Graduating from Life!

Graduating from Life

May is a time when all of us have students around us graduating from grade school, middle school, high school and college. I love the feeling of celebrating with people who have dedicated a portion of their lives to study. When they complete their degree, it feels as if they get to move on to the next step of life.

This moment of realization that you have completed some kind of course also happens spiritually. Have you noticed that there are times in your life when you have an “aha” moment, and you seem to have the answer you have been waiting for and deliberating about for months or years? This is a spiritual graduation of sorts. The moments of realization mark times in your life when you are ready for the next step spiritually.

I remember a time in my life when I was a Pentecostal preacher hanging out on New York City street corners passing out scriptures to people about going to hell. I am no more that person than I am a Prosecuting Attorney. I graduated from that time in my life because I was open to the idea that God was bigger than a book.

I had a minister friend who had a Jewish background, but was Christian. As we were hanging out one day, she shared with me that she believed in reincarnation. I, of course, being the bible-based thumper I was, began quoting scriptures that refuted the idea. She simply said, “How is it that when John the Baptist was alive, they called him Elijah or one of the prophets of old? They also said the same thing of Jesus.” As you read of the historical times in the days of Jesus, the idea of reincarnation was completely part of the religious thought.

That’s all it really took for me to start questioning what I believed as true. I think that people who fight for their beliefs, instead of listening to other plausible truths, are usually fighting more for their “right to believe that way” than the actual truth. I was one of those people. I realized when I actually prayed with an open heart and asked God about it, I got the answer that was a larger truth than what I had originally believed.

God spoke to my heart and said, “I am the ‘I am!’  I am all in all. I am not confined to the words in any book. Your human ego will never be able to understand what I am as long as you stay locked into your ego mind. My spirit has no body and, therefore, I am what you are when you sleep—spirit out of body. Our spirits merge and become one again. It is there, in that place of oneness, I will share with you the many truths of life. You can also achieve this place of oneness in meditation and prayer.”

Soon after that experience, I retired from my place as minister and began to study everything I could about other religions, the history of spirituality, and other takes on Christianity. From all my studies I realized that I had been fed ideas that I never really sought to prove. When I stopped taking other people’s word as truth, I began a time of tremendous growth.

I guess, that is the real lesson here. I really don’t mind anyone believing anything. You don’t have to believe in reincarnation to read my blog or trust in my spiritual take. All you must really do is commit to your truth and have a reason to believe it, even if it your reason is simply that God’s spirit has shown you that truth personally. I have no need at all to deny your truth, because my ego has no place in your spiritual growth.

Your truth is your path. Your path is specific to your lessons God would have you learn on this earth. I have no part in that unless you ask me to be a part of it. Then I will share my ideas with you. That is a true spiritual teacher—one whom God personally places in your path for understanding and guidance.

We should never push our ideas on anyone. We should always be cognitive of the path that every child of God walks on. There are many infant spirits out there who need to be feeding on the breasts of Spirit, taking the pablum of truth slowly and living within the fence of a contained front yard. That person may need all of that protection to stay safe and free from harm.

Not everyone can understand the freedom of spirit and live in it without falling head first into their own dung pile. Maturity takes time and life experience to become all that you believe. You must let yourself live through the process and be open to God teaching you in all the metaphors of life.

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Bo Sebastian is a Hypnotherapist and Life & Health Coach, available for private sessions to QUIT SMOKING, Lose Weight, New Lap-Band Hypnosis for Weight Loss, CHANGE YOUR MIND, CHANGE YOUR LIFE! at 615-400-2334 or www.bosebastian.com.

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