Simplify, simplify, simplify!

Comment by Maxwell Blair on March 5, 2010 at 11:07pm

Well, this forum is new to me. I liked this heading about simplicity.
And the lack of interest with intellectual debates - as if God can be boxed in.
Meanwhile, I have a recording in my head that tells me the right thing to say.
How do I stop playing the old record and start living life?
What makes the Lord more real: fact or fiction?

Comment by Heidi Schnarr on March 6, 2010 at 5:17pm

Hi, I'm not sure I understand the question, what makes the Lord more real, fact or fiction? Nothing any of us does can make the Lord more real. He just is :). I do have a personal answer to, how do I stop playing the old record and start living life? And to me that is through honest seeking. I grew up with a lot of preconceived notions about God, but it has only been since I started coming directly to God with an open mind in prayer that I felt I really got to know Him on a personal level. Isn't it amazing, even our walk with God HE is in charge of!!! All I need to do is ask, and keep asking, for guidance, and then let go and LISTEN for all the many ways he is already speaking in my life. For me this often means taking time to really slow down--listen to music, read the Word, take a walk, journal--and let all of my own thoughts sort of slow down, and listen for what the peaceful, still voice of God is gently saying--and probably has been all along--behind all that clutter. Make sense?

Comment by Maxwell Blair on March 7, 2010 at 4:40pm

So, in the spirit of the simplcity-theme, I think you are suggesting that the still voice of God brings peace - a form of simplicity - as opposed to chaos.

And, still on the simplicity theme...

A lot of my 'day-job' is developing computational design models.
I have been aware of other aspects of models - for instance - in the sense that a model is an analogy.
In general, a model is useful if it simplifies a situation and provides useful direction.
My consciousness is a processor for creating models - based on various inputs.
For instance, a single word is a model that is a reduction of some experience. My understanding of the doctrines of a church are a model that make it possible for my small brain to simplify and grasp the infinite with some useful outcome. Everything I think is a reduced model of something more complex. There are models within a model. And I have mental models observing other models.

So, the theme here is simplicity - and I thought models was a form of simplicity.
I am so blessed to have an image of the Lord that brings peace and assurance.
So, what are other kinds of simplifying models?

Comment by Heidi Schnarr on March 7, 2010 at 6:37pm

I am laughing to myself here because while this blog about models may make things simple for your brain, my non-computer-processor brain is taking a while to digest this. Your question, what are other kinds of simplifying models--are you saying, your image of the Lord is one model, and you wonder what other spiritual models there are? Well if you ask me ALL spiritual truth and reality boils down to GOD. As Divine Love and Wisdom so beautifully points out, the essence of God is LOVE. If I really need a simple spiritual standard to bring my life's dilemma's to, I ask myself this: Is it loving? Or, what is the more loving answer here?
I've learned along the way that "simple" does not necessarily mean "easier." In fact the more I learn about the Lord the more beautifully simple he becomes. It's kind of like how the angels of the highest heaven have as their Word like two words--the Lord Jehovah. (I didn't look this up but somewhere in the Writings there's a story where the angels of the highest heaven show Swedenborg their Word.) Because by those two words those angels instantly perceive everything they need to know about the Lord. Yet angels in the lower heavens have the Bible more like we have. Could it be that they, like us, like/need to make these things complicated in order to perceive God's love?

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