We are divine.  There’s no doubt about it.  We are made of star stuff and here to make manifest the glory of God (to paraphrase Carl Sagan and Marianne Williamson).  This is another point of contention that I had with the Christian faith and a reason why I felt the need to leave the church.  Growing up, I was taught that I was bad – that I was a sinner in need of saving.  I was constantly critiquing and over-analyzing every little thing that I did.  Did this make God happy?  Was it a sin?  Was it one of those weird gray areas and I should just err on the side of it being a sin and not do it so that I don’t have to repent for it later on?  It was such a weird dichotomy because on one hand, the church was telling me that I was so fiercely loved that I was died for, that I was worthy, that I was perfect just as I am.  But then on the other hand, I was told I was a sinner who did bad things, that I was separate from God, and that was in need of saving.  I was constantly feeling like I wasn’t living up to the divine expectations set before me.  I constantly felt like a let down and a failure.

When I started to have this awakening and my views on everything shifted, my views about myself shifted, too.  With this new shift in thinking, I came to believe that I wasn’t a sinner in need of saving; in fact, I was an expression of the Divine, and I couldn’t do anything to separate myself from the divine love that flowed through me. Instead of following the traditional dogma that God is separate from me, I decided to follow my own inner knowing and trust that I was actually the opposite of what the church was telling me.  Instead of a sinner in need of saving, I realized that I am an embodiment of the divine and only divine love flows through me.  Instead of believing that I am innately bad with original sin, I realized that while I do “miss the mark” from time to time (the original definition of “sin”), that doesn’t mean I’m condemned to a horrid fate.  It simply serves as a lesson showing me what I should do in my life (that honors me and the Divine)  and what I shouldn’t do (that dishonors the Divine and brings harm into the world).

We have a big problem with separation in our society right now.  We are taught that not only are we separate from God, our Creator, but that we are also separate from each other and separate from the earth.  This idea of separation causes detrimental disconnect.  The ego sneaks in and instead of  being able to see everything as one, we allow ourselves to feel like we are better than others.  We feign confidence based on the fear that we aren’t worthy.  When we lose our connection with things bigger than us, hopelessness can settle in.  It can take away our purpose – make us feel lost and confused.  It can make us feel like we’re powerless, that our fate lies within something other than ourselves.  But when we’re connected, we feel like anything is possible!  We see the truth of who we are and our place on this earth.  We see that we are just another product of nature, from our fingertips to our cellular structure, here to live life as fully as possible and experience love and bliss.

I’m here to tell you that you are PERFECT and DIVINE.  Do not sell yourself short!  Don’t let yourself think that you are anything less than a living embodiment of the Divine creator, because that is what you are!  Some of my favorite (and often overlooked, ignored, or told not to take literally) quotes from Jesus are the ones where he’s telling us about how powerful we are.  He tells us that we too are gods, that we can do what he can do (in fact, that we’ll do even greater things), and that the kingdom of Heaven is within us.  There’s also the scripture about how you can move mountains on faith just the size of a mustard seed.

If you really want your mind blown and see how connected we all really are, start studying quantum and particle physics and string theory.  Science is starting to prove the esoteric sayings of ancient teachers, sages, and mystics.  The more you learn, the more you’ll see that God really is everywhere and in all things all the time.  God is you, God is me, God is love, so WE are love.  Our purpose here is just to express the Divine – BE love.  It’s our superpower.