Blog 305 – 05.27.2016

In the younger days of television there was a game show called “What’s My Line.” Each week there was a mystery guest introduced at the beginning of the show without showing their face. Then three people were presented to a panel of four who got to each ask the real guest and the two impostors questions to try to determine which of the individuals was for real. After their questions, the panel members each got to guess at the identity of the mystery guest. Then the host of the show would announce, “Will the real (insert name) please step forward.”
I had originally planned to do a blog for today entitled, “Re-Inventing Yourself” but the more I got to thinking about it I really do not think there is any need for anyone to re-invent themselves. All that is needed is for the real you to step forward. One of the Ten Intentions For A Better World that live by states: “I am a magnificent being awakening to my highest  potential. I express myself with joy, smiling easily and laughing often. I shine my light.” These words were written by some people that I believe were very in tune with the Universe. To me these words have every bit the weight of any Scripture as they express what I believe is the aspiration of our True Self, the One Personality behind all Personality or Personhood.

If we could just remember to say the host’s words in the situations of our life, “Will the real John Smith, Jane Doe, please step forward.” We would I think begin to realize who we truly are. Some years ago there was a book written entitled  “In His Steps” and in the book a pastor posed the question to his congregation, “What Would Jesus Do?” He went on to ask his people to join him in a little experiment and for ninety days to pledge to try to do in every situation they each confronted only what they sincerely believed Jesus would do. What prompted this idea for the pastor was that during a worship service a very untidy and poor looking man had walked into the church and down the aisle and posed a similar question to the whole group as to whether the Jesus of the Bible would be welcomed in that church gathering.

I recently met a woman in my travels that had thought of moving to my home town of Chattanooga, Tennessee from Wisconsin some years back and spent six weeks in my lovely birthplace visiting different churches trying to find one where she hoped she might feel welcomed and at home. She came back to Wisconsin in the end having concluded that because she was from Wisconsin and that a hated invading division from that state had occupied Chattanooga in The War Between The States (known everywhere but in the South as the Civil War) she would never be welcomed there. I must say I am ashamed of my city for holding on to hatred for so long. This dear lady had nothing to do with the harshness with which an occupying army had treated a rebellious and defeated state some almost one hundred and fifty years ago. Many of my countrymen have forgiven the Germans and Japanese for their involvement in World War Two and my generation has normalized trade with Vietnam and just days ago announced plans to send our ships back to their harbors in a military treaty. This is not pleasing to China. My point is holding grudges is not letting the real you step forward but a pretender like the other two guests on “What’s My Line” an impostor I like to call “little ego.”

Our higher angels, our higher self, is indeed “the Christ or the Annointed, the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings. Tonight before you nod off to sleep intend that tomorrow you will allow the real you to step forward and meet the new day and all of its challenges. I conclude with a song I learned as a boy that seems appropriate here: “What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see. When I look upon his face, the One who saved me by His Grace.” I no longer believe that I nor anyone else really needs to be saved, born again, or re-invented but I do believe the real person inside needs to step forward and be revealed. There is not now nor has there ever been another incarnation like you or I. We truly are magnificent beings awakening to our highest potential. The U.S. Army had a slogan some years back, “Be All You Can Be.” If you or I choose to be anything less we are cheating ourselves and the whole world out of getting to see a version of Jesus this world has yet to see. Many of my Christian friends will think I went too far with this piece. They often do. And so will many of my Atheist friends. But no matter what I say or think it is what you think that matters. “Will the real you, please step forward.”

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White