Human Nature

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The Fear and Violence part of the 3rd Chakra

We can look at the world and see violence happening all over the place. We can also look at the world and feel the fear which is within people all over the place. And both violence and fear seemingly grow, and seemingly grow and seemingly grow.

The 3rd Chakra Connection

The spiritual consciousness 3rd Chakra is connected to the physical Adrenaline Gland. This particular Chakra part of the whole consciousness activates the Adrenaline Gland. We all know what adrenaline is. We all feel it when we’re pumped up for an athletic event or the latest roller coaster ride, or a scary movie, or a James Bond movie or an X-men movie or Deadpool Movie or a war movie or any number of all the other movies which are designed, written, and purposed to give an adrenaline thrill ride. It is the “fight or flight” experience.  It is meant to be associated with personal power.  (Even reading this last paragraph brings back memories of these activities and triggers adrenaline.)

It is the adrenaline experience that fuels many actions including violence – the “fight” part of the coin. This is the thirst for blood – the rush of adrenaline that comes with violence.  Many seek this.  Fear is also the adrenaline experience – the “flight” part of the experience. We either “run like everything the other way” or we fight.  Many seek this, also.  Fight or flight are both the 2 sides of one coin.

Currently, in our world, our reaction to violence is to bring forth more violence, because the original violence triggers fear within us, and through our response of violence, we’re trying to no longer be afraid via overpowering the original fear and violence.

Put another way, in our world, our reaction to this type of 3rd Chakra experience is to bring forth more of these types of 3rd Chakra experiences, because the original 3rd Chakra experience triggers another 3rd Chakra experience within us, and through our responding with this type of 3rd Chakra experience we’re trying to no longer have these types of 3rd Chakra experiences by trying to overpower the original 3rd Chakra experience with another 3rd Chakra experience.

Do you kind of get where the problem is with fear and violence – fight or flight?

Einstein once said, “We can’t solve a problem at the level at which it was created.” We can’t solve the cycle of violence and fear – a type of 3rd Chakra cycle of experiences – by bringing forth more violence and fear – more of the same types of 3rd Chakra experiences.

Options for Something Different

However, we can step out of the cycles of these 3rd Chakra experiences with two different changes in consciousness.

The 2nd option for change is to move our awareness up to the 4th Chakra and begin practicing 4th Chakra experiences whenever we are aware that we are responding to our life situations, circumstances, and experiences with adrenaline.  It’s not always easy to do, because this act requires self-awareness.  The self-awareness also needs to include the knowledge and awareness of the difference between 3rd and 4th Chakra experiences.  This takes practice – months of practice added to years of practice added to one’s life path full of practicing.

This is a process of observing one’s self.  It is also referred to “stepping aside and watching one’s self pass by.”  Many times we can recall memories of our experiences easier, and this gives us the chance to “observe” how we reacted in the past.  It also can become possible then to remember the present and our current responses happening in the ‘now’ moment.

The 4th Chakra’s center of response can move us to much different responses.  It also can move us to many different choices available to us.  None of the choices are “to not feel the 3rd Chakra” or “to feel nothing at all”.  The 4th Chakra isn’t about “feeling nothing”.

Quite the opposite – the 4th Chakra is about feeling more than only what the 3rd Chakra offered.  The 4th Chakra, the heart Chakra, is the Chakra centered on Love and the many different forms which love can take.  Love can take many forms – compassion, mercy, forgiveness, patience, understanding, tolerance, etc.

In this topic, Love can come forth from the 4th Chakra in the form of compassion and understanding.  This is the 1st option which I skipped over previously.  The 1st change to the 3rd Chakra experiences from moving our response into the 4th Chakra is the compassion and understanding of the 3rd Chakra experiences of fight or flight – the compassion and understanding of the experiencing of fear and violence and why we experience these.

A transformation can take place by moving our responses into the 4th Chakra.  As human beings, holding on to our compassion, we can begin to understand just how difficult and confusing it is to be a human being.  We can understand what human beings go through to struggle and live on this planet.  We can understand how our thinking styles, our ways of responding to experiences, and our chosen ways of believing can be so difficult to step out of, that it is any wonder that we’re able to find peace at all.

Being a human being is hard.  We try to latch onto some way of living that may possibly lead us to something better.  But, as human beings we can only do the best we can.  Sometimes, we can only do the best we can at doing the best we can.  Hence why responding from the 4th Chakra can be so important and helpful.  It is from our heart that we offer compassion for the struggles of life that people face.  It is from our heart that we find patience to extend to someone else who needs just that.  It is from our heart that we find it within ourselves to live in some form of peace with others, allowing all the different ways of being human to try to coexist.

It is from our heart that we can transform the experience of fear and violence to one of compassion and understanding which in turn, can lead to acceptance and tolerance.  Love is possible, when we move our consciousness from our adrenaline experiences to our heart – the center of love experiences and all the different forms that love could manifest.

As humans and spirits, we are all our Chakras and all our experiences – the sum total of all experiences we’ve ever had, plus the sum of all our potential possibilities for the future.  That’s a lot, so, no experience or response we’ve ever had, is not “not part of us”.  Nor should they be.

But, we have choices that we can make.  We are more than automatic responses of fear and violence.  We can make choices of healing and learning.  We can make choices of compassion and understanding.  We can make choices of growing in our awareness of our self and our being a human being.  These choices can help us heal our self, our relationship, our communities, and even, our world.  “With God, all is possible” no longer are just fancy words, but can become a new way of living.

The transformation of the 3rd Chakra by moving into the 4th, is a transformation of fear and violence to one of learning, understanding, compassion, and patience.   In turn, these can also lead to mercy, forgiveness, and a healing of our Family of Man.

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“Never underestimate the Infinite possibilities of the Infinite Consciousness of God bringing forth Infinite Love.  Infinite things can happen.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2016, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Deuteronomy 30:19

When in human history has there not been conflict among each other, hatred, war and killing of people by other people. And yet, we human beings are still alive and living our lives. We have 7 billion people on the planet, and I know why.

It’s because “he” loves “her,” and “she” loves “that guy,” and “they” love “somebody,” and “he” loves “somebody” and “we” love, and “she” loves, and “different people” love and “children” love and on and on and on and on. Any planet where “many people loving other people” exists, is a planet worth living on. Any planet where a person or many people express their love through all the different forms that love gets expressed – support, kindness, patience, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, more kindness, etc, – for other people, is a planet where God is among us and active through our choice to manifest love to other people through support, kindness, patience, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, more kindness, etc.

