Does it Bother You?

I’ve received more than a few emails in the last couple of days from people who saw Billy Graham’s latest column in our local paper with the title:  “Bible forbids attempts to communicate with the dead.”  They want to know what I thought about it.  My initial reaction was,  “Here we go … another chance for people to either think with their hearts or to allow others to tell them what to believe.”

The argument about communicating with the dead has been around as long as people have been interpreting the Bible.  As with most things, if one is looking for a particular point of view, one can find it.  Those who disagree with mediumship will find verses to support their view in the Bible.  They will not discuss the verses that speak of the “gifts of the Spirit” and others which support personal communication with higher consciousness.   I am not a Bible scholar, but I do believe that there are contradictions within its pages on a multitude of subjects.   For this reason, I simply don’t “go there.” 

In the article, the reader is told that if we turn our backs on the living God and reject his son, we have no hope of heaven.  Instead, “our destiny will be that place of absolute loneliness and despair the Bible calls hell, separated from God forever.”   Words like these remind me of a billboard I saw along the highway recently posted by a traditional church.  In six-foot high letters surrounded by frightening flames was a single word: “OBEY!”  

This is where I sit back and from a place of non-judgment say, “Isn’t that interesting!”  From this neutral perspective I can remain centered in love, feel at peace, and respect and appreciate the vast diversity of opinions that comprise the human experience.  I am so grateful that I do not live in fear.  I am so grateful that I regularly feel enveloped by divine love and can devote my life to sharing that love freely with all others.

I would ask those who have found healing from the evidence I have brought forth from communicating with their deceased loved ones if they experienced anything that was “not of God.”  If the work I do ever results in anything less than bringing more light into our world, then I will stop doing it.  It’s that simple. 

The article reflects fundamentalist Christian beliefs.   My beliefs are not religious, but spiritual.  Each represents different positions along a line of possible perspectives.  My beliefs come not from what is written in a book or taught by another, but from contemplation, personal experience, and tuning in to my heart.  Having spent much time in the expanded consciousness offered by meditation, I have come to know that we are all one with our Source and therefore cannot be separated from that Love, no matter what we believe or do.  Everything is “of God.”  Yes, we personally reap what we sow by our own actions, but we are always surrounded by divine love as we learn and grow.  I do not expect or request that anyone reading these words agree with my beliefs.  We are all at different places along that spectrum of perspectives.  I hope that you form your own beliefs that feel just right for you. 

I served our great country for twenty years so that we may continue to live in a nation where we are free to publish our beliefs in a newspaper and to practice whatever religion fits our beliefs.  Being a woman in the U.S. military was a non-traditional career choice in a traditionally male world.  Today I adhere to modern spiritual beliefs and the non-traditional practice of evidential mediumship in a world still dominated by traditional religious beliefs and practices.  Some may respect me for that.  Others may not.  I can’t remember who said it, but I would have to agree that “What others think about me is none of my business!”

I feel so thoroughly supported by God and so fully confident that the greater reality is ruled by Love, that truthfully, the article did not bother me.  What did you think about it, my friends?  Did you feel fear?  If so, this is an opportunity for growth.  May you find that place of peace inside where Love rules.  Go there, and ask what you should believe.