GOD DID THIS, BUT I AM UNDERSTANDING AND HURTING
John Sileo
September 03, 2005
I have known for some time what was missing from my life, a strong knowing of God’s existence. Since I got it several years ago, the full extent of what exactly I was missing ballooned up in my face: Spiritualism. It’s about our feelings, not our thoughts. And that changed so much in my life.
With that came two abrupt and sharp realizations that settle deeply after Katrina. If you don’t agree with these two realizations, you will have a hard time understanding what I have to say.
One: God did this. Two: We are a spirit first before we have a physical component (our bodies are adapting to our spirits rather than our spirits adapting to our bodies.
Materialism works against Spiritualism
I see society in a great shift from mostly spiritual thinking and partly physical thinking (or material) to mostly material and partly spiritual. I was like that but, for some reason, I changed abruptly. The change in me so deep I can only describe it as a resocialization of my very personality. It brought a new and unusual perspective on the history of American consumerism and our rise to wealth and power. We are a consumer culture say the experts. Before I thought, “whatever that means, OK”. Now I am worried about what I would have become had I continued on the path of materialism.
It’s very clear to me now, in a way that is thrilling and rejoicing, how bad I was thinking. Things weren’t doing it for me but I fiercely knew they were. They weren’t.
I am not in that societal shift anymore and I think many others are going though the same thing.
Hurricane Katrina brought tears to me. And I mean bad. I can’t keep the tears down for the city of New Orleans, the coast, rural southeast America, and the people and infrastructure that must account for a failure of epic proportions. The pain for those who couldn’t get food and water when it was available beckons worst. Somebody made the wrong decision about distributing those rations. They should have been distributed evenly and by hand at the outset. Past that, the guilt lies with all of us for misplanning and making bad judgements. I would say, however, that guilt lies primarily with our leaders who make the final decisions.
I think many times I cry because the truth of my spiritual life overtakes the cloudiness of my physical life. Our hearts and feelings are smarter than our brains and thoughts.
With these two realizations, or beliefs, emerge one question. Why, but not with an accusing, finger-pointing attitude like it’s not right what happened. It’s bad, ugly, and hurtful, but it’s right. The accusatory why doesn’t fully accept that God made this storm.
A mass of water vapor and heat did not do it. Those are the physical components only. They are separate from what actually makes the storm exist. And that is God working is some way we don’t understand. To ask why is to try to understand the impossible. The mystery of life did this.
Instead, I identified well with those who said, “if God exists and is so good than why does he allow natural disasters.” I never fully accepted that but I was headed there. I was closer to that thinking than the other side.
In my belief, I can feel that our spirits are trying to fit into a body and God is leading the effort. If I am right, (I certainly can’t prove it) then I can imagine the difficulties of it. I have this feeling because of my realization that our spirit trumps our physical existence. I realize churches exist to explain these things but I have feelings that are rooted in my spirit. I can feel this. God is doing something hard, fitting a non-spiritual existence onto a body. The paths of the earth are synonymous with the paths of God. And if God controls the earth then it is doing good, even when it hurts badly. But most people I know thought more like I did. I said God was there but I really didn’t believe. I couldn’t feel it down deep.
What I hope to convince others of is that it was God, not a nervous group of dark clouds, who drove Katrina to existence. Science can’t prove that just as science can’t prove you love your mother or spouse or children. Love exists in reality despite proof.
I only believed that weakly and now I believe it strongly.
So the question for me is a non-accusatory why. More like, “what is the intention for us to learn by this”.
I have my opinion just like everybody else about that, but I have no real reason to share it since I think I am probably far off from the truth. My idea has to do with the simple fact that the earth can’t sustain our current world population. It’s a bit complicated and of little consequence since I am not sure of it. You can know such things. That is the job of religions. They exist the world over to formulate an educated guess at God’s doing, but they are all just ideas.
I do know, however, that our spirit, and the whole spiritual world, will eventually be more fully revealed. Along with spiritual development, our knowledge of God will increase. Materialism and the belief that a storm caused this is inaccurate a step in the wrong direction.