God and Love and God and Love

Where love exists, God exists. Where people love, God’s love gets through to us.  When we love any person and any life that God has created, we bring God’s Presence, Kindness, Patience, Compassion and Love onto the surface of this planet, mixing into the lives of the people we contact and with whom we connect.  We bring God’s active involvement into our personal lives and our lives as a planet full of people.

The Choosing

If any person or group of people wants to bring more conflict with other people, more condemning of another group of people, more war among different groups, more killing of men, women and children – more hatred and fear of someone who is different – into the world, we can choose this activity simply by harming, judging, condemning, fearing, abusing, or hating the person we see either in front of us, next to us, far from us, or someone on the news channel.  This then becomes the act we add to our children’s lives, to our family member’s lives, to the lives of the people in our community, to the people of our nation and to the people on the planet.

At any time, we can choose to condemn different people more, judge different people more, kill different people more, be more violent to people we don’t want near us.  We can do this more and more, not just through our actions, but through the words we speak and write, through our beliefs about other people and our actions born from our attitudes which then become our real treatment of other people.

We can fear and hate, either the person sitting next to us on the plane who looks different, or the person who looks different on the other side of the planet that we only see on TV – all at the drop of a hat.  We can inspire others to hate through our written words and our spoken words in any avenue of writing (and now social media.)  We can return hatred to those people that already hate thereby increasing the hatred among more and more people in the world.  Look at the world and see how we have chosen the easy way of hating and fearing the person that is different.  No one of us is innocent of doing this.  And as Dr. Phil says, “And how has that worked out for you?”

When we fear and hate, our hatred and our fear within our hearts and minds, go hand in hand. They are two sides of the same coin. They are the right hand and the left hand to a body of living that we can choose simply by believing our own words of fear and our own words of hate.   Our fear feeds our hatred and our hatred feeds our fear. Anyone who fears and says they don’t hate is selling more fear and more hatred to any buyers.

Is Christ a real option?

Jesus was/is a real person.  Regardless of what the Bible tells us, we don’t know that much about Him.  We fill in the details with whatever we come up with in our minds, and from what other people come up with in their minds.   We even remake Jesus in our own image and likeness, sometimes.

Other times, we put Him so high on a pedestal that He becomes unreal.  When He becomes unreal, His guidance becomes unrealistic.  His teachings become unrealistic, and our beliefs about Him become unusable for any real-life situations.   We live day to day, and we don’t practice any of His teachings and guidance.

He was a real human being.  Perhaps not the human being that we’ve imagined, though.  He died from physical wounds and the blood loss.  Real people die from physical wounds and blood loss.  There were no EMT’s or Surgeon’s.  If we were in the same situation – a knife, a sword (not too many any more) a gun, a bomb, or the like, we also would possibly die from the blood loss  from wounds.

We may yet think of Him as an imaginary person.  Imaginary people don’t suffer or physically die.  Imaginary people go away and don’t come back.  Imaginary people aren’t around when you need real help.

But, to better choose Christ, we can start with entertaining the idea that He is a real person, like you and I – “one of us” – with Him walking down the street, or next to us, or waving as we walk by.  As a regular real person, His statement – “For man, it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26) gives us the room for something better to be hoped for and chosen.  This statement can give us hope that we can find it within ourselves to choose something better – with help from within – with God, a better choice can be chosen, from within.

Real people can act with kindness, gentleness and tenderness.  Real people can act with patience and compassion.  Real people, like you and I – “if God was one of us” – can choose forgiveness and mercy.  This is how we can choose Christ.  He chose to extend forgiveness, patience and mercy and still does.

Making a Choice

We can focus on continuing to choose to love-which takes making a decision, and then following up that decision with prayer asking for help to manifest the decision, and then following up that prayer for help with hard work – as anyone who is married, (one of many examples of an expression of love,) will tell you – continuing to love takes hard work.

On the other hand, in any one moment, in any one second, we can choose to hate and express that hatred through violence, through vengeance, through killing,…

or we can choose to love and express that love through patience, through faith, through kindness, through mercy, through more patience, through understanding, through prayer, through more prayer, and through the examples that we have already learned.  We can choose through any method that brings our minds and hearts back to the better side of human beings and away from the worst side of human beings – fear, hatred, and the like.

It is so, so easy to become just like those we condemn, those we hate, those we fear or those that are different. All we have to do is condemn others and justify the condemnation, hate others and justify the hatred, fear others and justify the fear.  The other side does exactly the same thing.

Deep within ourselves, we don’t want to be hate-filled and fear-filled. But, we choose that when we choose to return hatred for hatred – when we choose to return condemning of others with more condemning of others.

There will never be a day that we can stop hatred and violence in the world by opposing it using hatred and violence. We cannot add to the cooperation and unity among different people by adding more conflict and separation.  Whether it’s felt towards people next to us in the grocery line or someone on the opposite side of the planet – it is the same.  Thoughts of hatred and of condemning other people as well as thoughts of fear of those other people, find their way into how we treat the people in our own presence – the people sitting next to us on a plane or standing next to us in line.

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There is no difference between the violence of one person and the violence of another person.  There is no difference between the hatred and condemnation that one person has, and the hatred and condemnation that another person has.  Both people justify their own and both people say “God is on our side.”

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While the title refers to a “strict or strong” stance – sometimes an interpreted judgmental stance – in the Bible, I list it because it recognizes that we have freewill.   We will always have freewill.  We will always be able to choose.  Our response to all things in life is up to us.  We can choose life.

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The real God is the God of Infinite Love – the Love that existed before time, and which will exist beyond any imagined future.  The real Jesus Christ is the Christ of Infinite Love.  The real Spirit within all of us is the Spirit of Infinite Love.  We have within us more capacity for love than we currently choose to imagine and manifest.  When the time comes that we choose to imagine Infinite Love and choose to manifest Infinite Love, this world and all other worlds, as well, will change to One of Infinite Love, Infinite Kindness, Infinite Patience, and…

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“Those we pray for have God available in their lives in stronger ways than those we don’t pray for.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2016, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Render Unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s

In the US, this year, we’re having elections all over the place. Primaries and General Elections

Whether we feel inspired or discouraged, the main issue isn’t whether we’re feeling inspired or discouraged.  As people who care about the world we live in and hope to find ways to help, the real issue becomes whether we’re going to do what we can to help.  The real issue is whether we’re willing to try with what we have.

The ballot box is one way of trying.  Even if we don’t see many good and wonderful options in that ballot box – the issue becomes whether we’re willing to try to do what we can with what we have – or in this case – with who we have.

