Falling Out Of Religion and Into The Arms Of God Part ll
by Dr. Trish Whynot

My most important pursuit in this life has been to authentically love. Not a small task and it has required the extensive exploration of my relationship with Divine Love. In my reflections on this pursuit, I have witnessed how amazingly God has orchestrated the fulfillment of my desire. I have been divinely guided and led back to my religious upbringing and my relationship with God as part of the process.  

Part I was the revealing of the gifts of healing and growth that were brought forth through my religious experience, as well as exposing the scars that were created on the journey. Part II is the exploration of how I have learned to live in God—to live in the Love. I had heard the phrase God is Love, but I didn’t really put the two together until God presented me with a new friend. I know without a doubt, that our meeting was divinely orchestrated because of all the healing and growth that has come about through our friendship. I have even come to call him my Angel and he calls me his. This friend is very religious, yet is not of the same faith in which I was raised. In reflection, I can see his purpose in fulfilling my desire to authentically love. Healing my perceived relationship with God was a necessary component to this process, and he has been my inspiration. 

I consider the way I experience my personal life to be sacred. I didn’t realize this until my dear religious friend came into my life. I live my life in constant dialogue with God. I had never really thought about it in these terms before I met him, so it was fun for me to articulate and share how I practice this dialogue. Articulating what I have come to know always helps me to deepen my experience. Then life becomes even more delicious! 

My friend is very interested in my relationship with God. Our conversations have brought awareness to how I experience God every moment of every day, given new dimension to my understanding of the term Oneness, and brought new meaning to the phrase “in love.” Our discussions have brought God and Love back into a state of Oneness in my life, and even helped heal some of my religion-associated scars. 

(Love with an “L” refers to Sacred Love and is used interchangeably with God and love “l” refers to human love.) 

Dialogue with God

First off, I have learned to not be too attached to words that describe “with whom” I am talking when I dialogue with God. I am definitely connecting with extremely wise universal wisdom. I go into my head to acknowledge if it is All Loving, but don’t spend a lot of time trying to categorize it. I don’t believe that God can be categorized but if your mind needs labels or categories, I guess the “All-encompassing” category would suffice. I believe that God is a universal energy that is Love. It is complex and because we, as humans, are complex and unique, different stories resonate with different people in their efforts to know their Source. I don’t think that there is one be all and end all story and I think that sometimes people get caught up in the story and lose sight of the journey.  

I choose not to get too caught up in the story. I do have one and it is always expanding and sometimes changing—that’s the mystery. When I ask for help or clarity, who responds? Is it God, my higher self, a spirit guide, an angel, or a light being who just happens to be in the neighborhood? I’m not always sure, and I don’t think it matters as long as the information is wise and compassionate. I do wonder, but not at the expense of the experience. I guess I’m trying to say that I don’t need credentials—wise is wise and compassion seals the deal. It’s all Love so if I say God, I should have it covered. 

If you ask for help or clarity and the information you receive does not have everyone’s best interests at heart, it is likely that a lesser expression of Love is responding. When you are operating from a “lesser self” position, you will connect with lesser expressions of Love—not less valuable, but less wise and less compassionate. Everyone has lesser selves and sometimes they will tell you a whole story about what is happening, based on their wounds from the past. If this happens, it will be important to give your lesser self a voice and address the old wounds. Just don’t give them decision-making authority. Thank your lesser self for sharing, and ask to connect with help that holds the intention for the highest outcome for all concerned with harm to no one—that’s the expression of God with whom you want to connect.

Your life is a constant dialogue with God. Everyone is doing it, but not everyone is aware of it. When you don’t dialogue with God consciously, your life may appear to come at you randomly or chaotically. When you do dialogue consciously, you experience life as supportive of your desires, hopes and dreams. I don’t believe that any encounter is incidental. God does use messengers. Use discernment, but be careful not to judge your messengers, otherwise, you may be turning away the very response for which you have been waiting. Dialogue is a conversation that goes both ways—giving and receiving. When you consciously dialogue, you are consciously living in the Love—you are “in” Love. When you authentically love, you will experience God in its highest expressions. 

Oneness

When I speak of Oneness, I mean feeling connected—feeling a part of the Love rather than separate from the Love. A connection offers an avenue for the exchange of energy. You are always connected, but you have to choose to tap in. Once tapped in, you can begin exchanging information. The exchange of information can take various forms including asking for and receiving help, greeting and being greeted, and putting out what you believe and having it reflected back to you. There are many ways to experience Oneness with God. God expresses through meditation, people, nature, fun activities and crisis.  

Choosing to separate your spiritual life from your everyday moments is choosing separation. When you blame others or your circumstances for how you are feeling, you believe that you are separate. Seeing a person or circumstance that has triggered you emotionally as presenting you with a healing opportunity is experiencing Oneness. When you see your encounters as incidental, you believe you are separate. When you see them as orchestrated by God in response to your desires, you are in the Oneness. 

I have a playful nature, therefore, the element of fun is very important to me. When I speak of fun, I mean an activity that is nurturing and nourishing to my spirit. Fun is a means for me to connect with God. I like to initiate my daily dialogue with Him by doing an activity that I enjoy. The “doing” in this case is my choice to connect—it is me greeting God—my initiation of an exchange. The activity could be a heartfelt chat with my husband over a cup of coffee, emailing a dear friend, doing yoga, rollerblading, a walk in nature, journaling, reading, meditating, listening to upbeat music that speaks to me, taking a bath with sweetly scented herbs and candles, petting my cats while thanking them for being in my life, or enjoying a candlelight breakfast. Sometimes it includes two or three of these activities, and I have many more greetings. These are all activities that bring me joy, are nurturing and nourishing to my spirit, come from a place of pure desire, and create space for God to come through. God always responds even when you aren’t conscious of the exchange you initiate.  

