Tell me how this God of yours works?

Seems like a great number of folks believe that if they believe in a “Saviour” God, then God will save them from bad decisions, taxes, and overeating. Others believe in one of those “Redeemer” Gods who will liberate them from bad relationships, bad governments and inclement weather. “Destroyer” Gods are less popular today although remain extremely central in certain social and religious circles.

What strikes me as odd is the segment of our society who define themselves as “non-religious” yet continue to foster a relationship with “Spirit,” “Source” or “A Higher Power” who will still somehow do everything for us. This has been popularized by the Law of Attraction and various programs of manifestation that become so oversimplified as to promote a similar projection of responsibility as the great religious traditions who suggest that if we place our faith in their God, then things will just work out.

While I am a firm believer in the notion that thoughts become things, I have not relinquished my relationship with my rational mind, personal experience and twelfth grade physics.

I believe in God. I do not, however, believe that God will do things for me that I do not want to do for myself! God is not my “Four Hour Work Week.” God is not my winning lottery ticket. God is not choosing the right candidate in an election.

God is my PARTNER.

We co-create. We manifest stuff together. We negotiate contracts, discover relationships and find parking spots together. God is literally my co-pilot.

I believe in personal responsibility. I know that when I make a decision rooted in a low frequency of my SELF that it will likely lead to low frequency outcomes. God, my understanding of God at least, doesn’t appreciate being a part of low frequency business deals, relationships and various other life contracts. God will reluctantly go along with some of these decisions because God loves me and wants to be supportive, but God will not use the vastness of God’s abilities to turn water into wine and make a lemon turn into a Ferrari just because I am a good person.

On the other hand, having God in my court is a huge plus. When I realize I have made a decision that is counterproductive; when it becomes clear that I’m not living at my highest frequency, it is really nice to have God around to consult with and recalculate the plan. God is always there for me when I need support. That feels really good.

While I don’t align myself with the billions of atheists on the planet who believe that God is an escapist fantasy, I do understand how it must seem to them when so many millions of people resort to their faith in God to fix what needs fixing in their lives.

To me, faith is a wonderful supplement to some good old fashioned common sense, hard work and smart choices.

“Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else.” – Judy Garland

One of my favorite things as a boy was not just riding the train into NYC, it was reading comic books based on NYC’s greatest heroes on the train to Gotham City. My scrawny, little body felt incredibly vulnerable walking through the streets of one of the best cities in the world, its tall shadows splashing all around me. My connection, fantasy if you prefer, to Gotham’s great heroes somehow gave me an extra degree of confidence. Perhaps it was the belief that I could one day be fearless like Superman, bold as Batman or as agile as Spiderman. The line between fantasy and inspiration is sometimes quite thin.

These were superheroes, characters dedicated to protecting the average public citizen from negative forces in our midst, typically those who would foster evil intent to harm the innocent. The “average” superhero operates from a clear moral code based on the premise that it is admirable and generally appropriate to risk one’s own personal safety or comfort in the service of protecting and supporting the health and well-being of others.

Heroes like Superman, Spiderman, Batman and Wonder Woman not only did good in the world, they also did their best to avoid actually killing the bad guys. The modus operandi was to stop bad people while not adding to their depravity by hurting them more than was necessary to stop their destructive activities. Most of the superheroes I grew up with seemed to submit to an unspoken understanding of this ethical consideration. It was almost as if there was some universal code of conduct that they all just knew.

I spent at least ten hours each week as a boy receiving religious instruction, training in “upright behavior,” moral selflessness, and fostering the commitment to protect, nourish and nurture our particular religious community. Much like the “costumed crime fighters” without superhuman powers like Batman and Robin, folks like Moses mostly had to do good in the world without the aid of X-ray vision, superhuman strength or speed. Granted, with parting the Red Sea and all those plagues it would seem like he would be elevated to superhero status. However, we were taught that Moses was just the messenger, a conduit, for the will and power of God. Messenger and angel notably share the same word in Hebrew, but that’s for another day…

Another prototype for the common hero in my upbringing was that of the common person who develops her potential through self-development, overcoming obstacles and tapping the unique, mysterious powers that lay dormant within until, unleashed with purpose and intention, they are transformed forever. Examples of these heroes were Luke Skywalker, The Karate Kid, and even Dan Milman in the “Way of the Peaceful Warrior.”