When we go into the ballot box, we’re not just saying “my vote counts”. We’re also saying, “I matter” – “I count” We’re saying I am one person and I matter in this world, in this nation, in this state, in this county and in this community. I matter. I touch this world. I am here.  I am alive.  I matter.

Granted, We may not be saying this aloud to anyone.  More often, we don’t even realize we’re saying it within our own self. But, we are.

If we believe that as individuals we can have value by being alive, then we count as an individual alive in our world, right now.

Some may ask me, “Jodie, if you know the future or know who is going to win, why do you vote?” My answer is always – because my opinions, my thoughts, my ideas, my feelings have value – maybe not to “you”, but they do to me. And I’m going to express them.  I matter and all of that which is within me matters.  The other answer is that peoples’ freewill choices can change.

Someone once asked me who I was voting for and I told him. He said I was throwing my vote away, because that person couldn’t possibly win. But, I voted for the person who I WANTED to win, not for who I thought could beat the other person. I voted for who I wanted in the office – not for who I thought had a chance to win against the other person.

To me, I wasn’t throwing my vote away, because I voted for the person I wanted to hold the office. Others have the strategy of voting against “the other person”, whomever it may be that could beat “the other person”.  I wonder how many people don’t vote for who they want to hold the office only because they don’t think this person could win. Instead, they vote for someone else because they vote against the other person – thinking this person could have a chance to win. This type of vote is common and it’s focus is – voting against a person, rather than voting for a person. They vote for who can prevent someone else from winning.

We all vote the way we want.

Final thoughts:  John Adams once wrote (paraphrasing here) “Either wise men will come forward to run for public office, or others will.”

I add this:  “Render unto Caeser that which is Caeser’s” also means contributing in our own way to being a part of the government system that we have accepted in our nation.   When wise men and women don’t come forward to run, we are left with those others that do run and get elected.  Being part of the citizenry, we still matter.  Our vote still matters even when we are called to do the best we can with who we have – those that run.

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PS.  Someone else (I don’t remember who) mentioned a comment that (paraphrasing again) “when the younger generations [or any of us for that matter] don’t get involved, don’t run for office or don’t vote, this becomes a statement saying to the world, ‘we want rich, white old men determining the direction this country should be going’ [and all it’s policies.]” Obviously that’s a lot of generalized negative opinions, but it is a noticeable comment, nonetheless.

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Falling Flat on Our Faces

Even though no one ever wants to do this – it’s embarrassing in front of others – it reduces our self-view – it gives us even one more chance to belittle ourselves – etc., etc., etc., it also has its good points.  Falling flat on our face has good points, if we look at it from a perspective of being on a spiritual path.

There are real benefits, or rather real things to learn with falling flat on our face.

  1. The experience gives us a very clear view from the inside out just exactly how it is for others who go through the “Falling flat on our face” experience.
    • This is probably the most important reason of all, because it helps us to experience what it is like to be a human being.  Human beings fall on our faces all the time – even with the act of walking a spiritual path.  While we talk the talk of “walking in someone else’s shoes”, the experience of FFOOF, or FFOYF (Falling Flat on Your Face) puts our feet in the shoes.
  2. The FFOOF experience helps us to see our fellow human beings “eye-to-eye”, instead of being “above them” (or below them).  All humans have all the qualities available to all humans.  (Remember that.)  Seeing ourselves and others “eye-to-eye” not only puts us on the same footing, but can actually show us that we’re bonded together among our fellow humans with the fact that we all have human experiences.  Human beings are alike, no matter where you go.  This includes the having of the FFOOF experience.
  3. The FFOOF experience can help us restart at “Go”, instead of pulling the “Go to Jail” card (in Monopoly).  When we’ve been throwing ourselves off balance with a skewed perspective of ourselves, (thinking we’re all “spiritual” and stuff) we can start over by once again, being human.  There is a phrase somewhere in the Edgar Cayce Readings that states, “God loves a soul that’s willing to start over.”
  4. The FFOOF experience allows us the chance to laugh at ourselves, while we dust ourselves off, and try again.  If we actually do have a sense of humor, we can get the best material for laughs by looking at ourselves when we puff ourselves up.  Human nature is the best place to go to get a good laugh.
  5. To learn to give ourselves a break.  Many of us beat ourselves up – a lot!  And we do so thinking that it’s justified and that we should beat ourselves up.  (Just be careful not to over do it.  If we’re going to beat ourselves up, we need to do it just the right amount – not too much and not too little – just the right amount of beating ourselves up.)  Once more, lesson #5 is “to give ourselves a break”.  We have eternity to accomplish it all.  Eternity.
  6. Okay, I’ll say it before someone else does.  Humility.  Put another way – eating humble pie.

I’m sure there are many more reasons why FFOOF is an opportunity to learn and grow… and laugh.  These are just a few.  For anyone who acknowledges that they are on a spiritual path, don’t try to avoid the FFOOF experience at all costs.  It’s meant to teach, and we’re meant to learn.  When we try to place ourselves above others, we throw ourselves off balance.  Thank God we have the FFOOF experience to help us back to our place of equality as a human being among all human beings.

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“Human Nature is the best place to go to get a good laugh.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1995, 2016, Jodie Senkyrik)

“We have eternity to accomplish this.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1997, Jodie Senkyrik)

“All humans have all the qualities available to all humans.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2016, Jodie Senkyrik)

PS.  Having Eternity to do something or figure something out can be very helpful.

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Thank You

I’ve been receiving a few emails and comments asking where I am or why I haven’t written in a while.  It is true, that I haven’t written an article in almost 2 months.  Thank you for your interest.

Needless to say, it has been an intense few months for me, but then I can say that about a lot of you readers, as well, can’t I.

For many, these past few months have been noticeably intense.  For the most part, this is a good time to remember meditation and prayer.  During challenging times, we benefit most from the help we get from Spirit.  When we put forth effort to be aware of our Spiritual Center and Spiritual Help, our Spiritual Help responds in kind.

And remember, through good times and bad, we’re in this boat together and like the Apostles while in the boat with Christ during the storm, we are never alone.

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“Come unto Me, and I will come unto you.” The Spirit Within During Meditation

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The Secret of Forgiveness

One of the most challenging acts to fulfill is forgiveness.  One of the most challenging people to forgive is our self.

Within ourselves, with inclusion of all the different levels of consciousness within our whole consciousness, we hold a full understanding of all things.  However, these unconscious store houses of understanding rarely come forward to enlighten us and heal us when we struggle with life.

It takes an extra effort – effort beyond what we know living our day to day lives.  It takes different effort to understand guilt, forgiveness and how these work.  Yet, this extra effort, once made, opens up aspects and experiences of healing, learning and loving that before we were unaware were even available.

