Dear Spiritual Companion,

I have a number of devotional materials that I read little bits of everyday.  This is one of my spiritual disciplines and it works for me.  Today I was reminded of the difference between punishment and love.  When we think of God, by whatever Name we might call God, what is our first thought?  A God who punishes or a God who Loves?  What we are really talking about is do we know a god we created or a God who Created us?  One of the reasons I spend so much time with God is so I don’t create a god in my image, but rather let God continue to create me in God’s Image.  As Anne Lamott said, “If your God hates the same people you do it means this can’t truly be God.”  I may want my god to be a hit man, but I truly need a God who loves me and especially the ones I hate.

Where did the notion of a God as a punisher come from?  It is quite apparent it came from the writers of the Holy Books of many religions.  The problem we have with this is we are told they were divinely inspired when they wrote about God as a vengeful, angry being.  The truth is the authors were divinely inspired when they wrote the words that created such a God, but their humanness got in the way of who God really is.  Like everyone today they were a part of God, but were not God.  This means they like us are limited by our human viewpoint.  No one sees clearly, but only partially.  Our desire for seeing God in a certain way oversees God’s desire to be seen as God is.  No matter how holy a person sounds or how high a pedestal we place them upon, we need to check out with God whether their words or actions ring true with who God is.  If we dare to believe what I have written and are responsible for our own relationship with God then we can begin to see God a bit more clearly.

If you are still with me then we can ask the real question, Can a God of Love be a punisher?  If god is a parent like us then of course god must punish.  How else would god be able to control us and get us to be good?  Three crucial points.  First we project onto God our notion of the identity of a  parent .  If we need to control our children or have them turn out good then sometimes we are forced to resort to some kind of punishment.  We are not better than god so god must do the same thing.  After all this is what we have been taught during our lifetime and for hundreds of years.  It must be true!  But just for the sake of argument what if this is wrong?  What if God isn’t like us, but rather we are like God?  This leads us to the next two crucial points about being in control and being good.  My discovery of life is the older I get the less control I have.  Maybe this is because I am getting closer to death where I have no control.  Along with that idea comes the thought that I don’t have to be good to get into heaven or nirvana, at least if god isn’t a punisher.  If God is love then Hell, the ultimate punishment, becomes none existent.  No need to punish people by taking away one’s love.  Now I can see that if I am created in God’s Image I am already good.  I don’t need to work at being good, I just need to accept that I am goodness.  I don’t have to stop doing something, but rather start accepting my identity found in God’s Love.  Interesting thought isn’t it?

Anxiety and unease goes with the thought of punishment.  Peace and harmony goes with the truth of Love.  The battle is over, Love has won and we are free.  Why don’t we hear more of this?  Well because it would put a lot of people out of the religious business and the foundation of who we were would be in jeopardy.  This gives credibility to why the outstanding spiritual folks of different religions were killed.  You can’t have people going around talking about love without any punishment to back it up.  Love isn’t enough by itself.  We humans need more than just Love to keep us in line.  My question becomes WHY?  If we dare to ask that question we might find ourselves on a whole new spiritual path, one that leads to the Big G God rather than today’s little g god we created out of fear.

As you can probably tell I do not believe in a God who punishes.  When we make our transition God will be waiting with the everlasting arms of Love to carry us Home.  The question I will be asked is not why didn’t I do this or that or why did I do this or that?  No the question we will be asked is, “Did you enjoy your life?”  Sounds like a Lover to me.

Peace,

Gary