Bloom Where You're Planted

My cold is a little worse today. Last night was spent sneezing and blowing my nose, so a recovery nap is in order.

I'm still thinking about yesterday's post on universalism. I'm more focused on the emotions it stirs and what to do with them. There's a saying: anger is good kindling, but poor fuel. I can be mad at biblical literalists and the harm I perceive they do to people, but if I stay stuck in that emotion, all I'm doing is making myself feel miserable. In short, being stuck in anger doesn't help anyone.

What I'm looking for is what to do about it. I left the church institution and with it, the ability to bring reform from the inside. I'm not sure the institution is ready for reformation, though. If you recall your Bible stories, an entire generation of Israelites had to die before they entered the promised land. That seems to be the burden of making progress. Not everyone wants to grow, so it requires patience for the naysayers to be lose their power.

I'm also not naive enough to believe that another system of centralized power would be any better than what we have today. Power corrupts, so to me, the more decentralized power is, the better chance we have to form communities that reflect the group's values.

That's something Emanuel Swedenborg (18th century Christian mystic) wrote about. He claims that in the life to come, we are placed in communities that reflect our desires. People who value the self over others join communities where the self is primary. People who value service to others are placed in communities where service is valued. Ultimately, our destiny is to get what we actually want.

That makes a lot of sense to me, though I would want to extend it with the idea that one can change communities when they have a desire to grow. For me, that reflects both the free will of an individual and the goodness of God. We are free to chose to live how they want and experience the consequences of their choices. And when we have learned what we need to, we move on. Progress is a never-ended journey. No one is stuck forever.

So, back to what can I do. I think I can read, I can feel, I can listen, and when appropriate, I can speak. Bloom where you're planted.