Doin' the Hokey Pokey (with "j's Love Project")

For way too many years I resisted God, or anything to do with spirituality because I had a preconceived notion that it meant giving up what I thought was exciting about life.  I thought God and spirituality were synonymous with boring, and all God was interested in was judging me for all the things I did wrong in my life.  In fact, I saw God and spirituality as two separate entities.  I associated God with religion, and spirituality with the metaphysical.  I had issues with both approaches. 

 Not that these approaches, by any means, don't have value, they are just not my cup of tea.  I've never liked feeling constricted, and for me these approaches were constricting in their beliefs.  I like coloring outside the lines, looking at things outside the box, and found that many religions and pretty much anything organized in thought tends to shake their finger at such practices.

Here is what I discovered about God and spirituality while sitting on my porch pondering the meaning of life and whatnot.  Actually, I was simply desiring to feel better than I did, (it was all about me), and God walked into my picture. 

God IS Spirit.  Hello!  When I am filled with the spirit of God, it means I am spirited, alive, doin' the hokey pokey, dancing, singing, praising, loving, rejoicing, expressive, ANIMATED.  Being at peace, at rest, is being very much alive...not dead.  I recognize there is no place that God is not, the Life, Spirit of God is everywhere, in everything.  Which means we have that Spirit within each and every one of us, quickening us, enlivening us, bringing us back from the deadness we got ourselves into, from us trying to deaden what and who we are.  And we generally will do that because of feeling we are not enough as we are.  So we hide who we are.  What a flippin' mess.

One of the reasons I desired to keep my relationship with God a secret was because I'm aware most folks think what I thought, as described in the first paragraph, and frankly, I didn't want to experience their rejection.  I have watched shutters come down over their eyes, and felt them back off like I was going to try to convert them or something.  They exhibit the exact behavior I did initially when anyone mentioned God.  Exactly.  Because I know they are associating God with judgment, guilt, etc.  All the things I did.  I could care less what they are feeling guilty about other than guilt is the thing within all of us deadening our lives.  Move that out of the way, deal with it, and you've got Life kickin' up again within you, doing a swirly dance.  Anything that gets in the way of what animates us, keeps us from expressing creatively, has to go.

When I say I look for God in anyone I come in contact with, I am looking for what is alive in them.  What animates them.  What gets them all charged up with joy.  Where is their enthusiasm.  Where is their passion.  What do they love.  Where is the love in them.  Not what they think they should love, or feel they should be charged up over, but what they really love and are passionate and enthusiastic about. 

I recently came across a site, ( Zebra Sounds ), and joined the band wagon, which is the perfect example of what I'm talking about.  If you'll scroll down you'll notice I've added a banner from "j's love project."  What this woman is doing is fabulous, and exciting.  It is the Spirit of God in action in her.  I see in her writing and her project what God is all about.  There is no mention of God that I have seen in her articles, but it doesn't matter!  If love is what she is practicing, then God is what she is practicing.  Because Love was in the world long before we came to be in it, and it's Presence in our lives, and more importantly, its expression from within us, is the most important thing we can do.  Love shed forth from the hearts of mankind.  That's what it's all about...

...doin' the hokey pokey.  :D

And now I've got to hokey pokey my way to work.  I got the job!  Woot!

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