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We start with this – the chains of guilt are all one chain – connected from our self going out to all life.  When we wrap others in the guilt we place on them, we wrap ourselves in the same chain.  When we place guilt or blame on anyone for anything, we are placing guilt and blame on ourselves for the same thing – even when we “think” (using our day to day consciousness) that we – our self – haven’t done the same thing as those we place guilt upon.  There is no escaping this.

Be aware that our day-to-day consciousness and memory doesn’t remember 99% of our life, does it.  It rarely ever remembers the things we’ve done in our recent past, or how we impacted the lives of those we’ve known all through this life.  Our day-to-day memory almost never remembers a single past life, much less all of our past lives, much less our lives outside of human existence, or before we entered into this human existence realm, or the realms and dimensions we existed in before we ever came to this Earth realm/dimension.

Very few, if any, remembers the infiniteness of our existence, much less the lessons learned and unlearned during this infiniteness of existence.

To say that we don’t deserve guilt that we then go on to place upon others speaks volumes to what we are aware of.  To say we feel guilt but don’t work to resolve it, also speaks to what we are aware of.  However, it also speaks to a potential beginning.  It speaks to a beginning – if we’re willing.

It can speak to the beginning of discovering how we came to wear the chains of guilt – and it’s not what you might think.

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The challenge to forgive ourselves of any failure, mistake, fault, crime, sin, or shortcoming is a challenge to pick up – a very difficult challenge.  It is a challenge that we don’t succeed at very often, (if we don’t have the willingness or understanding.)  It is an act which we don’t always feel within our minds, hearts and souls.

The way to forgive ourselves of xyz (anything) is to forgive everyone of the very same failure, crime, shortcoming, sin, etc.

The chain of guilt we place on ourselves, we have also placed on others.  Likewise, the chain of guilt we have placed on others, we hold up in the light of day showing their guilt, and then when the time comes – even without our awareness of this process – we forge this same chain for ourselves.  As I’ve said already, there’s no escaping this.

To help us learn what it’s like for other human beings – to help us learn what it’s like to be a human being, God will sometimes – and we ourselves sometimes – lead us to circumstances that give us opportunities to experience situations of failure and sin, of those with whom we’ve judged and condemned most vehemently.

Lifetimes can pass, and future lives can be lived, before the day comes that we experience that which led others to stumble and fall – which we condemned and called “guilty” and of which we chose to never let go.  But, as long as we hold onto chains of guilt for placing on anyone else, never letting them go for anyone under any particular circumstance, we are forging and holding onto the chain of guilt for ourselves, as well, and hence why it is so hard to let go of our own guilt – the chain of guilt which we forged and now wear on ourselves.  We’ve worn the chain for so long placing these chains on others, and only feel the chains when we feel the weight of guilt from recognizing that we’ve acted in a way that we, before, criticized and condemned – (and almost always is unremembered.)

Only when we let go of the chain of guilt we place on others are we also letting go of the chain of guilt we place on ourselves.  It is one chain.  Only then do we understand what it’s like for human beings to be human beings.  Only then do we understand how a person can act a certain way through unique circumstances which lead to making mistakes, stumbling and falling, sinning, or whatever we call it.

Does it always require us to go through the same experiences, situations and circumstances to learn how to do this?  NO.  No.  and no.

Only when we are unwilling to understand.  Only when we are unwilling to demonstrate patience, or compassion or mercy.  If we’re only willing to place guilt, shame, judgement, criticism, or condemnation, do we set in motion the path that will eventually lead us to learn the healing effects of forgiveness for ourselves and the others we condemned and judged.

If we’re willing to let go of guilt and shame, judgement, criticism and condemnation, we open ourselves to forgiveness and open others up to forgiveness.  Only with willingness, do we come to this process, and with willingness, we let go of the one single chain that binds us altogether to guilt.  If we’re willing to let go of holding onto the chain of guilt – towards others, we can let go of the chain of guilt that we held upon ourselves.  With our hands opened and empty of placing guilt, the chain falls for all.

Only then, with willingness, do we forgive our self, and others at the same time – letting go of the one and only chain that held all of us – all this time – the chain which we, ourselves, forged from placing guilt and condemnation onto others.

It adds another level of truth to the saying – All for one and one for all.  Holding onto the chain of guilt or releasing the chain of guilt is this way.  It is for all, including our self or it is for none.  This is the secret of forgiveness.  Forgiveness is for all or forgiveness is for none.  True Forgiveness is infinite.  Put another way, finite forgiveness – target forgiveness – individual forgiveness doesn’t exist except in pretend forgiveness.  Only Infinite forgiveness exists.  This is the forgiveness which God gives us, for when the day comes that we share it with others.

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“If you were to want to see a sign from God, would you rather experience seeing water turned into wine, or would you rather experience feeling deeply loved and forgiven?” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2014, Jodie Senkyrik)

“The world gets better when any of us says, ‘I’m willing to try –
to see what I can do to help.’  Not when we say, ‘YOU didn’t do enough.’ ” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

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The Prejudice We Don’t Know

Everyone knows prejudice – what it is – that it exists – that it contributes to the pain and suffering of human beings.   During our own lives and in our past, we’ve seen prejudice be at the core of oppression, suffering, and the killing of people.  We see it without trying to find it.

Like a ball, it has many sides.  Contrary to some beliefs, understanding prejudice is not a black and white understanding – either knowing it or not knowing it.  Recognizing prejudice is not a black and white experience – either seeing it or not seeing it.  Human prejudice is as visible and invisible as the human psyche and spirit permits.

This is partly because very few know how to cleanse themselves of prejudice.

This is because the real issue is never whether we are prejudiced or not.  As difficult as it is to read this statement, it is true.  The real issue is different.  The real issue is how do we cleanse ourselves of prejudice.

Imagine if God, in His/Her ability for Infinite Possibilities, one day when we woke up, had turned us from what we are in this world into another race or the opposite gender, or a different religion or sexual orientation or different nationality, an opposite or different… anything – than who and what we are right now – all while we stayed aware of all of this transformation.  In one moment, we went from one identity and paradigm of who we are to an opposite in the next moment.  Impossible, but not for God – since “it just happened.”

How would we feel being aware of who we were one moment and then being aware that we’re no longer who we were but we’re now the opposite?  Would we welcome it?  Would we dread it?  Would we be glad?  Would we be sad or devastated?

The real issue mentioned above is whether we could then be honest with ourselves, because we would come face to face with our true feelings, thoughts and attitudes of the “other” that is now our self.  Our feelings and attitudes would give our self away.

