I am not religious (in the organized religion sense), but I have been on a journey to become and feel spiritual.
Why? Because I know there is more and even much more to life than "living in a material world."
As part of that journey I attend church on Sundays and a Torah group on Mondays. I attend both because I believe that the Pastor, Jimmy Bartz, and Rabbi, Nachum Braverman, each embody the best of what spirituality is and could be about and I love who they are and how they are.
At a recent sermon Jimmy spoke about God esteem and how it is different than esteem from other people and self-esteem, the pursuit of each of those that can agitate us more when we feel we are never good enough than actually provide us with the contentment that most of us seek.
He spoke about how in God's eyes and heart we are unconditionally chosen, loved and delightful. In other words that we were and are loved, accepted, embraced and forgiven for who we are including the darker sides of ourselves.
That caused me to think that:
- If we can truly feel unconditionally loved we get to feel lovable
- If we can truly feel unconditionally accepted we get to feel acceptable
- If we can truly feel unconditionally embraced we get to feel embraceable
- And if we can truly feel unconditionally forgiven we get to feel forgivable
And if we get to feel lovable, acceptable, embraceable and forgivable just as we are, we get to throw out three of the results of low self-esteem, namely:
- feeling unworthy
- feeling diregardable
- feeling discardable
That led me to ask what God wants in return if He is so unconditional in his regard for us. My conclusion is that God neither needs or wants anything from us, because that would make Him transactional and cause him to veer towards being conditional towards us.
Instead of needing, wanting, demanding or exhorting us to do anything, I believe He hopes that by immersing, imbuing and marinating us in His love, acceptance, embrace and forgiveness that we will feel complete as we are and that our cups will runneth over and that we will do onto and into others what He has done and continues to do onto and into us.
That's when it dawned on me how all encompassing and less arbitrary God esteem is compared to esteem from others and ourselves.
Since this is a work and journey in progress, I'd welcome any and all of your comments with regard to God's purpose in your mind and God's meaning in your lives.