“What would you ask from God, if you ever met him?”, wondered my mum with a counter question to mine.
I was about 9 -10 years old. We were returning home from listening to one of the scripture stories at a Hindu study centre (in our village in India), where a demon king did a lot of meditation and prayers to please God and asked him for immortality, so he could rule the world forever. Continue reading “Return To God”
Recently a friend used a figure of speech while describing a situation involving an unexpected detail that later turned out to be crucial to the success of their project, but after going unnoticed, caused further disruption and complications to occur. It made me contemplate the meaning and foundation of this now commonly known idiom.
Many people may be familiar with the phrase ‘the Devil’s in the details’, which some claim was originally used by the atheist German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (in German: “Der Teufel steckt im Detail”(1)) and later adopted by many other cultures around the world, although paradoxically the exact ‘details’ of its origin seem difficult to determine. It generally “refers to problems or difficulties that result from the unforeseen nature of unexamined details. It refers to a catch hidden in the details rather than the truth in its abstract sense.”(2) This was indeed the saying used by my friend during our discussion, but after having a feeling that something did not seem right about that phrase (probably stemming from the fact that I personally have never believed in the existence of the ‘Devil’), I decided to do a little digging into the true foundation of this phrase. Continue reading “The Angel’s In The Details”
I have always had a relationship with religion in some form or another. It started off when I attended a local Jewish nursery, and consequently declared in various conversations I was Jewish. On some occasions I even claimed my entire family was Jewish! Without really knowing what ‘being Jewish’ meant, I used to just enjoy certain aspects of their rituals, like when we would sing songs at Shabbat, and one song in particular about Cholla (braided bread eaten on Shabbat) ending up in someone’s little tummy before it was time to eat.
At this stage I had not associated ‘being Jewish’ with anything to do with Religion or God. Continue reading “Religion? For some or for All?”
When asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God will not come with observable signs. Nor will people say, ‘Look here it is,’ or ‘There it is.’ For you see, the Kingdom of God is in your midst.”
(New Testament: Luke 17:20-21)
For me this is quite a big step, writing an article opening with a quote from the Bible. A coming out even. Have I been converted into Christianity? No, I am not into Christianity as such. I am not a follower, but I do believe that Jesus was a great messenger, and that some of his quotes have ended up in the Bible. Continue reading “Finding the Kingdom of God”
What if the body of God contained the world as we know it? And not only our world, but the Universe and beyond… what would that look like?
I began asking myself this as a hypothetical question. The more I pondered the more it dawned on me that there was, in truth, nothing hypothetical about it. Continue reading “The Cell That I Am “
Picture this: I’m standing in the middle of a very large room, a bit like a hall, in front of a large group of people. Everyone is holding onto a pile of pictures of God that they’ve brought along. I put it to the floor: “Does anyone have a picture of God that they would like to bring out and put on the wall so we can have a look?” People are standing with bags and crates full of their pictures of God so it’s a ludicrous question to ask and I’m just teasing them. Everyone is there and ready with their pictures. I have to create some disappointment though, by saying that we can look at their examples of pictures after I have finished covering the walls with mine first. Continue reading “Pictures of God “