Within the awareness, within the body, within the mind or within everything of this opposite that we now are – would we feel it is a punishment? or would we feel it is a release from a prison?  or a prison sentence?  The next question becomes “Why?”  Why would we be glad? or sad?  Why would we feel it is a punishment? Why would we feel it is a release from a prison? or a prison sentence?

And there are other questions.  Are we now that which we had blamed, looked down on, hated or targeted?  Have we become someone who we would want to be?  Or are we someone who we would dread to be?

Targets

Ultimately, the question is ‘Have we ever thought, felt or acted against another person or group?  It is this person or group, who we thought, felt, or acted against that is our target.  Targeting anyone or any group is what prejudice is about.

Only when we take the journey of working on ourselves within, striving to have no one anywhere as our target – only then, do we strive to work to cleanse ourselves from prejudice of any kind- and cleanse ourselves from our judging another person or group who is not that which we individually are.

Who among us can claim we have cleansed ourselves completely of prejudice?  and then become the opposite of what we are – with no qualms or shame, or worry, with no gladness, no sadness and then go on to recognize that we are both the previous self and the opposite of our self – and both of these are our self.  Ultimately, in being prejudiced, we are only prejudiced, and have targeted, (and seek to limit, blame or hate) our own self.

Not being prejudiced is a journey of letting go of judgment of ourselves as much as it is letting go of judgment of others.  It is a journey of discovering that every one is our self, and our own self is everyone – including the ones we currently target, judge or hate.

If we choose to strive to cleanse ourselves from targeting anyone, we also strive to accept and welcome everyone as our own self and our own self as everyone – more importantly, we will have traveled a journey that leads us to accept our whole Self -that Self who contains all the opposites within one person even though the surface doesn’t show it, yet.

Is this possible to do for human beings?  As Christ said, “With God, ALL THINGS are possible.” even traveling a journey of discovering as individuals, who we really are.  With that discovery, hopefully being that we are all one another and therefore, we are all One.

Is this hard to understand? Sure, but cleansing prejudice is only done with effort to understand more things and greater things about people, than that amount we understand so far.  This takes effort and striving.

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Changing away from prejudice is a journey of “a thousand days.”  However, on a day to day basis – taking one day at a time – it is a light switch.  It is a light switch when we realize that we targeted someone yesterday, and we can choose to not target them on this day – today – not target another person or group of people through our words, our actions or our thoughts – today.

We can turn our journey into “1000 light switches” when we take our journey one day at a time, and choose only on this day, today – with each “today” which we are given – to target no person or group of people whatsoever based on that which identifies them beyond their own character.

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There was a movie made in 1970 called “Watermelon Man” which covered the experience of waking up as “a different man.”

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“The things we can do, are the things we’re willing to do.  The things we can’t do, are the things we’re not willing to do.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2016-2018, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Beware of Ignorance

Take a look at the world we live in. In looking at the world, look at what human beings’ pursuit of education has offered the world.  At the same time, look at what people’s lack of the pursuit of education – ignorance – has offered the world.  Which state of the mind has offered the best and which has offered the worst for mankind?

There are many that will criticize both – and in doing so, seek to justify their own position.  One might easily argue that it is education that created the atomic bomb and put the whole world in jeopardy.  One might easily argue that it is education that created weapons of destruction, which led to terrorism.  One might equally argue that this or that particular ignorance is the cause of this or that failure in the world.

But, it is ignorance that makes all these arguments.  It is ignorance that takes education and shapes it into tools to serve ignorance.  It is the ignorance in people that look at technology and think different technologies are either good or bad, instead of seeing that deeper within people’s hearts and minds that use technology lies the motivation for how technology is used – for good or for bad.  It is also ignorance that says that this or that shortfall is the cause of a certain problem that the world faces.

The greater ignorance of which I speak is the ignorance of all of humanity being one family.  I speak of the ignorance that we are all brothers and sisters.  This ignorance leads people to further their beliefs of separation based on subjective measurements – like where a person was born, or what color skin a person has, or what religion a person chooses.

While some may think these factors are important, they simply are looking at the surface measurements – which change as rapidly as time.  The boundaries of countries have changed throughout time and will continue, for all countries – all – in time.  The differences of the pigment colors in the skin are superficial, at best, and comparable to what size feet a person has, at worst.  Can you imagine if we chose our cultures and groups based on the size of a person’s foot?  or whether they have freckles? or if they’re left handed or right? or if they gesture with their hands when they talk?  In addition, the use of religious beliefs to separate different groups of people totally defeats the purpose of religious beliefs, which have been meant to help unify people, and not separate people.  Many people who have educated themselves on many religions see the vast number of similarities of religious principles.  The people who haven’t, see much less – the surface.

Education leads a person to examine deeper than the surface.  Ignorance leads a person to believe only what they see or experience on the surface.   Education takes work.  Ignorance is easy.  This is why we find it so easy to choose ignorance.

We all think that we choose education, because we’ve been to school.  Yet, schools aren’t exactly known to teach only truth – more often it is what is accepted in that particular moment in time.  To see this, we only need to compare what specifically was taught in schools 500 years ago, and what is specifically taught in schools, today.  Then looking further, compare what is specifically taught today, to what will be taught in schools 500 years from now.  (Don’t be fooled by the argument of ignorance saying, “We don’t know what will be taught in schools 500 years from now.” Anyone who looks deeper than the surface can come up with some understanding of what the future holds by looking at how education evolves and progresses.)

Beware of Ignorance.  We all have ignorance of some type within us.  All of us.  There is only one way to move away from ignorance – to continue to look deeper into all things – including our own hearts, minds and souls – educating ourselves throughout our entire lives – learning more about our own humanness, our own self, each other, what life is really meant to be about, how to enrich our own minds and hearts, how to interact in the Earth in better ways, how to love, forgive and join with others, how to move beyond our own chosen prison bars, and how to expand ourselves and the planet we live on.

The alternative is ignorance of ourselves, of our own hearts, our own minds, our own souls and our world – hearts, minds, souls and a world which, with ignorance, will shrink and eventually die from a starvation of life and growth.

To continue to learn requires choosing to learn more.  Learning requires informing ourselves and seeking out that which is beyond our current “paradigm” of understanding.  To learn and grow requires seeking beyond the surface of what we think is both true and false to test the validity of our beliefs. To fear to go beyond our own beliefs leads to ignorance.

Everyone is inspired, enlivened, and enriched by something.  Find what inspires, enlivens and enriches.  It will lead to knowing one’s self in ever deeper ways.

“Know Thyself.”

