popular verses in the Bible, John 3:16, says that "God SO LOVED THE WORLD...." The core belief of Christianity is built upon the premise that God loves us. If God loves us, adores us, is it not an insult to the God we love to neglect this light He sees inside of us that He loves so much? "Love the sinner, hate the sin," correct? What is it in the sinner that God sees, that we are told to look at, that is so worthy of love? And if we are capable of seeing this in others, how can be fail to see it in ourselves?

What I think is important for Christians to understand is, when we talk about loving yourself we aren't talking about loving Ego. We are talking about loving your true nature. The real you. The divine within you. The Bible says that believers in Christ are new creations. This is the Higher Self. THIS is what God sees.

Imagine yourself in a pitch dark vacuum holding a flashlight. All around you it is pitch dark for miles and miles. Off in the distance is another person holding another flashlight. What do you see? Do you see darkness? No. You don't actually see darkness. Without light, nothing is visible. Darkness is simply an absence of light. It is this same very light that is found in every living soul. Ignorance and bad experiences can hinder this light, like a candle in a glass jar with dirt and char on the sides. But the light still exists. This is the light that light sees and recognizes.

Jesus gave only one commandment: Love. But he outlined it as such: Love the Lord your God with every fiber of your being, and love your neighbor.....AS YOURSELF. We are not commanded to love our neighbors more than ourselves. Yet this is what many Christians are taught in a twisted interpretation of laying down our lives. Laying down our lives means setting aside the ego, the light shade, and nurturing our light.

When Jesus walked the countryside healing the sick and being love, he withdrew to himself on a regular basis to pray and meditate. THIS is self love. He gave all that he had, but he did not fail to neglect himself. This applies to all aspects of life. If we revere our Creator, we nurture that which He created out of love. This extends to everything from maintaining spiritual health to proper physical and emotional health.

If somebody walks all over you, it is not love to sit back and tolerate it. This is abuse, and sitting back and allowing it to continue while you suffer is not being love. It is self-abuse. It is no different than sticking a needle in your arm and shooting up pure Afghan heroin. Would you allow someone to march into your house and urinate all over your belongings? When all is said and done, there is nothing more precious than our light, our soul. It is our very life, our very essence. So tell me exactly how it is the will of God to tolerate mistreatment and allow others to walk all over you....

The way we treat others is a direct reflection of how we see ourselves. By standing up for ourselves in a loving manner, not only are we loving ourselves but we are saying to the person mistreating us that they aren't loving themselves and because we love them, we will not allow them to treat themselves in such a way. Take the bottle of whiskey out of the alcoholic's hand.

The way we treat others is a direct reflection of how we see ourselves. It is only when we first learn self-love that we can truly love others according to what love truly is. Stop judging yourself, start loving yourself. We cannot change the past. What's done is done. In the eternal right here, right now, you are light and God is madly and deeply in love with you. What is it that this light sees in you that cause Him to send for an eternal vibration that causes atoms to collide in such a way so as to create the incredible physical universe in which we are a part? It is something so precious, it must be revered.

Nurture this light inside yourself. In doing so you will find that the shade of ego can no longer contain you. And in doing so you will place yourself in harmony with the light of creation, and others will be attracted to you like a beacon in the night. Not only is this okay to do, this is the very life we were created to live.

Pride vs. Humility: A fresh perspective on why it matters

Before I delve into the main subject of this blog entry, I just wanted to provide a bit of background.

As has been the main theme of this blog, without divulging too much personal information, my life has been going through a big of a transition. It is a stretching, growing process. I recently had an event happen that has caused me to get shaken up a bit and get refocused. Hence, composing another blog entry. Through the process of this event, I've received further clarity into my greater vision, and doing what I have to do to bring this vision into reality.

Late last Friday night, into early Saturday morning, I was discussing this with my friend and explaining the synchronicities I had experienced earlier in that day which lead me to believe that in spite of my current visible circumstances, I am indeed on the right path. As we sat outside talking, around 2 AM, I began looking at the stars and telling my friend how I never really was a star watcher but lately I've been feeding upon a lot of discussion of ancient wisdom and their knowledge of cosmology and astronomy. He pulled out an app on his phone that shows the names of the stars, planets, and constellations. Then a pop-up within the app said "Happy Astronomy Day!" October 4 is Astronomy Day. Astronomy Day occurs twice a year, and on that day people will get together for star watching parties. It was the first time I'd star watched in at least a decade, if not 15 years or longer.

The following day I reflected upon the significance of the date. Astronomy Day: 10/4/14. 10+4=14. So I figured there must be something for me in this number 14. So I Googled it, and here is what I found (from the same source that hit me with the significance of the number 15 earlier this year):

http://sacredscribesangelnumbers.blogspot.com/2011/06/angel-number-14.html

"Angel Number 14 is a message from the angels asking that you keep your focus,positive affirmations and intentions on manifesting your goals and aspirations. 
Repeating Angel Number 14 can be a sign from your angels that they are there to assist you with manifesting your true desires.
Angel Number 14 is a message that if you act with caution and wisdom you will be successful in business, money matters and life in general.  Begin worthwhile projects that will bring long-term benefits and future success.
Angel Number 14 encourages progressive change, renewal and growth, and tells you to share your knowledge and wisdom with others.  It also tells you that what you put your efforts towards will reap rewards in the future."

