Ramblings - First published May 2021
Ramblings from David
May 2021
Have you ever looked for answers about the big stuff? Answers to questions that can seem so essential to know, so big, lives have been spent in search of a revelation to satisfy the spur of the quest?
- Why are we here?
- Who or what is God?
- Does God exist?
- Is there life after death?
- Is existence eternal?
The urge to look at these questions is stronger in some people than others, thoughts ebbing and flowing to rhythmical patterns of interest, delight, bewilderment and discovery of a sort. An important question is, how many of you would recognise “a truth” if it was handed to you on a plate? To illustrate this lets consider the example of the question, “Does God exist?”. I’ll give you the definitive answer – YES. There. Is that better? Will this answer satisfy an individuals attempt to understand? Will there be a time when the response is, “Thanks a lot David – that's really cleared things up!”
I know that God exists, but will there be anyone who will be happy with the answer coming from me? “What a ridiculous notion”, I hear some say, “he thinks he just knows the answer.”
Ok then. Lets try another of our sample questions – “Is there life after death?” A question that is almost certainly going to be a point of consideration at key times in your lives. Here is another definitive answer - there is a World after what is described as death. Would this answer satisfy the person asking the question? Possibly not. So what is an individual looking for when these questions are at the forefront of their enquiry?
Hope, mystery, peace, understanding will certainly be aspects of the path which raised the question. Fear of the unknown does not necessarily need to be the underlying motivation although some may be experiencing emotions that are akin to fear due to an inevitable lack of understanding and their own situation. The conflicting logic, hopes and dreams can stimulate a desire to know, things that can not be known, sometimes at a time that it seems to be the most important thing to know. What a mess for anyone who feels desperate; being sure there is an answer but unable to see certainty in anything that their thoughts are frantically working to find. Do Not Worry. There is not a way to know the impossible, or at least have a way that is not the way you will know. There are however things that a person can become in their life given a time with themselves and the world around them.
Forgetting that you are alive in a way that sees the wonder of the world you are in, can make an essential peace seem so distant and unobtainable that it may not be embraced. Would you forget to eat and drink for days or weeks because you are too busy and then wonder why everything feels so wrong? Life is a miracle. Loving the life you have is to love the life that exists all around. It is essential, like food and drink, but unlike food and drink, it will never fall victim to famine or drought.
If you are reading this and do not ‘get it’. Maybe you never spend any time enquiring about or even consider the importance of God in the world, but you do feel the richness of life and love of it, Do Not Worry! Don’t change. It is not an insult to God. People being happy, living and celebrating life is exactly how things should be. You are seen and you are known. Be true to yourselves and be happy. Celebrating life is to celebrate God.
The question about life after death is never going to be answered by a simple Yes. The immediate question after is usually centred around thoughts and sometimes concerns about the nature of the next world. It is not a new question. It is one of the most dominant and written about subjects in the most ancient of historical communications, the crux of mythology and religions through the ages. For what its worth, and to some of you it may find a place that has meaning, I offer you the following…. The world after this world should not concern you. It is not something you need to know. Make the most of the one you know here. It is not always easy to but the journey is your journey.
If it is all going well – Great! If things are not quite so buoyant for you, you may find that some of the questions above become more dominant in your thoughts. A reason for this discussion; what is it people want to know when they are asking these questions. An answer that will give you the answers you need is faith, a pure faith within which you will find there is a ‘worth’ worth cherishing from which the concerns about the questions will melt away.
What is a pure faith?
There is a mystery that essentially remains a mystery in relation to facts and hard evidence but there is a way of discovery and peace that comes through faith. Faith is a strange word to some; it conjurors up images of things that do not seem to fit with their lives and way of being. A pure faith is simply a faith that you are loved and cared for by God. Some may scoff and call this blind faith. It is however usually those who scoff who are searching for facts to prove that their beliefs have substance, which seems to be an odd ambition and an insecure position to take – it prevents the freedom. The doubts they experience are inevitable as they struggle to present hard evidence. The people who follow this path, deny themselves the peace they could enjoy; if only they saw that a ‘success’ in what they are trying to do (which will never happen) would mean an end to faith and the richness it embodies – is that what they seek?
Pure faith is the acceptance of the unfathomable Mystery. The peace of faith in God comes from an unquestioning trust.
So then, lets get back to the questions, what are the answers? I’ve answered two of them. For those who believe my answers to be the truth, the answers to the rest of them could quite nicely sit under the heading of ‘Do Not Worry, be happy and enjoy the Mystery.’