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Knowing One’s True Self

“My question is pertaining to knowing one’s true self and truth. How do we know we are making the right decisions and being true to ourselves and not just making a wrong, selfish decision? God is telling us things all the time, but how do I know which voice It is? The one that says “be true to yourself and go for what you are feeling right now ( this feeling overwhelms me)” or the one that says “are you sure you want to do this, the grass may not be greener on the other side, and people will get hurt in the process?” Its like a battle. How do I know the right way to go? Which voice is right?” M.

How do we know?  Through practice, practice, practice, practice and more practice. Life is not just a process of learning what God wants of us. It is a process of learning about our own self, in addition to common sense, understanding, and wisdom (eventually), and even with all this, learning that mistakes can be learning opportunities, also.

Think of this process, even this life as a “school-like” opportunity, not a tight-rope that one has to get perfect or else lose everything. This is why Christ is recognized as a teacher rather than a judge, jury and executioner. He is a gentle yet persistent teacher.

Our life is more like a school that gives us many, many opportunities to learn about how to live our lives with love from our hearts and what we’ve learned in our minds.

Some advice I encourage is:

  • Continue to practice having an open mind and an open heart. God can fill both of these.
  • Continue to practice the Fruits of the Spirit – like kindness, patience, mercy, forgiveness and more. God comes into this world in those moments that these are expressed.
  • When praying and meditating, pray for sincerity in one’s prayers.
  • And another: it helps to regularly ask ourselves, “Am I willing to learn, to love, to live, and to practice? Am I willing?”

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“If you can’t decide between the left hand choice and the right hand choice, then throw them both out and pick from the third hand.” The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1993, Jodie Senkyrik

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The Hidden, Yet Absolute Need for Humility

Our lessons come in many ways. In fact, there is no end to when something will come into our life from which we can learn – including for psychics.

I’ve been Clairvoyant for many lifetimes. I’ve worked at this ability each opportunity it comes. Yet, the learning continues even past today.

One of the lessons I learn is humility. For me, this lesson comes via learning that what I have to say and write is not for everyone. In fact, there are many people with whom nothing I have to say is for them. This is a very difficult lesson because I know that there are words of wisdom and help that will help heal every soul. The lesson is that it is not I that can give these words to them. In fact, for some, anything and everything that would come from me would be rejected even if it were exactly what would be needed. It would be, and is, rejected for the very reason that it comes from me.

This is the humility which I am to learn – that I am not the person able to help them. I am not the person that will give them light or learning or any words or concepts which will be the key that will unlock their chains.

This is a lesson that so many of us must learn – that we are not the person that will unlock the suffering for many others. Even Christ learned this lesson of humility – that even though He knew He could help, He also knew that some people rejected and would reject everything that He would give.

When He said, “Do not throw your pearls before swine”, He didn’t see people as swine – as “less than” any other soul. He saw the consciousness of the person as being someone who would no more hear, see or understand His words in a similar way that a farm animal could – a farm animal whose main focus is to eat and have babies. A farm animal is not open to understand the words of Christ. (For the record, even farm animals respond to kindness, to love, to patience, to compassion and to mercy.)

Human beings are not farm animals. They have the choice to have an open mind and open heart – open to all the Christ has to teach. All human beings also have the choice of having a closed mind and a closed heart. As you and I are, so are all other souls. We have the potential for making any and all choices.

There is a saying, “Don’t try to teach mathematics to a turtle. It will annoy both you and the turtle.” It is a lesson in humility, to recognize when we are not able to help. Perhaps all we can offer some souls is to pray that God be with them or bless them in whatever way they need. God alone has Infinite Insight into what will help another and how best to bless them.

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One of the best mantras to help with learning humility:

“It’s not about me.” K.G.

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Refugees?

When Jesus was born, He, Joseph, and Mary became refugees fleeing into Egypt to escape the threat of being killed.  The comment has been made that neither He nor Joseph and Mary were threatening to kill anyone.

In hindsight, we can hold to this comment, now, 2000 years later, because all that history is now written. But there were people who feared this child who they knew nothing about, and considered Him a very real threat – before the history that is known to us in 2015. They didn’t know what kind of threat He would be. Many considered that he would be like all the other threats and violently seek to overthrow the government since violence was how things were accomplished back then. They knew nothing about what He was really like and what He would really do. They didn’t know what kind of person He would become in their future. Even His apostles, who walked with Him every day didn’t know. One even thought He would eventually overthrow the Romans by violent means if forced to and tried to force that to happen.

The issue isn’t just “with any of the refugees that would come into the US is there a chance they would bring death into the US,” – ignoring the truth that theirs wouldn’t compare to the violence and killing we Americans do to ourselves. Death comes from all walks of life without any help from refugees. The issue is are we going to give them a chance for life.

No one can look into the hearts of another person and tell if they are good or bad – or like reality tells us – both – like all the rest of us human beings. God alone knows all of what is in a person’s heart. Can any one of us look at a stranger standing next to us, and tell which ones are the good ones or bad ones just by looking, what choices they’ll make in their full life, what they’ll choose to contribute to the US, what their future will be?

Can we look at ourselves and know what choices we’ll make tomorrow? We tell ourselves we would never kill from hatred, but we still fear and hate. We don’t live in any circumstance close that would put us in a position to know for certain. What if we lived in Nazi Germany in the 1930’s and 1940’s with our fear and hate – watching our children and family members that we love, shot or gassed – murdered – right next to us? Can any of us say we would still be our calm normal selves that we are in 2015 in the US under these circumstances or would we also find a way to kill based on our hatred of what the Nazis were doing to the person we love right in front of our face?

Look how easy it is to hate and fear someone else and then justify our own fear or hate. When we hate or fear anyone, in that same moment, we have then judged them to be bad, not based on any truth we know about the real person God alone knows them to be, but based on the fear we own and the unknown of their being a stranger, and the assumptions we come up with in our minds. We are always told to fear strangers growing up. Yet, we are those strangers also, to others, that others say to fear. Do we deserve the finger pointed at us to fear, also that we say others deserve?

It is this easy to say refugees should be feared. This easy. But, could it be that we fear more that our lives would be disrupted and changed? Can we say without refugees our lives would be safe? Or without refugees, our lives would be better? or without refugees, we won’t have certain problems? We do tell ourselves this in the back of our minds, don’t we.

