Month: June 2015

Daily Reflection

“The reason many people in our society are miserable, sick, and highly stressed is because of an unhealthy attachment to things they have no control over.” (Steve Maraboli)

I was waiting for a recovery meeting to start the other day when someone suddenly made their cell phone’s alarm go off quite noticeably, all for the sole purpose of letting everyone there know it was past the time when it was supposed to begin. Another fellow attendee then abruptly yelled at this individual from across the room, telling them in an extremely angrily fashion to cut it out. The loud alarm was then promptly shut off, leaving both markedly tense and unhappy. I, on the other hand, simply smiled through the entire incident, maintaining a constant level of serenity. I wasn’t always like this though. Plenty of times throughout my life, I’ve been in the shoes of both of these people, doing everything I could to take control of things that ultimately were out of my control. All that ever did for me though was stress me out and cause my mind and body to grow unhealthier. This is precisely why I do my absolute best to let any of those things go now, even when they aren’t meeting my ego’s expectations of what I think they should or shouldn’t be. And thankfully, I can say I feel a lot more peaceful today because of it.

I pray that I may have the wisdom to know when it’s best for me to let go of control and I pray that when I do know that, I will practice acceptance instead.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

“God’s Not Dead”, An Uplifting Movie About A Young Man’s Faith

If you were given a task to prove that God is not dead, could you do it? That’s precisely the premise of a movie I just watched, appropriately titled exactly that, “God’s Not Dead.”

The movie is about a college philosophy professor named Jeffrey Radisson (Kevin Sorbo) who’s a very devout atheist. Each and every semester he asks his students to write the words, “God is dead” on a piece of paper and then to sign their name below it, solely to prevent them from having to go through the age-old debate of whether God exists or does not. He makes a very strong case as to how difficult it will be for his class to discuss this topic if they choose to not sign the waiver and further indicates it will be 30% of their grade. In contrast though, he promises everyone an “A” for that portion of the class if they do sign it, of which everyone promptly does except one individual, a freshman named Josh Wheaton (Shane Harper) who’s a very devout Christian. Radisson attempts to strong-arm Josh into signing it but to no avail, leading him no choice but to assign him the arduous task of proving to him and the class that God is not dead, thus creating the primary context of this movie.

While I don’t want to spoil the interconnectivity of all of the subplots that go on throughout the film, there’s one specific thing I’d still like to comment on. Professor Radisson argues a point that almost every atheist I’ve ever met has done with me as well. He asks Josh that if God exists, then why does God let bad things happen? His answer is one that I’ve come to know myself from my own spiritual journey and that’s the fact that if I were given an easy and constantly rewarding life, why would I ever have the desire to seek God? There’s great truth to those words because I never did seek God much at all during all those years I had hoards of money and close to perfect health. But through the major financial losses I’ve incurred and the health struggles I continue to endure, I’ve sought God in every way possible. But have I received proof of God’s existence through any of it? Well I’m going to take a page in Josh’s book here and say this instead of answering the question directly. While I may not have received any irrefutable proof yet that God exists, I haven’t at the same time received any that God doesn’t exist either. But what I do know is that it ultimately comes down to a choice. I can live a life of free will or I can live a life of faith.

Nevertheless, I must say that this movie did have an overly religious tone to itself, one that I might normally balk at. But ironically, overall I was extremely moved by it, so much so that I chose to pray and reaffirm my devotion to God and the unconditional love of Christ by the time it ended.

So I’m sure some will continue to take me or my review of this film the wrong way, believing I’m really just turning into another religious nut, but the truth is, I’m actually quite far from becoming that at all. In all honesty, what I am becoming is a firm believer that I can connect to God and the unconditional love of Christ through any number of ways, one of which was something as simple as watching “God’s Not Dead”, which I wholeheartedly recommend you do as well…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

 

“Is That All There Is?”

Approximately one week ago I heard this person share at a recovery meeting that they’d been sober for 10 months, but weren’t feeling so great about their life. They said that everyone else seemed to be doing so much more interesting things in life than them and then asked a question that drove the meeting’s topic that day.

“Is that all there is?”

What they were referring to is whether life had anything better to offer them than their current circumstances. I have to say that I could most definitely relate, because I have stood in that very spot time and time and time again, until I realized I needed to look a lot more within rather than outside of me.

The fact is I asked myself that very question,” Is that all there is?” after I bought my first home.

I asked myself “Is that all there is?” after buying several new expensive cars.

I asked myself “Is that all there is?” after buying my own B&B on an island surrounded by beautiful beaches.

I asked myself “Is that all there is?” after being on a bunch of luxury cruises on the ocean.

I asked myself “Is that all there is?” after acquiring the priciest cell phones and laptops.

I asked myself “Is that all there is?” after spending a month travelling throughout Europe.

I asked myself “Is that all there is?” after dining out at some of the most costly restaurants in the world.

I asked myself “Is that all there is?” after flying long distance on an all first-class flight.

The reality is that I asked myself “Is that all there is” constantly over the course of two decades of my life while I continued to look for happiness outside of myself. It wasn’t until I began to search within and learn to love myself a lot more did any of this change.

Thankfully, I can now sit in my backyard or spend time in the garden or work on a puzzle, all completely alone, and be 100% ok with it, even while knowing all those things are out there in the world that I could be doing like those who are doing them. And while my state of health has been currently preventing me from doing many more things that I’d like to do in life, it’s ultimately caused me to truly appreciate the simple things that I somehow always overlooked before.

The happiness I seek today really is from within, and not outside of me. It’s something that’s taken a lot of hard work and in all honesty, is still a work in progress. But the good thing is I don’t find myself asking, “Is that all there is?” anymore, mostly because I know now that my own happiness can’t come from any person, place, or thing outside of me. It’s only going to ever come from unconditionally loving myself from deep within, because through that, I know I’ll find appreciation in everything I already have…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson