What I have in common with John Denver, other than my love for writing and playing
music, is that he and I both had experiences with people that opened our eyes to a whole
new world.
Have you ever noticed that someone who is trying to deceive you will also do whatever
they can to prevent you from discovering the truth?
Everything contained herein is information that is available, and information you have
heard before. The key is to connect the dots. To see the patterns. To understand that
individual events show a pattern that manifests itself in a particular, predictable way.
6/24/2008 addendum:
This is one of the primary ideas behind Massive Re-Organization Of Thought. It's
like finding out that a whole new set of facts is true that replace the foundations of
everything you know and believe.
Such as, when it was discovered that the world was round. Suddenly, once you accept
that information as true, your mind re-sorts your entire reality based on the new data.
You hear it one night, and the next day, the entire world seems different.
It's like an equation: if X=Y*Z then changing any of those variables would
completely alter the results.
It's like being willing to hear what you don't want to know, or willing to consider
what it would be like if you needed to see things in a different way, in a different or
parallel reality.
If you put leavening in bread, it will rise. If you play fast music, people will dance.
If someone dies, people cry.
So, hearing is nothing but gathering information so that your brain has an opportunity
to connect the dots, correlate it and classify it in ways that are useful. Each individual
event is significant unto itself, but if you see it as one element of a greater occurring,
you can tell what the result of your actions will be, and the actions of others in the
world, expressed in words, but generating a predictable outcome.
The problem is, when people change the literal meanings of words, the true meaning gets
lost. It's like the story of the tower of babble - when people are trying to communicate
but they all talk in a different language, it's impossible to accomplish anything, unless
someone translates accurately, and does so without bias or giving interpretation that
gives one person advantage over another.
And now, finally, what John Denver was trying to tell the world. At least according to
my interpretation. Which I like. You should like yours too. And we don't have to agree. :}
"He was born in the summer of his 27th year".
If the truth had, in fact, been revealed to him, he experienced a rebirth of his
spirit, because, like any discovery that excites you, he felt revitalized by the knowledge
that he was not predestined to living inside the confines of a world controlled by the
arbitrary and manipulative mandates of the few unscrupulous people who had power and
control over the conscience of a culture.
In a way, it's like the idea of re-incarnation. Those who believe in it - believe that
you come back to the planet time and time again, learning new lessons. But, without
retaining the knowledge that you previously acquired. I'm sure you know the feeling.
As Christians, we're often told that it's wrong to
believe such things. And, so we believe that to have such thoughts is a sin.
Before I began to fully realize the Truth, I felt alone, depressed, I felt the whole
world was against me despite my good intent and my innocent nature. I believed that I had
experienced more than my share of hardship, and began to wonder why God was punishing me.
I believed I was playing the hand I was dealt. And, so long as I surrendered to that
life, that was the truth - my truth.
Surely, I must have done something in my current or a past life for which I was being
punished, or I would not be suffering so. Most people have a thought like that at some
point in their lives - if only on a particularly bad day. I surrendered to the idea that
the world was not fair, that some people win and some people lose, and that suffering was
a part of life.
But that is not the case. The truth is, we are trained to believe that the world is not
fair, so we act unfairly and accept unfair treatment because we are told it is part of
life.
This is part of the great lie that enslaves us. The greater truth - the predictable
outcome - is that we will allow people to harm us and other people and beings, and accept
the evil perpetrated against us. "It's just the way of the world".
Except, no it's not. It's the way of humans, the ways of evil. That kind of behavior
has nothing to do with a world living in the domain of the Kingdom of God. Yet, we claim
in America that our culture - our country itself - is founded on the principles of
Christianity.
People who do these sorts of things are exactly the same as slave owners who use a cat
and nine tails whip to give great pain to slaves who resist their domination and cruelty.
It's as if we have been told to give respect to those who will harm us, smile while
they do it, and tell them we understand that we should bare it when they tell us we are
less worthy than they, and that the pain is for us to learn by, and that it is good for
us.
They say they feel more pain than the ones they afflict. That is a lie. The pain they
feel is generated by the knowledge that they know they have done something wrong.
I am someone who believes that children should sometimes be punished, sometimes by a
spanking. But, like war, it should only ever be the last resort. And, I always wonder what
lead to a circumstance for a child to act in a way that would require such extreme
discipline.
I also believe that, in a perfect world, for which we have the possibility, there is
never a good reason for war. Only justifications and expediencies. Profits. Money. War is
not an occurance.
It is a perpetration. Knowing the truth of history will inform you of that. Headlines
will not. Political speeches will not inform you either.
And, the only way good can come of any of that is if you acknowledge, even if you are
attacked, that there is something that you did that either generated or made yourself a
tool of the attacker.
The only thing that makes a difference then is to be sure that it doesn't happen again.
The answer is not to kill or harm your enemies. The answer is to determine how to be
certain they are your friends or allies for common good.
