Category: Words To Live By

I love my best friend immensely. We’ve been the closest of friends for 24 years now and I pray we will remain the closest of friends for another 24 and then some. But, I often struggle with his approach to Christianity, as I have with many others as well who tend to proselytize their love for Christ in many of their conversations with me.

Look, I love Christ and personally declare Christ as my own teacher and savior and I seek to love as Christ did, but I don’t shout it from the rooftops or talk about it in the majority of my sentences. I do my best instead to show the love of Christ through my actions. Actions like hugging someone, listening to them without giving advice, crying with them, holding their hand, praying for strength, love, and support for them, etc.

Having felt so broken over the past few years from all my pains and anguish, I’ve really felt like I’ve been in hell, but suggesting that I need to deepen my relationship with Jesus Christ and quoting me Biblical passages doesn’t help, it only overwhelms me, as it tends to feel quite judgmental, appearing as if I haven’t done enough spiritually or dedicated myself enough to Christ/God to be free of what I’ve been going through.

It’s why I love the story of Job so much. His three closest friends’ behavior drastically change from unconditional love to conditional love as Job’s pain and suffering carries on long past seven days. As Job anguishes and just wants to know why God allows him to keep hurting so bad, his friends start claiming he must have done something wrong with God. They suggest he’s crossed God somehow and insinuate it’s either some level of sin he’s doing or some level of dedication he needs to have with God that he hasn’t reached yet. Essentially, they all judge Job’s suffering must be Job’s fault somehow, that he’s either not doing enough or not doing it right. They’re all grossly wrong, which God makes sure to let them know in the end by stating that Job had done the best he could and then fully restoring Job’s life.

Whether the story of Job is true or not doesn’t matter, as it simply inspires me because I see much of my own long-lasting pain and suffering in Job’s and have been on the receiving end of people acting just like Job’s friends did. The fact is, I am and have been doing the absolute best I can to seek God in all my circumstances. And I do not believe I am in pain and suffering for as long as I have been because I have wronged God somehow, or because I haven’t sought a deeper relationship with Jesus, or because I haven’t studied enough Biblical passages, or because of some sin I’m still doing, or because of anything on my part really. I learned long ago that God’s grace and love is FREELY given to all of us, which is why I stand firm in my belief that I will heal independent of any works or actions on my part. But, when people proselytize to me, it makes me feel exactly the opposite, like I’m inadequate in the eyes of God, that I haven’t done enough to deserve God’s love, that I’m less than in some way, or that some sin of mine is somehow the cause of my long suffering. When in reality, as Job’s story showed, I don’t think it’s because of any of that.

Nevertheless, people didn’t come to Christ back in his time because of proselytizing. They came to him because of his unconditional acts of love and kindness. That’s why proselytizing tends to remind me today of the Pharisees in Jesus’s time who preached more than live out the scripture and talked more about the laws than in demonstrating the unconditional love and kindness of Jesus.

When my close friend Scott’s brother regularly proselytized him, it eventually caused them to have a major division leading Scott to resent both his brother and Christianity. When my sponsee Jeremiah had a best friend once proselytize heavily to him, it eventually ended their close friendship. And after a recovery friend of mine, Brian, spent the majority of our conversations hammering Jesus Christ and the Bible down my throat, it became so uncomfortable I had to completely pull away from him. Constantly preaching about Jesus and quoting Biblical scriptures, intimidates the non-religious and the non-church attender, often feeling judgmental to them who simply just want the unconditionally loving hand of Christ.

While I know my best friend means well and truly cares about me, as have all the others who have tried the proselytizing approach with me, what none of them seem to understand is that the fastest way for me and many others to run from a Christian is to have them constantly proselytizing their love of Christ, using one Biblical reference after another. Ironically, the fastest way for us to connect with them though is to simply love us unconditionally, arms outstretched, no words needed, letting us know like Christ would, that we are loved no matter what. I just pray one day all the evangelicals will come to understand this…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

When I saw that a number of notable political figures in our country had worn purple during inauguration week and discovered why that was, I thought it was a pretty great statement of showing how red plus blue together is united by the color purple.

Interestingly enough, purple also is one of the main colors that represents the highest energy center of our body, known as the crown chakra, and is at the top of each of our heads. Essentially, the crown chakra is said to be an umbilical cord of sorts to the divine, or Source/God if you may.

Nevertheless, our country has remained strongly divided quite a bit over the past four years. It truly seemed as if the majority of the country locked themselves in opposite corners right up until the Capitol Riots occurred. So many people fiercely supporting either the Democratic Party (Blue) or the Republican Party (Red) and having much to say in their social media or in person about the ills of the other party. I personally remained independent through it all, which oddly enough I learned is often represented by the color white, and is also considered to be a color of the crown charka as well.

Anyway, I find it very appalling that our country has become so divided into two main political parties. I saw far too much hatred come about in the last year or so over what party a person was associated with. Now many saying they won’t claim Biden as their president, when four years ago plenty on the other side saying they weren’t going to do the same with Trump. So much division, so little unity. So much finger pointing. What good does any of this do for our society?

Although I am very unpolitical, I still prayed for peace and love to permeate Donald Trump and his administration many times over during the last four years, and I will do the same with Joe Biden and his administration as well. I could have spent the last four years critiquing and judging all the negative things that the news showed Donald Trump doing. And I could do the same over the next four years with Biden as well, as I’m sure there will be plenty to be said negatively towards him too. Because that’s what happens when you take a side. Choosing either Red or Blue and then remaining judgmental and angry over what the opposite party is doing accomplishes nothing if any of us ever want to see greater peace.

