A Note from Neale...

Hello my wonderful friends...

When it comes to anything having to do with God I have been blessed with absolute faith. I am utterly convinced that (a) there IS a God; (b) God is "on my side"; (c) the power of God can be used at all times in the creation of my inner reality and my outer encounters with life.

Because I believe this, the idea of my having the Holy Experience is not even a little bit of a stretch for my imagination. I know that this experience exists and I feel sure that I can have it. I am convinced that I am going to have it. I believe that everyone has the opportunity to have it. I believe that it is ours for the asking.

The result of this is that I enter into the Holy Experience on a regular basis. My next goal, my next step, is to remain in it much longer; to live in it, to have my being within it and to come from it in the day-to-day of my life.

If you are in this place of mind as well, or if you can go to this place now, you have taken the first step toward having the Holy Experience. Yet how can you go to this place if you do not know that it exists, or doubt that you are worthy of being there? Those are the key questions. Let's take the second one first.

This may very well be the biggest stumbling block of all. At first blush you may think that not many people believe themselves to be "unworthy" of holy encounters (or of much of anything, actually), but you would be amazed to find that low self-esteem and lack of self-worth are among the most prevalent mental and emotional afflictions (along with loneliness) suffered by people in the world today. This is especially true in terms of our relationship with God.

Why?

It is really quite simple.

Many millions of people have been raised to believe that they were born in "original sin." Insofar as God is concerned, they were unworthy at birth. This is what many have been told by their religion. Therefore "unworthiness" is, for many people, an article of faith. Not to believe in one's own unworthiness is not to believe in the Word of God.

Other religions teach us, as well, that we are all sinners, and while they may not claim that we were unworthy at birth, they now pretty much agree that life in human form has turned us into less-than-perfect beings, unworthy of sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty unless we are perfected, or "saved."

Indeed, most religions, not only just a few, teach that some form of purification is required in order to qualify for entry into the Kingdom of Heaven. Paradise, it seems, comes at a price.

We must all, we are told, repent of our sins and walk the narrow path. How many of us have done so with sufficient success to meet the requirements of God is arguable — or so conventional wisdom goes.

It is not difficult to understand, given these continuous teachings from our elders, how it comes to pass that millions upon millions of people do indeed think of themselves as unworthy to meet God — and meeting God, of course, is what the Holy Experience is all about.

More next week.