"Your world
is as big as your vision."
-- Alan Cohen
So simply said, and so profoundly true--our world is as big as our vision, and is big enough to be as big as it can be and it is also small and as small as we will allow it to be. We control how we see the world.
As well, it goes beyond our world, because God is as big as our vision. Love is as big as our vision. And, I believe that these three ideas are actually one in the same.
It kind of reminds me of that interesting book, Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D. Our world is as big or small as our thoughts about it. Our reality is as real as our thoughts about it. Change is as open or closed as our thoughts about it. Our beliefs are as strong or weak as our thoughts about them.
I'm near the end of my second listening to an insightful book by Rob Bell, titled, Love Wins. The subtitle is, a book about heaven, hell, and the fate of every person who ever lived. It's obviously a big title. I have to say also how much I have enjoyed Rob's reading of his own book. At the end of chapter five, there was a part that jumped off the page (I also have the physical book. . .) Here's the phrase that caught my total attention: "That's how love works. It can't be forced, manipulated, or coerced. It always leaves room for the other to decide."
He was referring to how big God is and how big love is and how big our world is at the same time. He thinks it is HUGE, more than big enough to encompass all. . . in all. That's really big.
This book and these thoughts resonated perfectly with me because I have thought that way about God. And then too, about love. Those who read my posts often, know that I talk about love all the time. Not so much about God, because that is more of a volatile topic, yet to me they are one in the same. Everyone has individual feelings surrounding the subject of God, and yet God's love encompasses all of that and so much more. We get to choose and we are choosing all the time, whether we are choosing that we are victims or rulers.
I think the most important idea is how we see ourselves separate from God, or separate from love, or separate from our world, or whether we are immersed in them instead. Maybe a better way to say that is, are they outside of us, or within us? Just something to consider. . .
At the end of this excellent chapter, Rob is essentially saying that God is big enough, and is so big that he gives us the authority to rule, to do, to choose, to think, to create as we will. We can choose pain, so-called evil, and have as much darkness as we desire to have in our lives. Some look at that and say, "why doesn't God do something about that?" The answer is because God is big enough, loves enough to allow us to choose for ourselves.
At the same time, when we turn to choose better, to find more that pleases us, works for us, that power has been given to us too, and he ends the chapter with this beautiful passage: "And to that, that impulse, craving, yearning, longing, desire--God says yes. Yes, there is water for that thirst, food for that hunger, light for that darkness, relief for that burden. If we want hell, if we want heaven, they are ours. That's how love works. It can't be forced, manipulated, or coerced. It always leaves room for the other to decide. God says yes, we can have what we want, because love wins."
Love Wins. Although, It Is Not A Competition. It's A GIVEN.
Spread Some Joy Today--by expanding your vision of joy--the joy you experience and feel and enjoy, and the joy you exude to others while you are doing that. Joy is a not just a feeling, it is a state of being
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