When a tragic event occurs on earth, we often describe the event as 'An Act of God'. On the surface, most of us don't believe that God specifically caused the event, but the concept still exists and we call it 'An Act of God' for a reason.

Most concepts we have of life often leave a little window or hint towards the origins of why we feel the way we feel and why we view things the way we view things. Psychiatrists and sociologists will look for these so called "Freudian Slips" while talking with you. Often, becoming aware of these little windows into how we really feel is the only way we can hope to understand and see what is really motivating us.

When a tragic event occurs on earth or even when a smaller local event does damage to your home or property, the phrase often used to describe the event is "An Act of God". On the surface, most of us don't believe that God specifically focused in on you so that the flood hit your house or that the tornado ruined your farm. Since God is a God of love, "An Act of God" is more likely to be a beautiful spring day, as compared to a tragic event. However, the concept that God is somehow responsible or involved with tragic events still exists and we call it "An Act of God" for a reason.

Man has always feared what he does not understand. For most early cultures around the world, this fear has lead to an image of an unforgiving and angry God. These early cultures were so sure they had to appease their gods or else they would be punished. Their history and scriptures were written where they viewed good times in their lives as being blessed by their god or gods and the bad times in their lives as being punished by their god or gods.

Picking and choosing what you deduce was blessing or punishment has nothing to do with anything our God ever did or did not do. It was and still is just the perspective of the person being affected by an event. In ancient times, if it rains for a long time and your fields are flooded and your crops are ruined, this is an act of God punishing you, yet a few miles away, on higher ground, this rain is a blessing for somebody else because their crops were drying up and now God has decided to bless them. Whichever one of these individuals has the greater capacity to record this event...that is what history and sacred text will say how God treated man that day....even though it was just a storm that existed because of the way the worlds weather system works.

Today, science has helped us see past many of the things we had blamed on God in the past, yet, we still have never fully let go of the thought that God is somehow responsible for these events...or at least he should be helping to prevent them.

What is the purpose of having a God in the first place if he isn't going to protect the good and punish the bad? What purpose does it serve to sacrifice and live the good life if both the good and bad are punished or it the bad are even rewarded? What kind of an evil, sadistic, Zeus-like, puppet mastering, god do we have? How incompetent and unloving could he possibly be? How uncompassionate of the worlds troubles is he? How long will he continue to turn a blind eye towards our needs?

This is how we often feel and think...to one degree or another. Would you like to get past this point of view? Would you like to understand a little bit more about who God really is? Would you like to see a bigger and more accurate picture of why the world is the way it is? Would you like to see God's real purpose in this world? Would you like to finally understand why the world is in the chaos that it is....with war, disease, weather, earthquakes and related tsunamis?

To take this step closer to the truth of why the world is the way it is and who God really is, we first have to let go of the picture of God and of this world that we have already drawn in our minds. Once removed, God can replace these images with the truthful ones that will help us see things more clearly. Our free will empowers us to see and deduce things as we desire, but it also blocks the truth from our site. There is a picture in your mind of who and what God is, and God will not force you to change it or make you do anything you do not want to do. It always has and always will be your choice as to what you are truly willing to be open to see.

If God is not willing to force his will upon you, then this is not the reaction of the vengeful, unforgiving and angry God that history and ancient text have described. It is this man-made picture of God that you need to forgive and let go. It is this man-made picture of God that blinds you and disempowers you from seeing all things in the world more clearly.

If you let go of your current picture of God, then how should you see Him? To better see and understand this, you must be willing to take the next step to be open to realize that there are things that have never changed or have never been taken away....we have only obscured them from our vision. For example:

• Peace has never left a single one of us, but we can place things in our lives and embrace things that will obscure peace from being seen or felt, but peace is still there...patiently waiting for you to remove the blocks and obstacles you have placed in the way.
• All the power that is Gods, is at our disposal at all times, but we have chosen not to see this. We are afraid to believe this because even deeper within us is buried a fear that we deserve punishment and when we ran from the God who we decided was our punisher, we hid the facts from ourselves that we are just like him. If we didn't do this, we would have to conclude that we were doing all these things to ourselves and it works so much better to continue this illusion of separation between us and God to believe it is he who is oppressing us and that we are powerless. This self-perpetuating belief is at the core of why we see what we see, why we accept what we accept and why we selectively choose not to see things that would reveal the truth to us that we are like God and are really one with him.

