Is Your Life A Do, Or Is Your Life A Don't

Last night I went to bed after a meditation and as the meditation ended I was prompted into thought about the story of Moses and the burning bush in the Christian Bible. In this story Moses was confronted with an image of God and was skeptical about various aspects of the situation. He asked the name of God and was told "Ehyeh asher Ehyeh". Translated into English this is basically, "I AM THAT I AM". This struck me deeply as I have done much spiritual work within myself over the last few years and one of the big things I have learned about is the importance of speaking our names and considering the depth of what they mean. In my circle we speak our names (sometimes our birth names and sometimes a chosen spiritual name) and KNOW what they mean. We take honor in saying the words "I AM" and consider deeply what we may speak after this point.

When considering this story from the Bible I was touched at the fact that when God found Moses in a skeptical place, though He may have been frustrated with Moses at that moment, He displayed patience and lovingly did what was needed to show Moses his own true self and who he [Moses] was. When Moses asked who God was the answer was "I AM THAT I AM". This was not just God randomly talking. This was God reflecting Moses back to himself. Consider this for a moment.

What are we as humans really? We are what we are and nothing more. Consider this when you look at the state of the world today, the state of your country, your family, your relationships, your life. What are we? We are obviously not what we say we are with regards to our actions or things would be much different wouldn't they? With this in mind one can easily decipher who IS Christian and who is not by their speech and their actions can't they? The lesson of Moses and the burning bush for me can be brought right back to a more recent prophet of our time in Mahatma Ghandi who said "We must be the change we wish to see in the world." What does this statement really mean and how does it relate to the story of Moses and the burning bush?

Consider the conversation between God and Moses at the foot of that mountain. We know who Moses is when we read it and so sometimes it is difficult to imagine that in that moment he was questioning himself and who he was. He confronted God over and over about his abilities in their conversation. Moses was not questioning God, he was questioning himself and thinking to himself "how will a small time, stuttering, murderer like me convince any Pharaoh that I was chosen by God to set my people free?" Not until God told him "I AM THAT I AM" did he understand that it is not about believing and setting goals toward a particular end, but it is instead truly BEING that end. WOW!! What a freeing concept right? With this knowledge we can be whatever we want to be without getting hung up on the 'how' of getting there.

Now with this in mind consider the idea of world peace. How can it be reached? Can it be reached by planning/goaling out a series of attacks on those in the world who would outwardly work against peace? NO NO NO. Why not? Because "I AM THAT I AM" in a scenario like that does not make one peaceful on any level does it? Think back to the Vietnam era when Mother Teresa was questioned as to why she would not participate in anti-war demonstrations. I can only imagine being around at that time and wondering to myself "why would a woman so intent upon peace and love and God not support an anti-war demonstration?" when I read about her answer though, I am reminded of the depth of God within this woman's soul that shined out for the world to see. When asked why she did not participate in an anti-war demonstration she said, "I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there." Consider the depth of what she said for a moment.

This is a woman who led by example not telling us, but showing us the truth of God's words "I AM THAT I AM". So with this in mind it is my intent to consider what I AM. Not just my name and what I call myself but what I truly am. Will I for instance run around participating in anti this and anti that rallies? Will I when asked what I stand for tell people "I AM against this thing or that thing?" NO NO NO. Why would I not be against things that are bad? Because I don't want to be the fish working and working and working to swim upstream when I can go with the natural flow provided us by Spirit when the Earth was born and when I was born. I want to go right along with the flow of the river I was born into and to be FOR positive things instead of having negative energy against them. So now I will mean it and KNOW it when I say "I AM THAT I AM... PEACE... LOVE... FORGIVENESS... HONOR... RESPECT... TRUTH... HOLY... ENERGY... DEEP... HEARTFUL... COMPLETE... PERFECT... SPIRIT... LIGHT... DIVINE."

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Teacher Jailed and Eventually Released in Sudan For Allowing Her Students to Name a Teddy Bear Muhammad

A teacher in a Sudanese school was jailed at the end of November. The teacher was from the UK and was jailed not for killing a child, abusing a child, molesting a child, theft or anything so major. She allowed the children in her class to name a Teddy Bear after someone they had grown to love on a spiritual and personal level in stories of the man who after much trial and tribulation received a message of God's word from an angel and preached the message in Mecca in turn going through more trials and tribulations but eventually being the man who was responsible for the beginnings of Islam. What better way to honor this man - this prophet than to name a character after him? If this wasn't the intent of the children in naming their Teddy Bear after this great prophet then what was their intent? The other option is that they were naming the Bear after some friend or family member with the same name as the prophet. There are many many men across the world with this name and many of them worthy of much love and respect so perhaps this was the reason for the name. Interesting that with the intent of honor it would be against what is accepted by a group of people to honor a prophet by naming something after that prophet. Isn't that what they have been doing since at least the year 632? The name literally means "Praiseworthy" so what is it that makes these babies worthy of praise who are named after a great prophet? Many of the babies named after such a praiseworthy human being grow up to be nothing close to praiseworthy. Some of these men have grown up thinking that women are to be submissive as if they are livestock used for nothing more than the purpose of completing a particular work to meet the needs of men. As if she is property because without equality that is all you can be is someone elses puppet as opposed to a completely contributing individual in your family and society. Many of the men named after this great prophet have created laws which prevent women from associating with men they do not know so that when they are attacked and brutally raped they are treated as criminals instead of victims of a brutal crime. The men (some of them named Muhammad) are given minimal punishment for their rape while the women are punished by being jailed, shunned and in some cases put to death. What would we do if men got raped so brutally I wonder in this society? This society where men named Muhammad can be named after a great prophet and not live up to the name or even come close. All of these attrocities happen on a daily basis and people are up in arms protesting and jailing people for naming a Teddy Bear after a great prophet. Where is the logic in this? If it is offensive to name a Bear Muhammad then it should be offensive to name a man the same unless he has earned the title through great works in his society. Without having gone through similar trials and tribulations, without having traveled and been educated similarly and received similar messages from God how is anyone or anything to be worthy of the name? I say to the people who are opposed to the honor of anyone naming anything after a greatly respected and loved prophet "BE CONSISTENT IN THIS RULE - DON'T ALLOW ANYONE TO BE AWARDED THIS NAME UNTIL THEY HAVE EARNED IT - OR TAKE IT AWAY AND SHUN THEM AS IF THEY HAVE BROKEN A LAW WHEN THEY DON'T LIVE UP TO IT - IF IT IS A NAME WORTHY OF HONOR AND PRAISE THEN WHY NOT TREAT IT THAT WAY AND STOP GIVING THE NAME TO MEN NOT SO WORTHY OF SUCH PRAISE AS THE HONOR OF CARRYING THE NAME OF A PROPHET."

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