The experience of an activity is heightened when you choose for it to be an expression of Oneness. One of my favorites is snow skiing. I am a competent skier so I don’t have to concentrate on the form. The movement is fluid and rhythmic. I get into a rhythm, carving a fluid series of left and right turns, and create a serpentine pattern in the snow. Left is symbolic of the feminine which is receptive and right is symbolic of the masculine which is giving. I experience the movement with all my senses, I feel the wind and sun on my face, and my skis gracefully carving through the snow—I am at One with the elements. I also invite my “Spiritual Community” to join me in this dance with nature. It feels like I am physically weaving an exchange of masculine and feminine energy in a fluid union and it is exhilarating. God is freely flowing through me, through the elements, and through my Spiritual Community. There are connections and exchanges taking place on so many levels, some levels of which I am not even aware. It is a fluid exchange of giving and receiving—you could even describe it as “L”oving and being “L”oved with complete abandon.  

Your “Spiritual Community” can include God/Goddess, Nature Spirits, the Elements, Archangels, your Higher Self, and any other nonphysical beings with whom you desire to connect. When I consciously initiate these connections it lifts me and heightens my experience. I am participating in a celebration of the Oneness. Sometimes I just invite my Spiritual Community to dance with me, and sometimes I ask for their assistance. Your Spiritual Community is unconditionally loving and supportive of your happiness. Skiing is not just a physical activity for me; it is a sacred celebration of being part of a greater whole.  

Even when I go for a walk in my neighborhood I can choose to experience the Oneness. It brings my experience to an enchanting, wondrous and magical level. Once again, I don’t believe that any encounter is incidental. If I smell the scent of a flower, I sense that it is greeting me and I greet it in return. I greet animals and birds that I encounter and often ask if they have a message for me or me for them, or if they came, as a messenger, in response to a request I asked of God. I let them know that I am willing to receive their help in a way that is for my highest benefit. I don’t necessarily talk out loud, I greet them and appreciate them with my mind and heart, and I believe that they are part of my daily dialogue with God.  

Being in Oneness is being in Love. Consciously choosing it will bring you to a more heavenly level of being. This level is beautiful, magical, enchanting, mysterious and wondrous! I am changed by my experiences and I know it. I don’t always know how, but I just know. If you are not supportive of your happiness your life will reflect that. God is at play here too. What you put out, God will lovingly reflect back. I am a significant part of the whole—of the Oneness—and so are you. In my fun, I bring joy to the Oneness. Even those who feel separate are part of the Oneness. And some, who think in their heads that they are part of the Oneness, are feeling separate in their hearts.  

Summary

My friend and I have had several discussions regarding my approach to experiencing God. He has used words such as “radical,” “beautiful” and “courageous.” I am in Love with God. I “see” and experience God in my every day—I live in the Love consciously. I believe that we are in constant dialogue with God whether we are aware of it or not. Our lives are a Loving response from God— God responding to what we express with our minds and hearts, consciously or unconsciously. Our prayers are always answered. When we offer up a desire, I trust that God patiently waits for us to be ready to take a leap of faith and surrender the outcome to His/Her divine plan for us. 

My friend is a conduit for my dialogue with God; he is a messenger, an angel who has come into my life. He is a response to my desire to deepen my relationship with Sacred Love. He has desires that have brought me into his life too. God always makes it a perfect match. That is how He/She operates—with everyone’s needs being met. There is this quote by an unknown author, “God comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable.” I see the comfortable who are being disturbed as those who are putting out intentions for what they desire and not aware that God is responding. And remember, sometimes God responds with a little homework so don’t be too quick to dismiss your messengers. The ones delivering homework assignments don’t always look like angels at first glance. 

Some food for thought:

What is your relationship to Love, to God?

What do you think, say and do every day and why? This is your initiation to a dialogue with God. You can figure it out by reflecting on       how He/She has been responding. 

How do you greet God? 

Do you choose to tap into the Oneness? How often?

What do you bring to the Oneness?  

On Easter morning as I reflected on Jesus’ death and resurrection, I saw this powerful message for humanity; sometimes we are trying to live a good life yet it feels like so few are on our side. We feel hopeless, helpless and question God until we realize that what we professed were obstacles on our path, were actually fuel for our growth. When we die to our old perceptions, we are resurrected. We rise to a new level of being—enlightened, lighter and closer to God than ever before.  

The exchanges with my friend have given new dimension to my life, personally and professionally. In my work as a counselor, I have come to recognize that I am actually teaching my clients to live in Love. I am teaching them to create their own personal experience with it, to see the Love that is all around them and to dialogue with it. They are learning to live, learn, heal and grow in the Oneness, and to authentically love and be loved. They are dying to their old ways and rising to a more enlightened way of being. I have come to the realizations that I am in Love with God, that healing is a form of Sacred Love-making, and that life is Love expressed. I embrace life and am embraced by it—I am in Love! WOW! How fun! And so are you. Isn’t it time to start enjoying it? 

Click Here To Read Part l

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