Spirituality Class and Teaching

In My last Post I was tall King about how My growing influence on Twitter is a reflection My influence in the microcosm.  There are four classes I am required to attend every week as part of the ‘Life Skills’ program, one of them is a spirituality class every Tuesday.

Last week I was not impressed with the class on spirituality.  The ‘theme’ was ‘brokenness’, and suggested that the only Way to accept God is for one to admit they are broken.   I have a very difficult time with this concept because if one knows God and has accepted God, they Will never feel broken.  A relationship with God is about fullness and living with purpose, not ‘brokenness’.

I did what I could to Keep My feelings on the matter to My Self out of respect for the teacher – it didn’t matter.  I have been living in community with the men in the program for a couple of months now and they are getting to know Me.  Although I didn’t say a Word, My anger with the sermon could be felt by the entire room and eventually, the spiritual director was as King of Me what is wrong, why am I silent?

I said that I Will never accept an association with God and brokenness, that brokenness is experienced by those who do not know or understand God; one who is with God can never be broken.  I went on to say that a morning sermon about God and spirituality should be inspirational and uplifting, not talking about how damaged and broken one must be if they want God in their lives.

A few moments later I was wishing she had never as King of Me anything.  My Words had an affect on the entire group, even the teacher was visibly shaken by what I had said, insisting that I might feel better about the message after a short video and that perhaps the concept was being miscommunicated.

Well, the video just made things worse.  It was about a cop who killed a man, quit the force out of guilt, joined the army and was promoted to special forces, fought the ‘terrorists’ in Afghanistan and said that by the time he left there, he was as corrupt and deplorable as ‘they‘ are.  He was discharged with PTSD, took up mixed martial arts and became a champion middleweight fighter.  He almost lost his wife and family because he had become such a hateful person.  Then he found God and his life is magically perfect.  He now provides counsel to other soldiers and special forces who suffer from PTSD as a result of their participation in the military.  If he had learned anything, he would stop others from participating in war rather than try to provide counsel for those who are ‘broken’ as a result of it.  God did not break these men, their absence of God and spirituality caused them to break.  If they had listened to God’s laws in the first place and determined that they Will never cause harm to another man under any circumstance, they would not have suffered the way they have.  The video was also loaded with propaganda about the ‘evil’ terrorists and an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ mentality which is only truly expressed by spiritual infants.  I expressed My thoughts on the matter with the spiritual director after class when the rest of the men had left the room.

The next morning the spiritual director sat down beside Me in chapel and said she was thing King about My Words all day and as King of Me to speak with her later.  I agreed and met her in her office later that day.  I had been writing here about My social media presence on Twitter and how it is in some way connected to everything I am doing in the microcosm.  The spiritual director started by telling Me that she was thing King about My Words all day because I have so much influence among My peers, that the others look to Me for guidance.  She also expressed to Me that she wants her sermon to be inspirational and uplifting, that My opinion of her teaching is also important to her and she did not mean to offend Me.

I ended up speaking to her for just over an hour and a half.  In fact, an hour and thirty-seven minutes to be exact.  I am open and honest with everyone about My objectives and to summarize Our conversation as quickly as possible, I let her know I don’t need much in the way of spiritual guidance and that I am here to accomplish peace.  I told her if she were meant to understand what I was teaching, God would show her the number thirty-seven and to pay attention to it and what she might be thing King when she sees it.  As We wrapped up Our meeting, I as King of her the time before leaving her office.

“2:37”

She had forgot what I had said about the number 37 so I had to remind her what it meant.  Whether she understands it or not doesn’t matter – I know what it means and I know I was meant to meet with her.

The problem with having conversations like this is that as beneficial as it may have been for both of Us, the effect tends to be that I intimidate those who are in leadership roles.  I haven’t really even seen the chaplain since that day but I know she is concerned about My opinion of her next class, I know she doesn’t want to cover anything that might offend Me, and the pressure is tangible.  I know everyone Will be wondering what My thoughts are on the next class, so I decided not to go today.  I don’t need the pressure and neither does the chaplain.

The same is true of pretty much any class I’m a part of.  Often the best thing I can do to make the instructor feel more comfortable is remain silent.  The more I participate, the more influence and favour I am likely to gain among My peers and the more insecure the instructors seem to become.  I’m honoured to be respected among My peers but it can be demanding.  I didn’t want to go to class, but I didn’t really want to not go to class, either.  One way or another, I am going to have to explain why I was not there.  I needed a day to think about it.

So it’s been kind of a slow day.  I did follow up with Chris Tuck and he returned My call this afternoon.  He hasn’t made any real progress and is waiting for some people to get back to him.  He’s out of the office until Thursday or Friday, so I Will call him again later in the week and see if I can find out who he is waiting to hear back from.

I shared this Post to demonstrate how the microcosm is reflected in My macrocosm in virtually every way if one is paying attention.  It was a slow day, I didn’t feel motivated to go to the spirituality class this morning, and although I did enjoy tutoring My student later in the morning, My microcosm feels like it is ‘on hold’ or something…  You know, ‘calm before the storm’, kind of feeling and as per usual, it is reflected by the activity of My social media accounts.  My Twitter account was at a dead stop at 4,895 followers until I started Writing this entry.  I’m at 4,903 now, though I think the intention was to end today on an even 4,900, leaving 100 more for ‘lucky’ Wednesday.  I guess We’ll see.

Hope and trust You are all well,

Love and Blessings