Undeserving of God's Love? Agree or Disagree?

"Let me ask you, if someone asked you if you are rich, what would you say?" my mom asked me.

"Yes, I am!" I answered.

My mom and stepdad just moved to the small mountain town of Lewiston, CA.

Having a désire to revisit her spiritual life, my mom went and checked out a church down the road that is the same religion as her upbringing, and my own.

She was telling me that the topic for that day were words that we must avoid in our lives…greed, lust, selfishness, etc.  

In my mind, I thought, huh, why concentrate on the words that we must avoid rather than the thoughts that we should seek out like joy, love, abundance.

I kept listening as my mom related to me the messages she received from the talk and how she felt herself connecting to God again.

Many of the messages she talked about were fear-based, yet she found the message behind them.

The newsletter she brought home (pictured above)  said on the front, "God's abundant generosity? We're underserving of God's extraordinary goodness, yet he showers us with grace."

Good God, I thought, I don't believe I am undeserving of God's love!

Nothing my mom talked about seemed inspiring, uplifting or motivational…to me.

…to her, she was feeling all of that.

How could I argue that or ruin that for her by saying I didn't agree with most of it?

Because, I understand that our path here on Earth is to find the path that leads us to God.  

Not every religion is for everyone.

There are different views, different opinions, and different perspectives.

We know this because wars have been started for centuries over the differing perspectives, yet…

…both sides of every war fight because they believe they have the right way to God.

What if, we all accepted each individual's path to God, no matter what their beliefs or opinions are?

At the beginning of our services at CSLCV, we light the candles for all major religions "honoring the path to God."

I truly understood this as I sat in the kitchen at my mom's and watched her glow with the experience she just had that brought her closer to God.

I realized, that because it's not my path of choice, that she was experiencing what I experience in prayer, meditation, classes and services at the Center for Spiritual Living - Capistrano Valley.

How can I argue with that?

How can I burst her bubble with MY perspective?

I couldn't.

So instead, I accepted that her experience gave her an experience of God.

"Mom," I said, "I am so glad you got out of it what you did.  That's what it's all about."

And so it is.