Inspiring Stories of Love, Healing, & Empowerment

Inspirations

March 2002
Issue Number 5

Welcome to Inspirations! Global Community For All sends out this e-zine filled with short, inspiring stories of love, healing, and empowerment once every three months. We share these wonderfully inspiring stories to encourage and inspire each other to be the best we can be each day of our lives. Thanks for joining us, and may these words inspire us to ever deepen our commitment to love, heal, and empower; to open to divine guidance; and to choose what's best for all.

Embracing All Religions and Faiths

Fred Burks

As a curious child, I remember asking a lot of questions about life and God. With a father who was a minister, when I was very young I believed in God, as that's the world I grew up in. As a young teenager, though, I questioned whether or not God existed. I soon concluded there was no easy answer to this. I had a very scientific mind and could see no proof. I was happy to live my life accepting that there might or might not be a God. I knew that either way, I found meaning in my life by trying to be as good and as loving as I could. Now I was no saint, mind you! Like most children, at times I was not good and loving–especially with my own family–but I did have that conscious goal, and gradually, over the years, I became better at it.

Even before my teenage years, I remember believing strongly that if there was a God, he must be all loving. How could God create all beings and then condemn some of us to an eternity of suffering in hell? How could all of the people of other religions, no matter how good they were, be sentenced to hell just for having chosen or grown up with the wrong religion? I decided that if any of my friends were to be condemned to hell, I wanted to go with them. It would be totally unfair for me to have all the pleasures of heaven while some of my friends suffered in hell. Being very rational, I eventually decided that a literal hell could not exist, as there is no way an all-loving, all-merciful God could be so cruel.

In my later teenage years, I became very interested in religions. First, I studied Christianity. I read carefully through the Bible several times and found it both fascinating and inspiring in places. I particularly loved almost everything that Jesus said. Whenever I found myself facing a particularly difficult situation in life, I often would think, "What would Jesus do in this situation?"

Then I studied other religions–Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Native American spirituality, Shinto, and lots more. I found each of these to be inspiring in their own way. I saw clearly that all of these religions, though having differing stories, were very similar in their basic message. All of them taught us to support and care for each other. All of them taught us to love and pray for support from God (or some form of the divine), and to try to be the best person we can be. So even as a teenager, I committed myself to supporting these basic principles of all religions. I committed myself to supporting believers of all faiths in loving and supporting each other to be the best we can be. Though I continued to be fascinated with the many differences between us, most of all I chose to focus on our similarities. I made a clear commitment to support and embrace all religions and people of all faiths.

At age 18, I became involved with the most wonderful group of born-again Christians. These amazingly loving, inspiring friends supported me even though I did not become "born again" as they were. They welcomed me even though I believed all religions had something beautiful to say, and even though I wasn't certain about the existence of God. With them, I saw the wonderful power of acceptance. I also saw the incredible power of prayer, especially when a group of caring people all come together in support and prayer. I learned to ask these incredible friends not to pray that I become born again or that I see God, but rather to pray always that God lead me down the path that is best for me.

Though I gradually lost contact with most of these beautiful friends, to this day I still feel the wonderful power of their prayer and support. Through our inspiring time together, I saw clearly the miracles that happen when a group of strongly committed people shares in a deep commitment to open to divine guidance and to love and support each other strongly in being the best we can be.

Since that time, I have had many more loving, supportive friends of various faiths and beliefs–even atheists. I have gradually opened ever more fully and clearly to their support. Thanks to incredible experiences at age 19 where all doubt of the existence of God was erased, I've also opened ever more fully to powerful support and guidance from the divine. I attribute the many incredible miracles of my life to both the inspiring love and support I've received from these many wonderful friends and from the divine, and to my deep, sincere commitment to do my best to choose what's best for all.

It is all this incredible inspiration and support and my own deep, clear commitments which eventually led me to the vision of co-creating a community where people of all faiths can come together in support of each other, a community which welcomes all who are open to sharing support and inspiration. It is all of this which led me last year to play a key role in creating this wonderful Global Community for All. Thank you my dear friends of all faiths and beliefs, and thank you, God, for all the amazing abundance, love, support, and inspiration you have given me over these many years. And especially thanks to you all for this most wonderful community which warmly embraces people of all religions and faiths who share a deep desire to support and inspire each other to be the very best we can be. I love you all!

Embracing All
Author Unknown

Light that lies deep inside of me
Come forth in all thy majesty
Show me thy gaze
Teach me thy ways
That I a better person may be

Darkness that lies deep inside of me
Come forth in all thy mystery
Show me thy gaze
Teach me thy ways
That I a better person may be

Love that lies deep inside of me
Come forth in all thy unity
Let me be thy gaze
Let me teach thy ways
That I a better person may be

Note: To welcome more love into your life in a most inspiring way, see the the Web of Love home page at this link.

Thanks for sharing in these inspiring stories with us. We wish you lots of inspiration and all the very best in the coming month.