We Have to Go Where the Good (or God) Lies

There are recurring themes to this writing, but that’s probably because there are recurring themes in my life. As things come up, I write about them, and I also firmly believe the only way humans really learn anything is through abundant repetition. 

I have definitely written about the balancing act that is following faith while achieving dreams and goals. I firmly believe that beyond any face or human wrapping we put on God (or Good with a capital G), it also can and should be defined as a benevolent energy that can be aimed at just about anything. Just like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy works to reframe negative thinking patterns into more constructive, positive projections about the future and a more benevolent restructuring of the past, so too does faith help believers plan for the best and create lessons out of the worst. 

Call it whatever you like, we’re all doing similar things for ourselves to cope with or thrive across our lifetimes, because in many ways humans are far more alike than we are different. We just call our belief frameworks by different names: religion, faith, spirituality, therapy, cynicism, atheism. Each offers a way to interpret the world and our experiences. While we may not feel like we have a choice in how we interpret things, the whole point of all this writing is that I believe that we do. We can choose to have faith on a very basic but powerful level, and benefit a lot from that choice. 

But back to the matter of goals and dreams versus following a spiritual path. American culture would have us believe that if we put our minds to anything and work hard enough, dreams do come true. Of course, as someone who is touting the whole intention, manifestation, Good (or God) energy pretty hard through out this writing, I should probably believe the same thing. 

I do… and I don’t. 

I really do believe that if you’re on the right path, practicing faith, and being patient, dreams do come true. Where I differ is that I also believe dreams and goals should not be rife with pain and agony throughout the process. 

The more I practice faith, the more I believe that we have to pay attention to and scrutinize our fantasies if we are experiencing a lot of blowback or hardship in working toward a dream or goal. God (or Good) regularly protect us from hardship, crisis, disaster, other people, and even ourselves whenever necessary. Things - be it a business venture or a relationship - go wrong for a reason. Always.  

In my experience, there will be some dreams that welcome you in with open arms, and others that will tell you, in no uncertain terms, that you are not welcome there. This is why it’s important, particularly in the early days of faith, to spend some time getting to know who we are now that we have some stable ground beneath us and a whole new world at our fingertips. There are so many benefits and opportunities to having faith. People who have been living in darkness for a long time get blinded by the light. We barely know who we are or what we want if we are suddenly allowed to imagine we can have Good (or God) things, too. 

I encourage all of you, Dear Readers, to start slow in this process. Practice faith, get to know yourselves, gain stability, work on grounding, set boundaries, protect yourselves from harm, and then start experimenting with hopes and dreams. One thing that is abundantly clear is that God (or Good) always works in mysterious and INCREDIBLY SLOW ways. 

The faithless are always an impatient bunch. Whether we tend to be incredibly industrious or are suffering from extreme lethargy, it’s hard to wait for Good (or God) to turn up in our lives once we allow ourselves to believe in it. It becomes almost more difficult with a little faith under our belt, because we know what God (or Good) is capable of and we don’t want to have to wait for it. Still, it’s important that we do. 

It’s important that we do not try to force solutions, but of course many of us will, whether we’ve been practicing faith for ten minutes or ten years. Fortunately, life will teach us lessons that force us to tune back into Good (or God), get right with our true needs and desires, and pick a path that truly feeds us. 

So, if you find yourself trying to force an outcome, a relationship, a passion, or a project and it is just NOT happening, consider that an opportunity to slow down, stabilize, meditate, pray, and pay attention to what is truly driving you. Maybe, you are meant for other things. Maybe Good (or God) is protecting you from something truly terrible. Maybe, you never really wanted it in the first place. 

Fortunately, faith is a place to get to know our true selves. There is no punishment here, only valuable lessons learned, resilience to earn, and new opportunities to uncover. The only thing I would encourage you to do is to always, always, always go where the Good (or God) lies.