Frankly, I’m very thankful the 2021 Presidential inauguration went on without a hitch and is finally over. I’m also thankful that none of those crazy rumors came true of things happening like martial law or civil war. If I’m going to be completely honest, I sometimes wondered if people really wanted things like that to happen so as to create further division and chaos, because deep down their inner world is already totally representative of that. Plenty of individuals in this world are filled with a lot of chaos and division within themselves already, so to have the outer world become like that, it somehow helps them to feel better with their inner imbalance, keeping their focus always outside of themselves, rather than looking to fix that imbalance within.

Look, if peace is ever to exist in this world, it has to exist within us first. It can never happen the other way around. So long as the focus in us remains on things like who’s Red or Blue, or on any of those other divisions that presently exist in our society, as there any many of them now, we will always remain unsettled, allowing our egos to believe the world will only be better if everyone was just “this way” or “that way”.

I am thankful to at least be able to say that I have peace surrounding politics because I’m not Red and I’m not Blue and I don’t take political sides. I don’t care who is in power and never have. I merely send whomever is, daily love and light hoping they will manifest that, and if they don’t, I keep praying, and if they do, I still keep praying. Because ultimately, I feel it’s my purpose to love everyone, whether they’re Red or Blue, or any other color under the sun.

So, I applaud all those who wore Purple during Inauguration week, as they truly set the stance moving forward in 2021 to create unity rather than division, connection rather than separation, and peace rather than discord. Maybe it’s time we all do the same and stop looking at what’s wrong in the political party we aren’t, and instead start working on fixing what’s broken within us that keeps us seeing the world in such a divided way in the first place.

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

I wasn’t going to talk about it because I didn’t think it was worth discussing anymore. But, after sitting on it for a number of days, I decided I needed to talk about it, that being the capitol riots.

I’m truly ashamed at what so much of our country has become lately. But I’m even more ashamed about how tarnished Christianity has become due to the actions of countless people who say they’re doing what they’re doing because they’re being guided by God and Christ.

Let me be 100% clear on this. Storming the capitol, defacing property, injuring and allowing needless deaths to occur in the process is not living anywhere close to the teachings I came to love and appreciate when I speak of Christ.

There were only two incidents I was taught where Christ showed anger. One was with money changers who were selling stuff in a sacred temple area. And the other was with a fig tree that didn’t produce fruit that frustrated Christ when he was really hungry. Two incidents amongst thousands of others where Christ showed nothing but kindness, compassion, sincerity, humbleness, generosity, and unconditional love. Storming the capitol and even angrily shouting at the masses with guns ablaze before that happened wasn’t offering any of those things.

It just appalls me when anyone believes that any political party or any specific leader can guide our nation to a closer relationship with God and Christ. Beyond the fact of whatever happened to the separation of church and state, the only way any of us will ever get closer to God and Christ or whatever our Higher Power is, is through a journey within each of us, not outside of us.

But, angrily tearing apart others, saying things like the Democratic party is the Mark of the Beast returned, or saying that Donald Trump is Satan himself, denouncing each other on social media in one argument after another about conspiracy theories and unfair elections accomplishes none of the goals of Christ. NONE!

I’m baffled at how people can label themselves a Christian and be doing the things they’re doing with one judgment after another lately. That’s pretty much what these capitol riots were all about. One massive judgment that went astray and led to serious mayhem and unnecessary loss of property and life.

People who label themselves as Christians often feel they need to carry the torch for Christ by doing actions they feel are justified under their Biblical understanding, but really are doing nothing but promoting their own egotistical beliefs.

Do you know what I think Christ would have done with this election? I think he would have embraced whomever won and in the same breath claimed the leader of the world was far beyond this world. He wouldn’t have stormed a capitol to prove any point. He wouldn’t have carried guns into Washington D.C. threatening for change. And I honestly don’t believe he would ever berate anyone for their personal choices of political party or their stances in them.

I have heard so much in recent times that the republican party is the only one that’s going to protect the Biblical ideals of Christ. I have also heard things like needless babies are going to be killed under the new democratic regime. Enough! This is why I abhor politics and honestly wish now that I hadn’t even voted in this past election, because none of this is showing the true teachings and love of Christ.

What matters is how we treat each other. That’s the Christ part I came to appreciate. And storming the capitol is not treating each other with the love and kindness that Christ brought. Neither is yelling at someone on Facebook in a comments area because they believe differently then you.

Our country is stuck because people are stuck on themselves and their selfish and self-centered beliefs. They think the solution they have is the only solution to fixing all this brokenness. To those rioters, their selfish belief was that our country will only be ok when Trump remains in office and to prove the illegitimacy of this past election.

You know what the flaw is in that?

Even if somehow proof of an illegitimate election had been made and Trump remained in office, there’s still half of our country mad because they didn’t get their way. Because everyone keeps placing their view of a better Christian world, or even a better spiritual world, on things like politics, political leaders, and the policies they’re going to make. When the only way a better world filled with the ideals of Christ is only going to come when each and every one of us STOPS JUDGING each other and STOPS BELIEVING the answer is a change out there in the government or anywhere for that matter, when it’s a change in our own very hearts.

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson