Lets talk about religion

​Say to someone, “Lets talk about religion” and many will probably react by saying “No thank you.” I find it puzzling that as creations of a Divine Source we wouldn’t want to talk about why we are here on planet Earth. After all it is an age-old question.
 
I’ve come to see that the word religion has been warped and know when we think about religion now that we think of things not related to the original meaning.  The original meaning, as I understand it, is that religion is a means for a re-connecting to self and others, as one and a re-turning to where we came from.

But this is not what we think of first. The mention of the word religion tends to make one think of ‘organised religion’, churches, sins and sinners, hellfire and damnation.  I didn’t have organized religion pressed upon me as a child  so I don’t have personal experiences, but the stories I hear . . . well, its no wonder we don’t want to talk about religion!
 
In most organized religions, God was made to be something or someone outside of ourselves. A common image of God, for many, is that of an old man with a long white beard, sitting on a cloud, passing judgement on us. Again, no wonder we don’t want to talk about religion or God!
 
It was through separating God from our inner life and separating God from the daily miracles of nature, that the church was able to diminish, or completely demolish in most instances, our connection to God which led to more control over the masses. It’s time to bury that injustice and re-turn to our true connection to God; a connection that lives within each and every one of us all, equally so.
 
So as a step in that direction, I’d like to share with you my understanding of the word religion. 
 
For me, religion is a way of life.  It is how you are in everything you think, say and do.
 
It is in how you care for yourself and how you care for others.  It isn’t just about whether you are doing a good deed for someone, but it is more about what energy you are doing that good deed in. Are you doing it with love? Or with resentment? Or out of obligation? Is your motive love?
 
As I connect to my own Divine Spark, the God within, my world expands. I am more than just me, I am multidimensional. I see, hear, feel and know things that I am oblivious to when I live as ‘just a human being, skin and bones and a thinking mind.’ In this expanded state, I appreciate everyone and everything. It becomes easy to see the daily miracles, an unusual flower I’ve never noticed before, an email arriving at just the right time, a friend calling just after I thought about them.
 
Although I was taught that good manners included not discussing religion or politics, I have decided to break that pattern and engage in real conversation about religion. I like hearing how others experience religion and God.  Just this morning I read a great article on ‘food and religion.’  I had never even considered those two words in the same sentence before!
 
As we re-turn to who we are, which is what true evolution is about, then I suggest we will need to have more conversations about religion.  So next time someone says “Lets talk about religion,” be willing to at least listen. You don’t have to agree. You don’t have to convince them otherwise. You don’t have to defend your viewpoint. You just have to open your heart and encourage that other person to express what religion means to them.    
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