Luke Skywalker, for example, grew up a normal kid until a series of events occurred which challenged his beliefs about himself and the world. He is called to reframe what were childhood fantasies about greatness and enters a process of individuation and empowerment that serves to unleash his inherent, authentic power. This paradigm for rising above the low hum of mediocrity and working hard to develop the superhero within, this is the worldview that has most permeated my experience and outlook as an adult.

I have come to believe that we create our future by aligning our stories and our paths in the world with our soul’s purpose. I believe this is almost always accomplished in relationship with those qualities we are here to express and with our natural gifts, talents, beliefs, moral code, passions and essentially, those things that foster delight. The notion of one’s purpose existing in direct alignment with our innate, super-human gift is in many ways how I have integrated my love for comic books, fantasy and science fiction with my own work in the world. I sincerely believe that we each have a bit of superhero within us. It just takes some work to draw it up from the depths and what is more, it takes guts to wear that “S” on our chest.

A common theme between the frames of most comic books and “other worlds” from the Hobbits’ shire to Luke’s home planet Tattooine, is the belief that we are all One; that there exists one all powerful force that binds the entire universe together. It is, as the Jedi believe for example, “an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together.” This is a concept that most religions of the world espouse. Some refer to this energy as their deity, some refer to it as a life force, but the one thing nearly all religions agree with is that there exists a single unifying force.

In the Star Wars saga, for example, there are two sides to the Force: the dark side and the light side. As the great teacher/hero/role model, Yoda, suggests: “Beware the dark side… The dark side leads to fear. Fear leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Good versus Evil is a common element throughout most religions. Think of the ubiquity of the serpent and the Garden of the Evil; how it has penetrated both non-fiction and fantasy for centuries. Think of the temptations Jesus faced in the desert. Issues of good versus evil, right versus wrong, permeate the doctrines of almost all organized religions. Most religions also attempt to differentiate between that which is right and wrong, thus establishing a moral code.

And yet, oftentimes organized religions assert moral codes that don’t resonate with every member of the group. What is more, outsiders, and sometime insiders of a specific religion, begin to judge the code by something believed to be more powerful, more innate: an intuitive ability to know what is right and wrong. This is the superhero’s innate knowing as much as the Jedi’s belief, for example, that morality, i.e. good and evil, are all axioms of the Force and that we must listen carefully to the Force so that we will always know the right thing to do.

So, beyond the unfurling capes and extended staffs of power we are left still wondering about these worlds we fabricate on paper in order to understand our own multi-dimensional universe. Do we, like the Jedi, possess a clear “intuitive ability” to discern between good and evil, right and wrong? If we tap into the Force, to Life, to God…, are we thus hooked in to the clarity of trans-planetary consciousness?

If humans created every paradigm under the sun, each worldview and doctrine from the Biblical to the Fantastic, then could it also be suggested that on some inherent level we each possess the ability to know everything?

Yet…we struggle. We falter. We stray so far from clarity at times it would seem we are as far from the Knowledge of Good and Evil as anything imaginable. Or worse yet, if we really do have access to the ONE consciousness that discerns between right and wrong, good and evil and we still CHOOSE to do evil…mindfully, with intent…Oy.

Consider the heroes we raise up in our culture today as teachers, role models, cautionaries…? For example, there is great discussion of late as to the legacy of Oprah Winfrey. Her recent departure from public television has opened the door for many to ponder her contribution to society and a great deal of negativity has been focused on her mission and delivery. Clearly, to many millions of men and women around the world, Oprah was, is and will be, a heroine. She has undoubtedly done much to enlighten, educate and inspire people to live their best lives and move through the places they are stuck.

What I find fascinating is the fervor with which some focus on those elements they feel she has missed her mark. She insulted or demeaned her guests, downplayed real issues and elevated other less important concerns, etc. Some critics have gone as far as to suggest that Ms. Winfrey was simply all about herself, her ego, her bank account, etc.

What I don’t understand is how any of us can truly determine what Oprah was hearing when she tuned in to her Source? While no one elected her to teach and disseminate wisdom, she volunteered herself as a teacher and we listened. Millions listened. Millions claim they felt more kinship with Oprah’s approach to life than the religious doctrines with which they were raised.