It's pretty much dead on for where I am right now. What does this have to do with this particular blog entry? When do I get to the actual subject at hand? Well, if I'm to take some of this message for me, I have to take all of it. "...tells you to share your knowledge and wisdom with others..." Now, I'm a humble man and I'm content with just living my life, fully aware of the impact that even my smallest actions can have on the great big world around me. But the more I step out of my comfort zone and actually interact with others, the more it hits me that most people don't think like me. I'm different. And while I don't consider myself wise, nor to have any great knowledge that isn't available to anyone else, I do seem to have a particular insight and wisdom that the world would benefit if more people shared this perspective.

So here we are. One of the things I was talking about with my friend is the issue of Pride vs. Humility. He has long been skeptical of the existence of God, especially as revealed through the Bible. I like to say that I found God through the Bible. And while I may scare many Christians away, the God I've come to find, from what I've seen and experienced, is far too grand to be confined into a single human train of thought. I don't think that God is so insecure in Himself (Herself, if you will) that God gets worked up over the name you call God. God is more a force than a name. And while God has a nature and characteristics, naming things is man's turf. Don't get tripped up on semantics. It's the concepts and intent that matter.

So this friend has recently found himself surrounded by Christians who are constantly preaching to him. He considers me as one of the Christians that have been placed into his life, but says I'm different because I don't preach to him (Although I did kind of go off on a tirade one early morning in Prague, but that's a different story). For me, this is simply because I've glimpsed the divine manuscript of life and I don't find it my place to convince others of God. There is nothing more personal than our own souls, and it is our own souls who must make this voyage of personal discovery to find out who God is, who we are, and our relationship to God. In glimpsing this, I am convinced that everybody is exactly where they need to be right now. I don't worry about the person going through the struggle, because I've come to understand that all things work for good. It's simply a matter of now having a big picture/grand scheme perspective. I like to call it an eternal perspective. 

So my friend complained about Christians telling him that rich people can't get to heaven. I explained to him that the Bible says nothing of the sort. People are twisting the words of Jesus. Jesus did say "It is easier to get a camel through the needle of an eye than for a rich man to enter heaven." But Jesus was a spiritually conscious man. He did not say that people with a lot of money can't go to heaven. What he was referring to is people who deem themselves as rich and powerful, and therefore have no need for God. One doesn't need to have a lot of money to be arrogant and think themselves rich. 

I then mentioned how the single most misquoted verse in the Bible is "Money is the root of all evil." The Bible doesn't say that. They are misquoting 1 Timothy 6:10, which says that "The LOVE is money is A root of ALL KINDS of evil." I then told him that pride is the root of all evil. It was pride that caused Lucifer to liken himself as beautiful and have no need of Creator God and be cast down from heaven. It is pride/arrogance. It is thinking that we, ourselves, are God. It is considering ourselves to be greater than we are, and better than others. When one doesn't consider themselves as better than others, one doesn't mistreat or exploit others.

My friend has had discussions about pride before. He understood that it was pretty much thinking that you don't need God. So I explained to him why it matters. Is it a matter of ending up in Heaven vs. Hell in the afterlife? I'll leave that up to the theologians. But this is what I explained to him, in a perspective that even left me a bit speechless after having explaining it:

Heaven vs. Hell and afterlife aside, my friend is spiritual and understands the one-ness of all. Even scientifically speaking, we all come from the same original source. And when taking into consideration the transmutation of energy and our relationship to the grander whole, we never do die. A chicken that eats feed converts it to energy, which then helps it grow and develop muscle, which man will take to eat and convert to fuel. The chicken has died, but hasn't died. It now lives as fuel and energy for a human. So when a person's body dies, the energy that breathed life into the body simply becomes another form of energy. 

What does this have to do with pride? Well, God isn't concerned with whether or not creation thinks they need God. The force that is God goes on whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. It is a matter of scientific and spiritual Law. Such as the Law of Gravity. It existed long before an apple fell onto Isaac Newton's head. It didn't need acknowledgement in order to be. But when we consider ourselves to be better than others we are out of the natural flow of the universe. We are out of sync. And we cannot function properly if we are out of sync. I likened it to a piston thinking that it didn't need the rest of the engine. But we are all just one part of the whole. But humility says "I am just a part of the whole" It acknowledges its place.

Now, our place as a part of the whole is a topic for another blog post. Knowing who we are is humbling yet empowering at the same time. And I explained this to my friend. But I told him that the divine manuscript will go on whether we acknowledge our role or not. And when all is said and done, even if we don't acknowledge the greater whole, we still play our part. But here's the kicker: Don't you think life would be so much more fulfilling if we ARE aware? If we ARE conscious? When we are ignorant of this we are constantly chasing, never satisfied. When we are aware we are grateful and not easily moved by circumstance. 

Jesus said that He came that we may have "Life more abundantly." This is the fulfilled life. A TRULY rich life. And no, it has nothing to do with money. 

(For the record, my personal view on money itself is that it is a tool in the world economic system in which we live. I am not opposed to people accumulating money for themselves, so long as it's not at the expense of others. I simply believe that money doesn't make a person rich. This doesn't mean that people should live without it - it simply doesn't equal a fulfilled life by itself).