When you allow all man-made concepts of God to be removed from your mind, you don't have to search for things to replace them with or wonder where you should go to find new concepts of God. The perfect and truthful thoughts are already there, hidden and obscured by your current beliefs, so the last thing you want to do is to replace your old man-made perspectives of God with new man-made perspectives of God. The search for God and his truths is not about how much you can find out, but about how much you can let go, so that the truths that already exist, can and will rise to the surface.

Now we arrive at the point where our explanation of the state of the world makes no sense. If God is this ever loving and peaceful being that I am telling you about, how do I explain why life is the way it is and why the world is like it is? The answer to this is very simple...if God didn't make this world the way it is, that leaves us. This world is what we made...not what God created. God will not interfere with the world we made...for several reasons...

• Remember, we are spiritual beings, so no matter what sickness, death and destruction that might appear to exist in this physical reality, nothing here can hurt our true selves...our spirits. This was the point of Jesus' death and resurrection....not as a sacrifice to appease an unforgiving and blood-thirsty god, but as a sign that no matter what happens here, the real you...the spirit that is you, can never be destroyed or injured in any way and you can or have come back here again, just as Jesus did. Since God knows your spirit is totally safe, no matter what terrors and nightmares we conjure up here, he has no reason to be concerned about you because you always have been and always will be totally secure and safe. The reality we are currently experiencing in this world is more of a dream or bad thought our spirits are embracing, but piece by piece, God is helping us to awake from this nightmare, so we can go on to better things and return to full communication with him.
• Here on earth, we always have and always will have a life just as we have chosen it or allowed it to be. God is neither blessing us or punishing us. It always was and always will be our individual and collective choice to be open for better things to happen by being open to accepting the good that is already there for us to receive. When we don't see anything good to receive, it's simply because we have placed things in the way of our vision and it has nothing to do with the good having gone away. It's just obscured. This means that all sickness and calamity is our doing. We have set up the world with certain concepts we called "Laws" and collectively as one spiritual body, we have all let ourselves believe certain things can only be a certain way. So, as much as you might not specifically choose to have cancer, we have all collectively agreed that it can occur and will occur.
   
  Jesus cured because he did not believe he was bound by the laws of this world. Jesus fed thousands because he did not believe he was bound by the laws of this world. Jesus walked on water and calmed storms because he did not believe he was bound by the laws of this world.
• Because we made this world, we cherish it, even though there is so much wrong with it. As long as we desire this reality greater than our true reality with God, God will not force us to do anything we don't want to do. He sent the Holy Spirit to help guide us towards seeing more clearly, to help us wake up gradually from this nightmare, but he will not force us to awaken. He's allowing all of us to choose.

God will not interfere with what we have chosen to follow, but he will help us to choose and see differently and help us to choose to follow a different path. This path has nothing to do with reaching any worldly or physical goal. This path, your spiritual path, is one of becoming more peaceful, becoming more loving, becoming more forgiving and becoming more open to see things clearly. It doesn't matter to God what you are physically doing here on earth because this earth is not eternal and therefore is not real to him. You, however, are eternal and are real to him, so while in this reality, his efforts are not focused towards the things you are doing, but towards the things you are being...being peaceful, being loving, being forgiving and being willing. In short, it's about remembering who you really are and who God really is.

Individually and collectively, as we change what we are being, this physical world will change to reflect our state of mind. For example, if you want peace, there is nothing you can do to create peace, but you can choose to be peaceful and then the world around you will become more peaceful and the things you do will help extend this sense of peace. Individually it might appear that there is little you can do to improve the world, but our mind is one mind and anything and everything you overcome, helps us all get closer to the day when we remember we really are one with God and will choose to be with him again.

"An Act of God" is the sending of the Holy Spirit. "An Act of God" is continuing to love us unconditionally, no matter what we have chosen to be at this time. "An Act of God" is never letting go of us and never letting our true selves, our spirits, come to harm in any way.

The first "Act of Man" was to believe God wanted to punish us and then we made this world of punishment that we can blame on God. The last "Act of Man" will be to forgive ourselves for having thought about God that way and then we'll all go home again. We will all return. We will all once again know and understand we are one. I look forward to seeing you there.