How do we know that Batman followed the proper moral code when he dropped out of the sky and dispensed justice. Wonder Woman never seemed distracted by questions of ethical responsibility, feminism, social justice, political corruptness, etc. She simply acted decisively based on her conscience and the code to do good in the world.

Marc DiPaolo, assistant professor of English and film at Oklahoma City University, explores the political leanings, sexual preferences and ethical underpinnings of superheroes found in popular culture. His book, “War, Politics, and Superheroes: Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and Film” studies popular superheroes from Superman to Wonder Woman, tracking their influence on and from feminism, Civil Rights and ethnic violence.

I’m not sure DiPaolo’s study of the morality code inherent in comic book superheroes is any less relevant than the eschatological diatribes I studied in Divinity School which deconstructed our planet’s great religious tomes.

Consider the short list of my historical heroes from the past century: Albert Einstein, Martin Buber, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert Kennedy, Carl Jung, John Lennon. One could easily make the case that each of these figures was somehow “tapped in” to a universal flow of consciousness, or Force. We can also, as many have spent countless hours so doing, uncover all the reasons that these people were not superheroes. They cheated, lied, molested, maligned, misrepresented until the cows came home. Yet, their contributions to our world have been profound and well above the baseline.

A rabbi once told me that the higher a person rises in their consciousness, the greater their shadows become; the more insidious are the forces enlisted that create challenges for them on their path. I can only imagine the shadows tormenting figures like Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. One of the things I liked most about comic book superheroes was that they were in fact more realistic characters, full of contradictions and foibles. The Dark Knight, for example, struggled with his own demons as he actively fought the more clearly defined, external ones. Who knows what Oprah really struggles with when she is not in front of the camera? Does her good in the world become diminished because of what she’s not telling me? Does her good in the world become diminished because of something she says that rubs you the wrong way?

I consider my own journey to construct a life where I am in a position to support others in transforming their lives in a positive way. While at times it may be constructive and appropriate to disclose or share my own challenges around a particular area of interest for a client, there are plenty of instances when discussing my own struggles about a thing can actually be damaging. Does it make me a hypocrite if I encourage healing for a person who has enlisted my services in an area that I am also challenged? Does it take away from my ability to heal or the gifts I possess in helping others if I don’t disclose to you all of the things I have handled poorly in my own life?

On the contrary, I believe healing is a partnership. Healing emerges through the relationship between you and I. Transformation for you in your work translates to a beautiful likelihood that it will influence my own work and my own healing. Change is collaborative. Change is a factor of relational process.

I believe Oprah was engaged in a relationship with her viewers that was as imperfect as any of our personal relationships are beautifully, perfectly, imperfect. I can only hope that I helped Oprah heal as much as she helped me and millions of others heal.

I know most of us can sense when there is a disturbance in the Force and I have never gotten a bad vibe from Oprah. She is a jedi as were Gandhi, MLK, and John Lennon. Rather than focus on the imperfections of our heroes (and potentially discounting their ability to do good in the universe as a result) I recommend leaning toward the Force and simply nodding mindfully when one feels a slight disturbance here and there. I hope you would do the same for me.

When I was a boy, I was all hung up on Bruce Jenner. Before he became the Guardian of the Kardashians, he was the epitome of the all American athlete, winning this “athalon” and that “athalon…” When my father informed me that Jenner grew up not far from where we lived in suburban New York, his status was crystallized in my superhero driven mind.

While I didn’t actually watch the Olympics when he competed, he seemed to show up on every cereal box down the “crunchy fun” aisle, from Wheaties to Special K, and he became an instant hero. Bruce Jenner was a real life Superman. I knew Superman didn’t really exist but Bruce Jenner did.

At the same time, a new brand of sneaker called Zips came onto the scene with a particularly flashy ad campaign. Tween boys would slip on a pair of the special shoes and take off into the sky like home grown super heroes. I wanted Zips (with the BIG ‘Z’) on my feet because I required the added speed they would surely provide thus allowing me to run like the wind around my block for hours. I was seven years old and I honestly believed the claims they made on TV that they would double my speed. I was already crazy fast, but double? Faster than a speeding train?