The question isn’t just what will they give us, but what will we give them. We fear them bringing us death, and so it becomes easy to give them something similar first, screaming our choice “No” and washing our hands of the problem. We are now walking in the shoes of those in history, which, when we see them, we say, “I would never do that if I lived 2000 years ago.” And now we have before us a wash basin which a Roman soldier brings us with the citizens screaming their choice. The next step to “end all the citizens’ problems of fear or hate” is simply to say to the soldier, “Take Him to His fate.” turn to the refugee and say “I wash my hands of you, Jesus Christ.”

It is this easy to do it again.

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“We cannot build new roads to healing in our World, by just repaving the old roads of fear, prejudice or hate.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

“We can only build the new roads to healing in our World, by using the materials of faith in God, patience with others, forgiveness, showing mercy, compassion and demonstrating the Oneness of  life.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

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What Can I Do?

There really are very specific things we can each do when seeking how to respond to all the events  happening on the planet Earth, now.

1. Pray – when we start our efforts with the seeking of a greater communication and connection with the source of wisdom, intelligence, compassion, heart, understanding, patience, loving kindness, mercy and brotherhood – God – then we have a greater chance that our efforts will be healing, helpful, will build rather than tear down, will unite rather than create schisms, and will bring about a real and lasting result.

2. Meditate – when we meditate on the highest spiritual ideals within ourselves – Loving kindness, Peace for souls, cooperation, etc., this reconnects us to our own better parts of ourselves. This also helps to raise the consciousness level available in the world, especially when millions (and there are millions) of others are also praying and meditating for the higher level expressions of Mankind’s presence in this planet.

3. Work on myself, so that I’m not reacting automatically adding to the polarization, anger, blanket accusations, prejudicial statements and hate-filled rhetoric.  Acting responsibly is the ability to respond from a place better than that place where the problem was created.  This doesn’t happen automatically, though.

4. Join with others – when we join others with like hearts and minds, our efforts expand and become stronger in exponential ways. “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:20.  Joining with others strengthens our sense of belonging to a community, it strengthens our own resolve to keep on keeping on, and it strengthens the community as a whole.

Joining with others can also help us feel that we’re not alone in having feelings of great concern for dangerous issues and that we don’t have to face these challenges alone.

5. Pray again.

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Either Hatred or Brotherhood in the World

Our generation in life is in the unique position of seeing many examples of humanity’s expressing hatred. Several generations before us witnessed slavery. The immediate generation before us witnessed the Holocaust in Europe. And today’s generation witnesses terrorism in the world.

In each of these examples, someone can easily say that religion or a particular religion is at the center of these horrors or has brought them about. But this belief is equal to saying that the world is black and white. The world is not black and white.

When slavery existed, Christianity and the Bible were used by many to justify slavery. When Hitler came to power, he said the problem with Germany, Europe and the world was with the Jews. And today, people say the cause of problems is with Islam.

But, hatred and the spreading of that hatred was at the heart of these acts of horror inflicted upon human beings. Religion was an easy target to blame, an easy cloak to hide behind, and an easy tool to usurp to justify and rationalize hatred and the spreading of this hatred.

People who have always used religion in these ways, seek to demonstrate and bring forth their hatred to incite more hatred, so that hatred will grow in the world. As human beings we have the choice of whether we will create hatred inside our hearts and minds first and foremost. After it exists in the heart is when we, as individuals, look for what will justify and rationalize it. Those that choose to hate, then, will join together with others that choose to hate.

The world is not black and white. It is also the billions of colors in between black and white. Christianity did not create slavery, but the tenets of Christianity were manipulated by many to justify the agenda of slavery. The Jewish race was not the problem in Germany, Europe or the world. But, beliefs about the Jewish people were manipulated by many to justify their agenda. Islam is not a religion of hatred, but those that hate have manipulated its tenets – as other religions have been manipulated – to serve and spread the agenda of hatred – calling to others who also hate to join in hatred.

Bringing more hate into the world, by choosing to hate any group will not heal the world of hatred. Changing what is in our own hearts and minds will – because brotherhood, compassion and recognizing Oneness of Life can also spread from person to person in the same way that hatred might. It will always depend on what we – as individuals – choose to bring forth into the world each day we’re here.

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“God will never take away our freewill to choose our own path through life, even if it’s a horrible path.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

“God is not going to hate the people we hate and be bitter towards the people we’re bitter towards.  If we choose hatred and bitterness, we do so without God being with us.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

“For others, pray not against others’ freewill, against others’ right to choose for their own lives. Instead, pray that God’s presence, love, and energy, be with them, surround them and bless them, more and more every day, so they might draw from God when the time comes that they decide their own life.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Freewill and Judgement Question

I wonder how you define freewill, I’m a bit theologically curious. I don’t think God is as non judgmental as you seem to [think], and I think you are giving him a get out of jail free card on some things. And my bias is Christian…  V.

Thanks for the comment and question. (Here’s my answer.  I’m sure others would have other answers.)

More important than my understanding of freewill and more important than our differences in our beliefs is the question, “What do we do with our beliefs?”

The world will never have “Peace on Earth, and Goodwill towards all men” if we think we all must believe the same way, because that’s not going to happen.  But, if we look at the question of what do we do with our beliefs, or to what use do we put our beliefs, or how do our own beliefs serve us?, then as we answer this or these questions, our answers will determine how we treat and relate to God, ourselves, and each other.

If we use our beliefs to strengthen our kindness, our compassion, our understanding, mercy and forgiveness, our support, our encouragement, our willingness to hold the hand of those who need a helping hand, then we will find that the world does indeed gain more “Peace on Earth and Goodwill towards all men.”

But, if we use our beliefs to condemn, to criticize, to judge, or to carry out our own vengeance, or our own bitterness, resentment, or hatred, then we will not achieve that which Christ has come to establish.  We can use our beliefs to bury people in guilt and shame.  We can use our beliefs to symbolically stone people to death, until they despair and lose all sense of hope for themselves.  We can use our beliefs to chain and imprison people in blame.   We can use our beliefs in any number of ways to bury people under the weight of the entire world, if we want to choose that.

Regardless of what God chooses to do, to judge or not judge, we can choose, within our own hearts and minds, the beliefs, acts, thoughts and feelings which we want to follow and become who we choose to be.  This is how I define freewill – making a choice on our/my own actions, our/my own feelings, our/my own thoughts, and our/my own beliefs, and then following through with them.

This may seem to some people to contradict the fact that we live on a planet that has a system of justice and imprisonment.  This is a reality on our planet, but each of us still has the choice within us as to whether we condemn another or hate another within our own heart.  Even those that commit crimes, that go through our criminal system, and that are imprisoned – these men and women are loved by someone, and most certainly by Christ,  in addition to being the recipients of Infinite Love from our Infinite God, who also offers Infinite Forgiveness, Infinite Understanding, Infinite Mercy to you, me and everyone else.

