One night in late August as I was falling asleep and thinking about everything going on in the world: COVID-19, so much violence and killing – not just locally (in Calgary, Alberta) but also nationally and internationally. I thought about the things I have been seeing on Instagram and Facebook – the anger, chaos, and fear. I wondered what the HECK was going on in the world.
Then I said to myself, “My Bible must be broken!”
A few days later I woke up and laid in bed without thinking about anything in particular. I did my breathwork practice that I described in the post, “Are We All Empaths?”, breathing with my aura in sync with my physical body. At that point I could feel that the world really has reached a tipping point. A point where despair, fear, and violence is prevailing. This feeling made me so deeply sad.
Then I remembered my thought from earlier in the week: My Bible must be broken!
Let me explain. Like many others I was raised Roman Catholic. Although I no longer believe in the “God” I was raised with, I do still believe in God. (For me God is neither “male” or “female” but rather the essence of both masculine and feminine energies.) I still pray on occasion and talk with the Angels and the Guides (as you will see in some of my other posts).
I still recall the Ten Commandments. And, one story that has stayed with me from church sermons and in the Catechism in particular is how Jesus was able to feed a large group of people with only five loaves of bread and two fish (a miracle). There are many other stories too, and they all share the same message: help your fellow man, woman, and child, offer forgiveness, be kind and respectful.
I appreciate these stories even today and I believe they still hold value.
Now for the life of me I just do not remember the Bible (especially the New Testament) encouraging us to treat others badly, to lie, cheat, steal, and be violent and disrespectful to one another.
And yet today, I see so many people in authority, social influencers, and companies behaving badly in these exact ways! I just do not understand it – many of these people also come from religious backgrounds or at least have the good sense not to behave in such negative ways.
Well, this brings me back to my Bible being broken. Sometimes it seems like the only explanation!
I mean, did a new version come out in recent years? Did I miss the memo? Is there some new Bible that says, “Oh, actually, ignore everything from the first version – it’s okay to be violent, treat others badly, cheat, lie, and steal? And by the way – if you see others behaving this way, you’re not supposed to speak up or call them out.” I guess my 1966 Bible is out-of-date. But I want no part of this “new Bible” because I do not like what it’s teaching.
Obviously, I am being facetious here. But I am frustrated!
I believe we should respect everyone, including ourselves – just as the Bible teaches. But instead, we are acting as if a world of money, new products, new trends, new “whatever is hot right now” is our “Bible” – our “God.” This is not a God I want to look up to. And it’s not sustainable for any of us.
Later that day, after the morning of sadness around this “tipping point,” I decided to relax and unwind with a hot bath. From the bath I thought again about my Bible being broken – or this persistent feeling that the rest of the world was playing by a different set of rules. Suddenly the song Lean on Me by Bill Withers came into my head:
Lean on me, when you’re not strong
And I’ll be your friend
I’ll help you carry on
For, it won’t be long
‘Til I’m gonna need
Somebody to lean on
I sang these lines over and over, trying to remember how the rest of the song went. I knew it had something to do with support but wanted to search the full lyrics because it felt very poignant at that particular moment.
I then thought about the poem Footprints (sometimes called Footprints in the Sand). I thought about the part when the narrator discovers that – during the hardest parts of their life, when they believed they walked alone – really it was God that carried them.
I saw a poster at a local church one day that said, “We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” This really rang true for me. In the Bible, Jesus died on the cross for all humanity – but currently there is no one person who can heal everyone. We are supposed to work together as a community to help each other.
So, for the tipping point of despair I felt earlier that day, the Guides reminded me that HOPE is the answer to heal despair.
When Jacob Black was shot in the back 7 times by police, his mother, Julia Jackson, provided a message of grace and hope. She called for national healing and condemned violence on all sides. She prayed alongside a Kenosha police officer in her son’s hospital room. Citing her faith, she said she would have done the same not only for her son but for the officer who shot him. She said, “It would have been harder to do, but […] we have to examine our hearts.”
Let us fill our hearts with HOPE and help each other heal. It is time to start building the community around us. Even in the first week of September, I am seeing more hope these days. I believe that compassion is overriding fear. There is an opportunity in this chaos to bring out people’s deepest love and compassion for one another – to help each other no matter our differences.
If we lose focus here we could find ourselves in a literal state of global war. As I mentioned in a previous blog – together we must all use our “super powers” to focus on healing something or someone. We need it more than ever to save ourselves.
So, let’s dust off our old Bibles and remember to help out someone because as the lyrics to LEAN ON ME:
For it won’t be long
‘Til I’m gonna need
Somebody to lean on