My mother, against her better judgment and far above the modest cost of my usual pair of Keds agreed to get me the magic running shoes at Marshall’s Shoe Store. I had them out of the box and on my feet before we pulled into the driveway. It was a warm summer day and the sun (as well as the son) still had some legs before dusk. I reassured my mother that I’d be back around the enormous block in no time…I now possessed the proper equipment to optimize my performance.

Whoooshhhhaaaaaa! I was like lightning out of the gate.

I was sure I could feel my new sneakers lift the rubber soles above the sweltering pavement helping me achieve a supernatural cruising altitude. I already envisioned my beaming face on the Wheaties box, relishing the jealous stares of every little boy around the breakfast tables of America.

I was on fire.

Until I hit the Wall.

My wiry, little legs pumped faster and harder than they had ever experienced previous to Zips Day and they suddenly, simply, said “No.”

“But…? But, I have the Zips now?”

“No. Done. Over. You’re a scrawny little kid and it’s hot out and there’s that German Shepherd growling and did you really think plastic shoes would make you faster? You’re done. Just stop. Walk it on home. Retire while you’re at your peak.”

By the time I made it around the block and back to the driveway, my mother was leaning against the car, waiting.

“So?”

“They don’t work,” I said.

My Zips spent the rest of their short life in the Closet of Effective Marketing and Irreconcilable Dreams.

Since then I have experienced a complex relationship with running.

I tried running away from home. I ran toward the bus on the first day of grade school. I ran around in circles for High School Track and Field. I ran through forests and streams on the Cross Country team. I have run toward women, sprinted past them and scrambled frantically away. Running has been a significant part of the journey, any way you scissor-kick it.

Yet, always, the process of running; the thrill, ecstasy, passion and perspiration has been visited by the Wall. The voice of negativity and reason, low self esteem and broken records; my Wall is the accumulated shadow for all of my life’s great accomplishments, lurking…prowling…waiting to pounce on the first sign of false hope, misguided focus and lactic acid.

So, why do I continue to run? Through injuries and shin splints, muffin tops and fat tires…? Why do I accept facing the Wall every time I strap on my Nike Plus and unleash the hip hop?

There’s something about running that is more integral a part of me than the feet I use to run with because it demands a connection between my heart, mind and body. I must not only get past the pain and just plow through the Wall, I must uncover the joy of feeling my fullness, my wholeness, my whooshing being, in dialogue with the world around me.

In truth, I have lived the greater part of my life living on the Wall, whooshing back and forth between ecstasy and disaster, optimism and pessimism, trust and disgust.

If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.

“I’m Sorry You Weren’t Saved in the Rapture.”

Thus reads the official blog for Judgment Day 2011. The automated blog post was intended to be an “I told you so” to survivors of Judgment Day and an attempt to have us left behind find our way to Jesus and save our souls before the second wave hits.

While Harold Camping, the retired civil engineer turned prophet, still has not officially emerged from seclusion there have been several pastors across the country asking for forgiveness from parishioners due to the misguided information.

Matt Ivers from Idaho offers this apology:

“I am very sorry for wrongly teaching that and it is my best and sincere interest to not mislead, frustrate, or lie to anyone. I hope that you can forgive me and that we can all grow spiritually from this lesson.”

I think it would be wonderful to all grow spiritually from this experience. For starters, I’d like us to become more conscious and responsible about the things we say.

One of the most fascinating things about this whole Rapture business is how many of us sat up and took notice. Like the prophets in the Old Testament, our contemporary prophets are not always dialed in to the exact truthiness of a thing. But, wow, do they have passion. When someone believes something with all of their being, it is hard not to stop and marvel at it, wonder how it came to be that they feel so strong about it and decide for myself if I, too, am of the same mind.

However, many of us push our way into the “fields” of other people and attempt to manipulate their organic decision making processes.

George W. Bush looked very sincere, even earnest, about Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD’s) but he wasn’t passionate. It was Colin Powell, who I actually trusted, that was most convincing because of his character. “Well, maybe they do have them,” said the part of me that wants to trust others…

Renowned scientist, Stephen Hawking, came out publicly last week and suggested that the only reason he is still alive today is due to science. It makes me wonder.

“I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

Hawking, the 69 year old physicist, is much like Albert Einstein in the latter years of his life, offering his $.02 about humanity, God and what, if anything, might come beyond this life.