I am crying for you. Oh New Orleans, I love the people only slightly more than I love the city. God Bless You. May the saints carry you now.
With that came two abrupt and sharp realizations that settle deeply after Katrina. If you don’t agree with these two realizations, you will have a hard time understanding what I have to say.
One: God did this. Two: We are a spirit first before we have a physical component (our bodies are adapting to our spirits rather than our spirits adapting to our bodies.
Materialism works against Spiritualism
I see society in a great shift from mostly spiritual thinking and partly physical thinking (or material) to mostly material and partly spiritual. I was like that but, for some reason, I changed abruptly. The change in me so deep I can only describe it as a resocialization of my very personality. It brought a new and unusual perspective on the history of American consumerism and our rise to wealth and power. We are a consumer culture say the experts. Before I thought, “whatever that means, OK”. Now I am worried about what I would have become had I continued on the path of materialism.
It’s very clear to me now, in a way that is thrilling and rejoicing, how bad I was thinking. Things weren’t doing it for me but I fiercely knew they were. They weren’t.
I am not in that societal shift anymore and I think many others are going though the same thing.
Hurricane Katrina brought tears to me. And I mean bad. I can’t keep the tears down for the city of New Orleans, the coast, rural southeast America, and the people and infrastructure that must account for a failure of epic proportions. The pain for those who couldn’t get food and water when it was available beckons worst. Somebody made the wrong decision about distributing those rations. They should have been distributed evenly and by hand at the outset. Past that, the guilt lies with all of us for misplanning and making bad judgements. I would say, however, that guilt lies primarily with our leaders who make the final decisions.
I think many times I cry because the truth of my spiritual life overtakes the cloudiness of my physical life. Our hearts and feelings are smarter than our brains and thoughts.
With these two realizations, or beliefs, emerge one question. Why, but not with an accusing, finger-pointing attitude like it’s not right what happened. It’s bad, ugly, and hurtful, but it’s right. The accusatory why doesn’t fully accept that God made this storm.
A mass of water vapor and heat did not do it. Those are the physical components only. They are separate from what actually makes the storm exist. And that is God working is some way we don’t understand. To ask why is to try to understand the impossible. The mystery of life did this.
Instead, I identified well with those who said, “if God exists and is so good than why does he allow natural disasters.” I never fully accepted that but I was headed there. I was closer to that thinking than the other side.
In my belief, I can feel that our spirits are trying to fit into a body and God is leading the effort. If I am right, (I certainly can’t prove it) then I can imagine the difficulties of it. I have this feeling because of my realization that our spirit trumps our physical existence. I realize churches exist to explain these things but I have feelings that are rooted in my spirit. I can feel this. God is doing something hard, fitting a non-spiritual existence onto a body. The paths of the earth are synonymous with the paths of God. And if God controls the earth then it is doing good, even when it hurts badly. But most people I know thought more like I did. I said God was there but I really didn’t believe. I couldn’t feel it down deep.
What I hope to convince others of is that it was God, not a nervous group of dark clouds, who drove Katrina to existence. Science can’t prove that just as science can’t prove you love your mother or spouse or children. Love exists in reality despite proof.
I only believed that weakly and now I believe it strongly.
So the question for me is a non-accusatory why. More like, “what is the intention for us to learn by this”.
I have my opinion just like everybody else about that, but I have no real reason to share it since I think I am probably far off from the truth. My idea has to do with the simple fact that the earth can’t sustain our current world population. It’s a bit complicated and of little consequence since I am not sure of it. You can know such things. That is the job of religions. They exist the world over to formulate an educated guess at God’s doing, but they are all just ideas.
I do know, however, that our spirit, and the whole spiritual world, will eventually be more fully revealed. Along with spiritual development, our knowledge of God will increase. Materialism and the belief that a storm caused this is inaccurate a step in the wrong direction.
I am crying for you. Oh New Orleans, I love the people only slightly more than I love the city. God Bless You. May the saints carry you now.
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