My God Epiphany

Recently, I had the opportunity to hear about how a good friend came to find God.  A “new birth,” he called it.  It was powerful and intense and led him to the pulpit.  Where he remains to this day, a faithful spiritual warrior. 

It was a moving story.  And it made me stop and think about my own “new birth.”  Surely, my conversion was not as grand as his.  If I’ve had an Epiphany of God, it must have come when I read “Conversations with God I, II and III.”

I was raised a Catholic.  Church every Sunday, along with a visit to the priest’s home next to the church.  I often think my mother did it only to have a nip of the Holy Wine.  But though I was not present for or old enough to partake in any spiritual discussions that might have gone on, I was still in the presence of that deep, abiding faith.

As any good Catholic, I was dutifully Confirmed and Communion-ed.  I nearly attended Catholic School, too.  It seemed appealing to me at the time; I liked the uniform idea and the gray socks.  But, gratefully I was saved from that.  Heaven knows what would have become of me!  I was never suited to be a Catholic School Girl.

I grew up with a feeling of connection to God, but more so like a parent watching over me. In Conversations with God, Book 1, God said, “You have projected the role of ‘parent’ onto God, and have thus come up with a God Who judges and rewards or punishes, based on how good He feels about what you’ve been up to.” I had a genuine love for God, along with a healthy dose of respect, with a twinge of fear if I didn’t behave.  It kept me well within the lines, despite my rebellious nature.  I never denied God, not even, I should say, in a moment of doubt.  I always knew He was there.  But as my life wore on, I began to wonder what that meant.

It was about that time (you’ll pardon me if I don’t want to tell my age) – when I first discovered I had no clue what role God played in my life – that I had, perhaps, a fleeting moment of doubt. That must have been what inspired both my beloved teachers, Paulette and Cherie, to recommend, in the same week, that I read “Conversations with God.”  My Special FBI Agent Cooper Rule: (I believe his Rule is “When two things happen simultaneously, pertaining to the same line of inquiry, we must pay strict attention.”  Mine is slightly different.)  When I hear the same message twice in a short span of time, I  pay strict attention.

I did.  I was completely blown away by it!  I couldn’t get enough of it.  It resonated with every beat of my heart.  I heard God speaking to me.  It was a God I could fall in love with, I could have a friendship and relationship with.  It was the God, the Parent, I had always wanted.  Super-Sized Parent.  The completely whole parent. 

The first book is like a God-sized hug.  Whenever I need to feel well-loved, I read a passage from it.  “Must you speak in hushed tones when you speak to Me?  Are slang words or tough language outside My ken?  I tell you, you can speak to Me as you would speak with your best friend.”

God doesn’t often make definitive statements about How Life Is.  But when He does, it’s like you’ve been waiting your whole life to hear it.  It feels so right.  And He encourages us to not take all this right away, but run it through our heart and see how it feels.

I refer to God as He, as a rule, but She is just as likely to show up.  God is not caught in that either/or construction that we live with.  God explains that we live in a world of relativity that comes down to Love or Fear: Up/Down, In/Out, Male/Female, Here/There.  In God’s world, it’s more about Here, There, and what’s in between. There are not the polar opposites that serve us on the journey we’ve undertaken. “In matters of gross relationship (in this world – A), you recognize no ‘in-between’.  That is because gross relationships are dyads, whereas relationships of the higher realm are invariably triads.  Hence, there is left-right, up-down, big-small, fast-slow, hot-cold, and the greatest dyad ever created: male-female.  There is no in-between in these dyads.  A thing is either one thing or the other, or some greater or lesser version in relationship to one of these polarities.”  May I let Him speak a little more: “Within the realm of sublime relationship nothing which exists has an opposite.  All is One, and everything progresses from one to the other in a never-ending cycle.”

She unveils, in the first book, simple but profound concepts like the purpose of life: To remember who you really are (who we all really are: the manifestation, the individuation of God) and choose who you wish to be.  Big Stuff!  Want some more?

In “CWG II,” God talks at length about the paradigm shift the world needs if it is to become the world we say we all want it to be.  Peaceful, for one.  God talks about education, politics, the environment.  She makes no pronouncements about what we have to do.  In fact, He stresses the fact there’s nothing we have to do to please Him.  He cares not which toys we choose to play with.  He knows that God is a huge target, so we can’t miss Him.  When Neale presses Her on something, She answers with the caveat that whatever suggestions She gives are within the context of what we say we want.  Not what She wants us to do.  I have read it again, through the last year or so, looking for hints of what has transpired since the writing and publishing of the book.  I find no specific predictions, but the concepts still hold true, perhaps even more so.

The third book, “Conversations with God III,” takes you to such far places and such huge concepts it’s somewhat jarring to return to something like what’s for dinner or if your socks match.  You must open yourself to such wide vistas, it almost hurts to shrink your mind again.  You will not believe the things God has to say in this book!

There are other books in the series – check out the web site here for more information. I feel these three books are the core of the philosophy that God wanted to bring to the world now, “. . . in terms so plain, you cannot misunderstand. In language so simple, you cannot be confused.  In vocabulary so common, you cannot get lost in the verbiage.”

Thank You, God (and Neale Donald Walsch) for delivering these amazing books to us!