What troubles me, however, is the arrogance that tends to accompany such declarations. Many of us believe that we think a certain way, therefore it must be so. There tends to be a dismissal of the possibility that I may be wrong, that I may be influenced by my emotions, my personal journey, and that, most important, others may believe and “know” things that directly conflict with things that I “know.” And what is more, it tends to be those already in the public eye that have the greatest impact on our beliefs. Yet, with the power of the Internet, we hear from all sorts of folks now.

There is a spiritual pride that many believers assume when they know something. There is also a pride that many non-believers assume when they know something. That pride tends to resemble straight arrogance when we assume that because I know it, you must know it as well. Even more, if you refuse to know it, you are either an idiot, ignorant, or going to burn in Hell.

Whether my computer will simply power down into nothingness at the end of my life or if I return to a conscious state of endless bliss and everythingness, my process of self-discovery and transformation is my own.

If I need you to believe what I believe in order to feel more assurance that what I believe is correct, then I don’t really know what I know.

As one of the old school prophets suggested, “Not By Might, Nor By Power, But By My Spirit – Zechariah 4:6.” Live and let live, people. Trust your heart and live the life you believe is yours to live, regardless of all the chatter that may surround you.

There is so much going on in the world these days from the struggling economy, political upheaval in the Middle East to who will replace Charlie Sheen (thank God Ashton Kutcher will have something important on which to focus all those tweets). It is hard to know where to turn first in order to stay mindfully and responsibly informed about the things that truly matter to us all.

Many of us have a tendency to focus on the “news” that is presented each evening before bed or on our portable technological wonders. Many of us, like myself on a number of occasions, believe that our food is just something we can’t worry about today because there are so many other important things that demand our attention. If only I could continue to take the source and composition of my food for granted any longer.

Sigh. Those days are over.

One of those silly little health concerns I often hear about just doesn’t seem to want to get filed away in the “Deal With Some Other Time” box in my consciousness along with microwave ovens, mercury tainted salmon and too much coffee. I have this gnawing fear that I’m going to wake up in twenty years and there will no longer be a dialogue about genetically modified organisms (GMO) because there will not exist anything on our shelves besides GMOs. That freaks me out.

What’s the big deal?

Well, genetic engineering (GE) or genetic modification (GM) of food involves the process of artificially inserting genes into the DNA of food crops or animals themselves, resulting in your basic, every day GMO. Most Americans claim they would not eat GMO’s if they were clearly labeled, however our government keeps voting to keep GMO labeling off of the vast majority of food currently found in our markets. I mean, isn’t there enough writing on our packages, cans and cartons already? Who really needs more words on our food?

I, for one, am literally dying to see more words on my food.

Since 1996, I have been eating genetically modified ingredients in most of the processed foods I have consumed and there is a strong likelihood that you have joined me. Think about the reality that corn and soy are in thousands of regular products we consume and that the vast majority of the corn and soy used in these products are genetically modified. Unless we are consciously choosing to eat organic ALL the time, there is a likelihood that we order take out, stop at a fast food joint, grab pizza and a beer after work, etc. and just choose to ignore the crucial question of where the ingredients came from.

Just the other day we were ordering Thai food from a local favorite restaurant and my wife called out: “Ask them if they use non-GMO soy in the tofu!” I was too hungry to worry about it and I wanted my Thai fix. I also knew the likely answer and I don’t want to stop eating Thai food. So, unless we really start moving on this issue as a society like Europe where GMO’s are categorically banned, it is unlikely that any of us will be able to live our lives GMO free.

Please consider the food you eat just like the shoes you buy. You wouldn’t wear shoes that didn’t really match your outfit, would you? For me, eating GMO’s doesn’t really match the kind of person I want to be…

Here is a summary of crops, foods and food ingredients that have been genetically modified as of May, 2010 with much deserved credit due to Jeffrey Smith and his amazing website,

Codex General Standard for Food Additives (GSFA) Online Database of the World Health Organization(WHO) Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) of the United Nations and the reports of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). Available at:

The University of Maryland Medical Center database of supplements by name:

Archives of the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA:

Reports of the European Commission Scientific Committee for Food:

U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) PubMed Central (PMC):