Releasing “sin.”
What I’ve come to understand is that the church missuses the word “sin.” The Oxford dictionary describes it as an immoral act that goes against divine law. Except, this definition is based on a misdirection of focus and a narrow lens, because we refuse to connect and learn from each other. Religions operate on the old system where the world was divided and we had limited access to one another. We created our own understanding of the divine based on our limited perspectives. But now, with the connection we’ve attained through the internet, we’ve arrived at a precipice of abundant possibilities and opportunities.
If one were to consider all the information from more than one religion or culture, there would be a wider lens to view the world. My journey started with an indoctrination into the Christian faith. I used to look at religion like a framework, or a structure, that exists to point our focus to God/Source. I suppose in some ways I still do. For people who start on their journey, their connection to Spirit is very limited. There may be slight sensations of presence or maybe a hit to their intuition. What I experienced, however, was seemingly nonexistent. I firmly remember what it was like before getting to where I am today.
It was isolating. It was purely physical reality and the day to day struggles that I was raised to believe controlled my reality. God was outside of me - if God even existed. Someone I had little to no attachment to. If I was lucky, then maybe God might help me with the big stuff, but that was rare. It was so difficult to see God operating in my day to day life, because I didn’t have a relationship with God. I was disconnected. This being, this entity was separate from me.
However, when I embraced faith and really “let go and let God” I started to see it. I gave my life to Christ while serving in the Army and stationed on the other side of the globe in South Korea. In that moment, I felt my entire body alight with goosebumps and feel-goods. I started to recognize it: God’s presence. It made Christianity very convincing in my eyes. I mean, I was experiencing God! In small things mostly, which I didn’t think mattered to a big all powerful being. But they do. My intuition started coming online and I began to learn discernment.
But, when my wife took a philosophy class and began deconstructing her own faith using logic and reason, I had a choice to make: I was either going to listen to my wife and be open like God had requested when I was told to trust her, or I was going to harden into my beliefs and plug my ears. Thankfully, I chose the former. I began to listen to her talk about how the religious text was hypocritical. Saying one thing here and then contradicting itself later. We’d concluded that if an all powerful God had written something, it would be flawless.
This is what truly led me out of the religion side of faith and into spirituality, which gave me room enough to breathe and explore. What happened was that I realized that the system is flawed, but I didn’t have to let go of my faith in God, or Jesus. Two things can be true at the same time. This is also when I realized that religion is a man made structure to finding God, but it isn’t the end. It’s a single path out of many that introduces one to God, but we limit ourselves and our connection when we say “that’s all there is.”
Accepting this leads one to an open road of possibilities, and that’s when I truly believe my journey began. It wasn’t right away, since I was processing and releasing beliefs; but eventually, I started looking into near death experiences, which led me to mediums, which then led me to channelers. I also began to realize that there’s overlap between the religions and that by declaring only one is correct we were limiting our understanding of the universe. Most Christians do not believe in reincarnation, except, this is a widely accepted concept amongst many spiritualists and Eastern religions.
The Christian faith believes we are born with this sinful nature due to Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit: the original sin. Which has led to the many branches of thought that has provided our understanding of sin, today. We are born with a sinful nature and the only atonement is by accepting Jesus Christ into your life so that you may be able to see the kingdom of heaven. Which ironically, or not, is true if you have the openness and conceptual ability to understand it.
Because, if one weren’t closed off to other ideologies, they’d learn that this sinful nature we are born with is the accumulation of generational and past life karma. By accepting Jesus Christ into your life means that by following the “sinless” man-of-God’s blueprint, you have an idea of what to strive for. Not perfection, but rather a life of peace, love and ease. Once you’ve worked through your karma by alchemizing your experiences and choosing the direction you want to create your life to look like - using the Christ’s blueprint, perhaps? - you will be able to experience the kingdom of heaven, which Jesus states exists within.
The Christian story is beautiful, but it’s not the entirety of the picture. I’m grateful that I was able to let go of the parts that were harmful and was able to focus on the parts that were loving and purposeful. The direction we choose between fear and love is the direction our life will take. Fear can be in your face and intimidate you, but love is powerful and enduring. Release those chains that bind you and hold you down. You simply let them go, and see how high you’ll fly.