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Can God save everyone? Why would he?

by | Aug 3, 2010 | Spirituality

God Save....
photo credit: markhillary

Do you think God can save us from evil, wars, pain, everything that’s bad or that we don’t want?

There is a number of believers who say that if we act “right”, God will save us. But if we don’t, well, I guess it’s hell and eternal damnation.

I’ve never tackled spirituality on this blog, but the human mind has a desire and a need to believe, and whether we admit it or not, religious beliefs have a huge impact, on most aspects of our lives. And unfortunately, our religious beliefs are not questioned enough.

Suggested music while reading this post: Linkin Park – The Catalyst.

God and the universe

According to most religions on this earth, God created the universe, all the planets, including our own, nature, all the animal world and finally, mankind. Never mind the number of (Earth) days it took to do that, it was a huge undertaking.

From what I understand (and I’m no expert), we are all children of God, and God loves mankind more that he loves everything else: more than the trees we destroy for plantations, more than the mosquitoes we kill when they bother us, more than the cattle we slaughter so we can have burgers everyday.

When taking a human perspective, even though we despise the thought or the accusation, it is not uncommon for a parent to have a preference for one child over the others. So, like a random parent, God loves us more than his other creations.

Wait… we’re talking about God here, the perfect one. How does it make sense than God would love one of its creation more than another to the point of letting one use, abuse, destroy, the others?

But we are worth more than plants and animals. Aren’t we?

On worthiness

If we are worth more than others because we are men and women, or because we belong to the right people, because we follow God’s wish, or are righteous (whatever that means given the society, time and religion), then it makes more sense.

We, being righteous, believe we are worthy because we are not murderers, or thieves, or whoever whose behavior is not approved by God.

But what about all the exceptions?

Can we kill someone who has killed? Steal someone who has stolen? Judge someone who has judged? Does that make us less worthy?

But we do that all the time.

So how come we are better? Oh yeah, we’re righteous, we follow rules.

Does it really matter?

God save us all

We want to be saved from what we don’t want, sometimes we also want to be saved from things and situations we need, that would teach us compassion and how to love unconditionally.

Do we get to choose?

Let’s take another perspective.

Why are we on Earth?

Are we here to be saved? to be righteous? to follow the rules? to reproduce so that our offspring could worship the same God?

What’s the point?

Being born to sustain the society doesn’t make sense from a higher perspective, having children so they worship a God is useless to a almighty one.

And to be saved… that’s circular. If we’re not here, we don’t need to be saved.

Besides, if we can be truly saved, it can only really happens once we’re dead, so it’s completely irrelevant in this life.

Wanting to be saved put responsibility and power into God’s hands.

If God exists, don’t you think he wants us to be responsible for our own path and destiny? For our own actions? Otherwise it would have made more sense to talk to each of us directly and whisper to our ear each action he wants his Sims to carry out.

It’d be easier. And so boring.

He’s given us the task of discovering what to do by ourselves. Isn’t that a sign?

A sign that says: you explore and learn, but you bear the responsibility.

If God loves everyone the same way, and he put us here simply to live and experience, from what are we supposed to be “saved”?

We don’t need to be saved

I don’t even want to be “saved”. I want to experience, I want to live, I want the universe (or God) to fill my path with opportunities to learn and grow.

If there is something to be done in this world, whether it’s God’s will or not doesn’t matter, you have to take responsibility to do your part. You can see a sign anytime anywhere, or disregard a thousand of them because they don’t fit your belief system.

Ultimately, every action you take, every word you say, every feeling you feel is your choice. Yes, we all have pasts and experiences and genes that influence our lives, but ultimately, we have the responsibility to attend to ourselves.

If you want to be saved from a meaningless life, be passionate about what you do and respect who you are, because it’s the only way to honor who you were designed to be.

Forget success. Fail more!

by | Jul 22, 2010 | Shift

Last time I wrote about the success mindset and why, if you actually want to succeed, it’s not the brightest idea to think about all the potential for failure. If you haven’t read it yet, go check it out.
But before you say anything, let me tell you: there is nothing inherently bad about failure.

Let’s start from the beginning..

What is failure?

Failure refers to the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success.

Wikipedia

Yeah, it looks bad.

Nobody likes not meeting a desirable or intended objective, otherwise it definitely wouldn’t be intended, and if it’s desirable, then not meeting it, well.. isn’t.

But what failure is isn’t the problem, what failure entails is.

The consequences of failure

Failure has bad press, most people associate failure with really nasty stuff, such as:

  • shame
  • rejection
  • loss
  • unfulfilled expectations
  • broken promises
  • anger
  • devaluation of one’s self

I’m pretty sure you associate failure with at least part of this list. So you try your best to avoid failure, to the point that, sometimes, it means not trying.

Failure is success!

According to common belief, failure is the opposite of success.. But did you ever think about all the other side-effects of failure:

  • learning what to do and what not to do to obtain a certain result
  • having new ideas of semi-related or completely unrelated projects
  • getting an opportunity to change your path and try something new
  • enjoying the journey itself instead of focusing everything on the results
  • gaining plain experience

Not that bad anymore, right?

So.. why is it so hard to accept failure?

The judgement of others

How is your social support group? Is it supporting of your entreprises? Or does it want you not to try because of potential failure? or because of potential success?

The difference might be the one between trying and not trying, succeeding in what you want or not.

Some communities value failure more than others, so try to be mindful about what your community expects and how it supports you. If possible you want one that will motivate you to succeed but value failure for what it is: a proof of courage and a beneficial experience.

If your community doesn’t provide what you want and need, either find a new community more accepting of your tries and goals, or, at least, do your best to detach yourself from the comments you might receive.

Your own judgement

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.

Sir Winston Churchill

While a supporting tribe will definitely help, it is not of much use if you base your self-worth on your successes, or more appropriately, in not failing.

If you want to be happy, to accomplish your goals, you need to fail, and more than that, you need to accept to fail. Bonus points if you “seek” failure by trying anything that you want even if it’s out of your league (for now). But, no points if you deliberately fail at something you want to accomplish, though. Try to experience, learn. And be playful about it all.

Success isn’t the point of life, experience is, and in order to experience, you need to be willing to fail.

What are you willing to risk in order to do and get what you want?