Life is forever! Just not human experience!
I know that I’m a spiritual being. This means that I have eternal life. What this does not mean, however, is that we have this human experience eternally. Confused? Stick around!
I am aware this is true because of my own situations and feelings. I have lived in this human body for 82 years. My mind is as quick or slow as it was in my 30s, 40, 50s, 60s, and 70s. My mind is constantly changing because of new knowledge.
I have had cancers and traumas, and I believe most of the abuses that a human body could. I have aches and pains. I sometimes suffer from memory loss. But, this is all to my human body and has nothing to do with my eternity.
Reverend Stephanie Sorensen, of the Flint Life Enrichment Center, said in a recent talk:
“We are Eternal Beings, but our physical body has an expiration date.
That is why it’s important for us to get busy living as fully and freely as we can while we’re in these bodies, and enjoy what we do with them while we’re in them…How often do we feel filled with great potential in life?
How often do we feel fulfilled in our moments, loving just being ourselves because we are aware that it is the furthest, most expanded part of our being-ness so far?”
“Or, do we let “I don’t have time today” stop us from doing what we want to do, or from enjoying whatever we’re doing because we feel guilty that we’re taking time to do it? Do we let “I’ll get to it later when I’m done doing the things I have to do to get through my days” keep us focused on the least expanded, most limited part of being-ness?
This isn’t something to fear. This is something to celebrate. We all have a next chapter in our book of life. Our eternal life. I can’t even imagine what it could be, only that it will be.
I first discovered spirituality when I came into AA in 1978. Before that, I had severe problems with organized religion. Prior to this, I never knew what spirituality was and that it was different from organized religion.
Religion is only a part of spirituality. Just picture a fish bowl with a solitary goldfish in the middle of an ocean of water. This bowl is religion and the ocean is spirituality.
Religions are man-made structures while spirituality is divinely inspired. A man started a religion and from there it became just like the children’s game of telephone. What was originally said came out totally different at the end.
I was introduced to spirituality as taught by Emmet Fox. Mr. Fox was the spiritual advisor to Bill W. and the earliest AAs. His book, The Sermon on the Mount, was used as the first Big Book until Bill W. wrote the AA Big Book.
I “adopted” Mr. Fox as my spiritual advisor for over 25 years through his essays and books. This adoption was because he died in 1951. Whenever I had a question I had to dig through his essays and books to find an answer.
About 2015, I found a spiritual community in the Life Enrichment Center, in Flint, MI. The pastor was Reverend Stephanie Sorensen. She became my spiritual advisor and someone I could finally get answers from directly.
Since then, things have only gotten better for me.
I heard as a child about eternal life but didn’t know what it meant. It wasn’t until I began studying spirituality that I started to really get what it was all about because religion is a part of spirituality.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
This shows us that people were studying and mentioning eternal life for at least thousands of years. It does not say that we die. This is saying that this part of our journey is a transition.
Reverend Sorensen goes on to say:
“ However, rather than trying to inspire ourselves to live fully by focusing on the diminishing time we have left in our Earth life, it might be helpful for us to focus on the timelessness that is the backdrop, so to speak, for this Earth experience we’re having in time-space.
It might be helpful to explore the idea of the endless expansion and extension that belongs to our Eternal Existence. In this way, we can become more aware of the Infinite depth and breadth of the Spiritual Reality in which our souls live even now.
The contrast between the Eternalness of our True Being and this temporary, impermanent environment we’re experiencing can make our Earth Life moments all more precious and meaningful.”
This is one reason that one of my daily affirmations is that I am a spiritual being. Living in a spiritual universe. That is governed by spiritual law. As a divine being, I am an individualized expression of God and one with all that exists.
Realizing this, really knowing this, is what truly makes me happy, joyous, and free no matter what is going on or around me. Thank you, God!
If you like this, please share it on Facebook and Twitter.