This means that everyone, no matter what we, of our own freewill have chosen to act out, or think, or believe, — everyone is already worthy enough to be loved — with no exceptions — and no one can stop this love going to another person.  We can only stop what comes to ourselves.

When we realize this is for all of us, and let the Infinite Expressions of God come forth for all of us, then we have (to use the common phrase) “accepted the keys to the kingdom” – the keys to that existence where Infinite Forgiveness, Infinite Mercy, Infinite Understanding, Infinite Patience, Infinite Compassion and Infinite Love all exist and are ours both within and without.

But, wait, there’s more.  (Sorry, it was too tempting to write that sentence.)  We don’t have to wait until we die to accept this, because of our own freewill, we can choose – within our hearts and minds today to act, to think, to relate, to treat others from that place within us where God lives and where we can draw upon Infinite Mercy, Infinite Patience, Infinite Forgiveness, Infinite Understanding and Infinite Love when dealing with each other.  This is called, “creating a Heaven on Earth.”

God has given us freewill to make our own choices.  These choices of actions, feelings, emotions, thoughts, beliefs and more, – we make these choices every minute of every day.  As humans, we are a mixed bag of all of these, including being judgmental and condemning at times.  With that, it’s not unheard of our wanting God to follow our lead and be like we are, judging who and what we judge, rather than us follow Christ’s lead – being patient, forgiving and merciful – letting go of judgement.

Thank you, again, for your comments and question.  This is how I answer, and I’m sure it is very different than many others’ answer.

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“None of us understands God, as much as God understands God.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2014, Jodie Senkyrik)

“As we pray for others, so are we praying for ourselves.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2003-2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

“To successfully forgive, we must let go of the benefits we believe we get from NOT forgiving.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

“Feeling peace is not experiencing God.  Helping someone else feel peace is experiencing God.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Freewill, Religions and Atheism

Don’t get lost in the arguments and accusations about religions or Atheism. There are many, many people that are accusing the religion of Islam of horrors. There are many people that accuse Christianity, and there are many people accusing “any and all” religions and even the non-belief in God of being the source of the horrors we humans inflict on each other.

And don’t get confused about Atheism or the “belief in No God”. As strange as it might be to think —- we can very easily argue that Atheism is also a religion. It is a system of beliefs with its central foundation being “a relationship” or in this case – “Non-relationship with a non-God” with the only difference being that the relationship is a with a God they believe doesn’t exist. Whether Atheists believe God exists or believe God doesn’t exist isn’t the determining factor of whether Atheism is a religion. It’s the fact that there is a relationship. It’s just that in this case it’s with a deity to not-believe exists. All the tenets are still in place in the same way tenets for every “belief in a deity” based religion are in place. Atheism wouldn’t exist without the debate of whether God exists or not. Atheism centers around a God to not believe exists or to believe doesn’t exist, but it still centers around “a God” and another argument could be made for that “God” to be human beings, ourselves.

Because of all of this, we can easily argue that efforts made by atheists to change certain things related to religious references become efforts made to impose their “religion” onto others, and many times, in order to “save people from something” and in many cases, save people from other people of other religions from imposing their religion onto others.  Sound familiar?

So many *people* adhering to a certain religion say, “Don’t believe in that other religion’s God because our religion’s God is the one in which to believe.” (Notice I said – ‘people’ and not ‘religions’?) Atheism is merely saying “believe in our non-existing God.”

But, it really doesn’t matter at all, !!! whether Atheism is a religion or any of the other religions exist or not. And if you don’t read the remainder of this article, you won’t understand why it really doesn’t matter at all !!!

By itself, no religion, belief system, government system or any “system” is responsible for the horrors of mankind. Mankind and what we each – of our own freewill – choose to have in our hearts and minds, and then inflict upon others – mankind is responsible for the horrors of mankind. Religions, psychologies, philosophies, sciences, mathematics, type of government, ignorance and any and all ways of thinking in the brain, and ways of feeling in the heart, are tools which we human beings, who choose of our own freewill to have the hatred in our hearts, and violence on our minds, then put to use to further our agenda of hatred and violence. The hatred and violence doesn’t exist outside of us, it exists within us.

A person – any one of us, who has kindness in our hearts cannot have it legislated out of us. A person who is patient, gives forgiveness, shares their love, demonstrates mercy, compassion and understanding cannot have it forcefully and without permission removed from their heart by an outside force, a government or a religious organization. This is true of all of us. This person – any of us – can hold to any and all religions or belief systems and NOT bring about horrors when we choose to relate to others via this kindness, love, patience, mercy, and brotherhood.

Of our own freewill, we can choose to throw out the patience, forgiveness, love, mercy, compassion, etc from within our hearts and minds, and choose of our own free will, hatred, violence, revenge, selfishness, and self-aggrandizement instead.   No outside force or way of living can put kindness or hatred inside us or take kindness or hatred out of us.

So many times all of us, at some point or another, have done just this – of our own free will – thrown out forgiveness, tossed aside mercy or compassion. We have then justified it and rationalized these choices by using religion, philosophies, types of government, sciences, ignorance and any and all ways of thinking in the brain and feelings in the heart. The horrors of mankind don’t begin outside of us, they begin inside of us – in our own hearts and minds – of our own freewill – if we’re willing to have horrors within our hearts and minds. We then choose these horrors within us to motivate our actions towards others.

But, in the very next moment, we can change our mind.  We can then take hold of our own desire to bring kindness into the world.  We can hold onto our love for God and our love for anyone or anything, and with our freewill bring forgiveness and mercy into the world.  Of our own freewill, we can choose patience or look for understanding, or any of the other fruits of the spirit.  We can step back from our seemingly automatic bitterness and instead, be willing in our hearts to trade it for some quality which will help bring healing and peace into our relationship and our world.  In that moment that I’m talking about, we can change even our heart – if we’re willing to hold on and if we’re willing to change our hearts.

Every day, of our own freewill, we make choices that impact how we are in the world – how we relate to all other people. Each day we choose.  And regardless of what we chose yesterday, today we can change our mind and change our heart to choose better than hatred and all its horrors – if we’re willing.

Each day we choose life or death – we choose violence, hatred and revenge

or we choose kindness, love, patience, forgiveness, mercy and healing.

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“No one speaking judgement and condemnation, speaks for God.  No one speaking punishment or retribution, hatred or war, speaks for God.  The one speaking love, forgiveness, kindness, brotherhood, acceptance, patience and mercy –
this one speaks for God.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2015, Jodie Senkyrik)