Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 9
One of the most difficult directions from the Bible is “Lech L’Cha”, “go to/for your self”; the suggestion made to Abraham when he was in Haran. He was in a foreign place, finding a spiritual discipline that went against the idolatry of his time and place, he was seeking and this message came to him. Looking at the first line of the message: “Go to/for your Self from your country, your family, from your father’s house”, reminds us to not allow our fear of the unknown stop us from exploring what is, what was, what can be. This is God telling Abraham to not “keep up with the Jones”, not “worry about how many likes he has”, rather to leave the distractions and externals that he has made into his image and seek the authentic image of God that he was created in and needed to be. What a concept!!
In every age the people in power have loved their trappings and their followers are enamored with them, the visit by King Charles is an example as was his wedding to Diana, Diana’s funeral, Trump’s Gold everything, the Inauguration of the newly elected President, funerals for dignitaries, all have their pomp and circumstance, all have tremendous interest and most of the people attending do so for show rather than meaning. Abraham is told/realizes/intuits that while “the show must go on”, he doesn’t have to buy into it. This first sentence of the 12th Chapter of Genesis is a new beginning in God’s quest for human beings to truly be a partner with God in making the world “a more perfect union”, of God and humans, of humans and humans, of humans and animals, nature.
Yet, no matter how many times we read this verse, no matter how many times we extol Abraham, we the people seem to continually miss this part of the message, continually ignore the ‘command/suggestion’ to “go to your SELF”, to find the image of God we are created in, seek out and live into the divine need each of us alone is uniquely qualified and able to fulfill. NOPE, we the people in our smallness believe the ‘larger’ we live that bigger we are-missing the message completely, turning it into an ego-serving, narcissistic message rather than a message of hope, of spirit, of truth. Be it the Rabbis and extremists in Israel (extremists on both sides), or the Rabbis, Priests, Ministers, MAGA’s, or the wimps of the Republican Party who claim to be such ‘good christian folk’ and ‘such observant Jews’; all of we the people, who are buying into the narcissism of the message, buying into the distractions another(s) paints of this message, are Ghosting God, Ghosting their authentic Self-the exact opposite of what God is telling Abraham, the exact opposite of what Jesus preached! Yet, the liars and charlatans who are in power here and abroad, fervently preach their lies and, some of we the people, so want to be deceived that these lies are bought hook, line and sinker. How sad, how terrible, how ridiculous!
The solution begins at home, it begins with parents caring as much about their child’s spiritual health as their mental, emotional and physical health. It begins with parents speaking to their children in ways they can hear them and knowing that each child hears differently and each child has to be treated differently since they are unique. It continues with NO COMPARISONS, NO COMPETITIONS between siblings, in school, in religious education. It continues with parents reminding their children that each room is better because they walked into it and each moment is an opportunity to do something good for another human being. The solution is “in our hearts and in our mouths”, it is within reach and firmly entrenched in our soul. The challenge is to let go of making our rational mind the arbiter and remembering the gift of our intuitive mind. The challenge is to let go of old ideas, realizing while they may have ‘served’ us once-they will not get us closer to the truth of our existence, closer to the joy of being authentic and connected.
Having lived both ways, the way of the narcissist, the way of Abraham, I can testify to the difficulty of God’s command/suggestion to Abraham. It was/is hard to give up what I know/think I know and hear the call of God, the message of my soul. Living into this way of being is counter-intuitive and absolutely exquisitely beautiful, it is the path to joy, to wholeness, to connection, to truth, to kindness, to true love. It was way past time for me to make Abraham’s journey(it was my Bar Mitzvah Portion-talk about Beshert) and when I began it, I found a similar pull to Abraham’s to keep going forward!
ACTION STEPS:
Make a list of the ways you “go to/for your Self” each day for a week
Make a list of the ways you Go against your authentic self daily for a week
Make a list of the ways you feel ‘pulled’ by societal norms to go against your authentic self in order to ‘make ends meet/get ahead’
At end of the week of making these lists, do your own pros and cons to decide how you are going to “go forward” as your Self or as a false self
GOD BLESS and Stop Ghosting God and Self, Rabbi Mark