Eternal Life

About a year ago I bought a book by John Shelby Spong, radical Anglican bishop from the United States. I had read a couple of his other books over the last couple of years, including Sins of Scripture. While Spong is a thorn in the side of conservative and maintstream Anglican/Catholic churches... my sense is that he is a prophet ahead of his time. He sees something else that the majority of Christians don't see. If he had been around a couple of hundred years ago, he probably would have been labelled a heretic!

His latest book is titled Eternal Life: A New Vision. I thought it would be about heaven and hell, and all that good stuff. Which it is... but first he gets there in an interesting way. He suggests that the old vision of a supernatural God who is "out there" somewhere judging us as good or bad, is a vision that has run out of steam. Essentially, religion as we know it is dead. God is very much alive, but not in the way God has been portrayed in traditional religions. In fact, God is alive in you and in me. God is us and we are God.

Which is right in line with the direction I've been headed for the past few years. Amazing how books find you when you are ready. Each and every one of us has the divine spark within us... and it's amazing to look around and see how many other people have that same sense. A lot of those "New Age" writers - Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Neale Donald Walsch, Debbie Ford - they all point in the same direction. And now Spong is pointing there as well, but from a Christian persepctive. He actually goes back to the Christian mystics like Meister Eckhard and Teresa of Avila... they have the same sense...

So, ultimately, it all comes down to meditation and contemplation and being silent and still and connecting with the vastness within ourselves. Nothing "out there" is going to alter us... only everything that is "in here" which is infinite...