 |
| Carlton, this is exactly what I was wearing when we met. I was a little younger then and I’m a little older now. |
Independence Day, 2011
Bishop Carlton Pearson, DD
New Dimensions International
P.O. BOX 35190
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74153
Dear Carlton,
Please forgive my informality.
6:37 am
At 2 o’clock this morning, a conversation with you started forming in my head. I got some more sleep and am now beginning this letter bright and early. I hope you don’t mind if I make a pot of coffee before I continue. Be right back.
6:40 am
Kurt Vonnegut said a writer should never waste the reader’s time. He was talking about books, but I’m sure that applies to letters, doubly-so. Telling you I’m now going out to feed the “porch puppies” might seem like a waste of your time, but I’m used to writing exactly as moved, so I’m telling you that now. Just a moment, please.
7:13am
I find we now have an additional porch puppy, making four. They’re abandoned puppies. I live in a trailer park outside of Shawnee and for some reason some people don’t take care of their dogs. I know two of them are brothers who were abandoned. I suppose the other two could just have been born free.
Well, on with the manifest content.
I’ve attended two services in your church. We met the last time I visited and I offered to help you with your streaming video. Circumstances convolved soon after and I wasn’t able to return within the following years. The offer is still open though. I’d do as much programming as your organization requires provided I can fit it in to the work schedule that affords me food and shelter. Just let me know what you need, even if it’s only consultation with your current computer folks.
I first noticed what you were doing when Michael DelGiorno start ranting about it. I was quite impressed that a man in your position, with your education at Oral Roberts University, steeped in the commonly accepted Christian principles, a Pentecostal Bishop no less, opened his mind to the possibility and then accepted the Truth – that God loves everyone, regardless of their own beliefs, practices, and deeds.
Yours is the kind of mind with whom I feel a strong kinship.
I’m writing today because I suspect you’ve come upon the whole truth by now and I know how heartening it can be to have someone independently express the same.
In the second sermon I heard you give, you said something that was completely true. You said that you thought we had come here by choice.
It’s true, the Father tears a bit of himself to create us. He chose to take another spin through life, to experience everything anew. So, we were born without memory of our origin because if we knew everything then we’d never really look again and see things as they really are. It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks, but everyone learns new things when they watch their children. It’s best if you can be your children.
In the beginning there was only one thing. He was alive and he explored who he was and what he was. This went on for billions of years. There was nothing new. He asked, “Is this all there is?”
It was impossible for him to change himself fast enough to keep himself enthused for the next billions of years, so he decided that he needed to forget everything and experience himself as he experienced himself in those earliest days. By forgetting, he could go back and his roller coaster would be just as frightening, and then just as exciting, as it had been once before.
So, tiny life was created and eventually a creature came into being that could hold him and through those creatures he would experience billions and billions of lifetimes, eventually all happening at once. They were glorious – not just entertaining, but enlightening. He learned more about himself by becoming billions of independent, fresh observers.
The Father sees himself through our thoughts. He is listening every minute of every day. He is seeing our dreams and our waking journeys. He is crying with us and laughing along. He loves our children. He’s proud of our brothers and sisters. He respects our parents. He notices everything as does a child.
The Father recoils at our misdeeds and abhors cruelty, but he wouldn’t take back a single one of His experiences through us.
We are living right now in the Father. When we die, our body ends, but we exist as a separate dream that continues in His minds eye. I have no idea if we experience a transfer of consciousness, but one day I’ll find out, probably at the end.
Carlton, probably more important than making a persuasive argument is providing our audiences with an out – a channel through which they may not believe. You can drag a horse to water, but if you force his face under he’ll probably drown himself because you’re a meanie. To that end, I’ve included a link that will show you two more links – to the whole story on two different blogs. The first is my public blog and the second is the hidden one that describes how I came to this truth. The second is your out.
I love you man. Our kinship is one we share with the entire human race – those living, those passed, and the trillions yet to be born. We do so through our Father.
I would add, “Keep the faith,” but that would be like telling a baseball player to keep going to the park.
Happy Independence Day.
Sincerely and with much respect,
Joseph Michael Winett
Leave a Reply