Addendum 6/24/2008:
The only war God ever sanctioned was a war for hearts and minds. The weapons were words,
and the victories were intended to be won with the truth.
And the convictions, the instant judgement of God, would be expressed in individual
conviction of the heart - the death of the spirit you feel when you enter a hell of guilt
for sin, doing what you know is wrong based on your own personal morals and values.
Those things that you decided for yourself would be sin, whether anyone else knows or not.
Your sins are absolved individually upon atonement - acknowledgement of what you may
have done that dampened your spirit and being, allowing for a re-birth of the vitality of
your spirit.
And then there is reconciliation, doing the best you can to correct any wrongs or harm
you may have caused. And even that is something you know yourself in your heart, whether
anyone agrees with you or not.
When one learns the truth of the Word of God, you learn that no one has the right or
authority or power over you. In fact, that you have dominion over your own life, and that
ultimately, you have the power to say what will occur in your life, what you allow in your
life. With a few simple rules.
In the moment of that first realization, you are granted a new life. A life where
everything that has happened in the past does not matter anymore. What matters is the
knowledge that everything is possible, and that the future is yours to determine by
choice. You think you already know that.
The truth is, you've heard it, you hope it's true, you pray that some mystical miracle
will save you or provide your pot of gold in life, but you have no faith in it. The minute
things start to go wrong, you look for external reasons for your failures, someone to
blame, a rationalization to explain your punishment.
And there may be truth in what you find. But, you do not look to take responsibility
for your own misfortune.
It doesn't mean you did something wrong or incorrectly. The question is, what can I
learn from what happened, and how can I be a better person because of that experience.
The same thing is true about your relationship with God.
We speak of God and His love and the wonderful plan He has for our lives. Yet, we hurt
each other, become vindictive and vengeful, accept the idea that freedom is equated with
the ability to make war, and claim that our righteousness is proven by victory.
Would the Prince of Peace do that? No. That is the work of humans, and interpretations,
in fact, lies or misunderstandings about His word, to justify
those who glorify themselves above God. And to deprive you of the truth.
You think you understand what I just said, but you do not. But the basic understanding
you have is sufficient at this time. Stop trying to interpret what I say, and simply hear
the words and their literal meaning. Look them up in the dictionary if the definition of a
word is unclear to you.
So, apparently, John Denver learned the truth, or at least enough of it, to understand
that he had a new lease on life, and that whatever he did or achieved or earned or
suffered from from that day on was of his own doing. And, that in every moment, the choice
had to be made again.
That would be a pretty good thing to learn. But it is more than a concept. It is a
tool, or, as I like to think of it, a toy, that was taken away from you when you were born
into our world and culture.
You were made blind to the truth from birth, so it was impossible for you to see. That
is not your fault. Like the story of Jesus healing the blind man. What if he wasn't blind
in his eyes, but he was blind in his mind? Blind to the truth.
Can you see what kind of difference that would make... in YOUR mind?
The story of your heritage and history, even the story of Christ has been handed down
from generation to generation, life to life, existence to existence, altered by those
seeking to tell the truth and by those seeking to deceive you, until there is a vessel for
the truth, but it is empty, because the story it was to have carried has been lost by
distortion or forgetfulness.
It seems like the truth, it has the framework of the truth, but the truth is not
actually there to be found.
At times, governments have even altered the story on purpose in order to make you
believe what would most benefit their ability to control you. So, people who wanted to
preserve the truth would write what their leaders told them, but in such a way that would
allow those who understand the alternative message, the symbolism to get the real message.
For example: what if you had become the leader of a nation. But, the truth is, you have
made alliances with enemies of your country. That alliance put you in the position of
actually being an enemy to the people who elected you.
But, when you make speeches, you say things to your fellow conspirators like "Our
cause is just, and our resolve is strong." The voters think its a positive message to
them, but the conspirators know that it means progress is being made to undermine the
government they wish to overthrow or rob.
A president might say, for example, that they are the leader of all the people. It
sounds like a compassionate remark, when, in effect, it is nothing more than an empty
statement about the fact of the law that grants him authority.
When things like that occur, it provides the opportunity for those who would gain by
your deception to make up a new story, hide the sins and indiscretions of the past, and
empower their will and glory by taking advantage of the ignorance they have caused in you.
With each piece of knowledge that you acquire, you become responsible for honoring its
intended purpose. You can not ignore the truth once you know it. What good is knowledge if
you do not put it to use?
Now, John Denver had to take responsibility for the direction of his life.
But, that's all from the first line of the song. The lesson here is, no matter what you
think of the song, you couldn't possibly have known what the song was really about,
because you did not know the story, the truth behind it.
The same is true of the Bible. And the world we live in. There is a truth in it
especially for. You just have to know to be looking for it.
And be willing to hear.
