In my last blog I faltered—suggesting I have limited capability to comprehend infinity. Shortly after I posted the blog, I received an email from my niece, gently refuting me with a simple challenge: “I think you need to expand your consciousness to infinity.”

“OK.” I offered. “Got any suggestions for how to do that?”

She reminded me of the simple advice from the sage Jonathan Livinston Seagull.

Decide I can.
Choose it to be.
And it is.

Just let go of everything and it will come to you.

(Thanks Amanda.)

Gratefully,
David Wine

I no longer claim the religious beliefs my parents taught me, but at times I still ponder them. In those younger years, my friends and I were full of questions like:

“If the Bible tells stories about King David and his many wives–and his son Solomon who had seven hundred wives, and the Bible also says, ‘Go, and do thou likewise,’ then is it OK for me to have several wives?”

We were curious, but mostly just having a little fun with our teachers. They usually gave us a resounding “Pshaw” and continued with their lecture, flipping from one Bible text to another, building “proof” of some particular doctrine or tenet.

Now that I’m older, my new question is: If one Bible text can be used to support another in establishing a system of beliefs, then the “many wives” argument should hold as much weight as any other, shouldn’t it? How would you decide which Bible text supports or “proves” another?

Here’s an example. My teachers thought they had resolved the meaning of Biblical prophecies in Daniel and Revelation, one of which speaks of “2,300 days.” They told us that the 2,300 days in that prophecy are symbolic of 2,300 literal years, and that the “day equals a year” concept is based on two unrelated texts in Ezekiel 4:6 and Numbers 14:34. I think the “day equals a year” concept is taken out of context. But don’t take my word for it. Decide for yourself.

My inquisitive mind wonders why we should limit the “day equals a year” concept to only prophetic passages? Why not use it to explain other time-related stories, such as the story of creation? If read literally, the Biblical story of Creation teaches that the sun, moon and stars, our planet with all of its vegetation, the animals and humans were literally created in 6 days. However, if we apply the “day equals a year” model to the creation story, then maybe God took 6 years to create the Universe, the Earth and its inhabitants. While we’re at it, why not expand our thinking another notch and say “a day equals a billion years” and allow creation to take a literal 6 billion years?

Creation meets evolution!

Why can’t both theories be explained within the same, broad spectrum? I am neither a creationist nor an evolutionist. I embrace both theories…AND the other 6 theories we haven’t even discovered yet.

Actually, I think the missing link is based on a much larger concept.

From God’s perspective, “time” does not exist. It doesn’t matter if God created the world in 6 days or 6 billion years. From His perspective it would have been the same moment either way.

Well, that’s one perspective. Here’s another —

God is capable of anything. He’s able to create an entire Universe, including our Earth, with ‘age’ already existing in its structure. Maybe God did create our earth in 6 days and, while He was at it, had a little fun and made it with 4.6 billion years of “age” already built in.

After all, He is God….

What’s your theory? Maybe it’s one of the other 6.

Inquisitively,
David Wine

When I recently wondered about How Big Is The Universe, I mentioned The Ant’s perspective. I wondered if there are beings who perceive humans in the same way we perceive the ant.

What if an ant could expand its awareness so it could see AND understand humans? I wonder if it would try to communicate with us. Or if it would try to become more human-like by taking on our behaviors or values so as to fit into our culture or understand us better.

From our current human perspective, we have speculated that angels exist; some even say they have seen angels. We speculate that they have wings. We talk of having guardian angels, “assigned” to each of us to protect and guide us. Some of the books I’ve read recently discuss certain tasks angels perform like Healing, Teaching, Guiding, Delivering messages from/to God

In my human finite-ness I don’t personally know much about angels yet, but I wonder if the human-angel connection is similar to the ant-human relationship. If it were possible, would I choose to expand my awareness so that I could perceive and understand angels on an everyday basis?

Inquisitively,
David Wine

I pray for selfish things.

• When I was 9 years old, after the preacher delivered a guilt-ridden sermon, I prayed: “Dear God, please forgive my sins so I can go to heaven.
• ”In my twenties when I doubted His existence: “God, if you really exist, send me a sign. Seriously, if you want me to believe in you, let the next person I see be a bald man (or something silly like that).”
• When my son was 5 months old, in the hospital and near death: “God, why won’t you PLEASE heal my son? He doesn’t deserve this. PLEASE take this illness away from him!!”
• At the lake when I really wanted to water ski: “I hate this wind. God, please make the wind stop.”
• In my thirties: “I’m late for work and need to leave now! God, please help me find my keys!”

Truth is, I am a self-absorbed supplicator.

As a child I was told that communication with God was done through prayer, but the style of prayer I was taught was not communicating. It was one-way — me asking God for something I wanted at that moment.

Prayer is an interesting exercise. An agnostic might characterize prayer as Positive Thought, as in, “I am quite certain I am a careful driver, therefore I will drive to work safely and without accident.” A monotheist might characterize prayer as true communication with The One Deity, as in “God kept me from being in an accident on my drive to work.”

Here is an intriguing prayer-concept that brought interesting results for me. It’s a story from my brother:

In the mornings while showering, my brother’s normal routine was to pray the “old way” — many supplications and requests (Supplication Style):

God, bring me the next job.
Please give me more money.
Let my children be safe.
Etc…

One particular morning a new idea of expanding consciousness struck him. He changed his routine and rephrased every thought that came to him, turning that thought into an expression of gratitude (Gratitude Method):

Thank you for the job I will get today.
Thank you for the money I have.
Thank you for the safe keeping of my children.
..and so forth…

The result of this experiment was remarkable. The days when he prayed Supplication Style turned out to be more stressful, less happy and less fulfilling. But the days he used the Gratitude Method went more smoothly, with less anxiety and more happiness.

The Gratitude Method is becoming a more common style for me and the results are remarkable, bringing me greater and greater happiness.

My life is more abundant.

I am physically healthier.

I am achieving greater things professionally and personally.

My relationships with friends, coworkers and family are deeper and more fulfilling.

No matter what your religious beliefs, here is my “prayer challenge” for you:

(1) Choose an outcome.
(2) Believe it to be.
(3) Take action. (This is essential!)
(4) Offer gratitude – as if your choice has already begun to manifest. (Most important.)

Tell me how it works for you

Inquisitively,
David Wine

My name is David Wine. I am 48. At my other job I am an accountant. I enjoy learning new things and my mind is in constant motion. Read more about me in ABOUT.

I wrote a book called A Forever Place and it is almost finished. It’s about two very profound dream experiences I had a couple years ago. Please consider buying a copy of the book for you and another for a friend.

One of the people helping me with this project suggested I start blogging about those dream experiences, maybe some spiritual transformation stuff and other related topics. At first I thought blogging would be difficult. I’m an accountant, not a writer! But now I’m discovering I actually have a lot to say. I think if I focus only on Spiritual Transformation, I’ll probably get bored, so I plan to discuss other related topics like meditation, the concept of God, my thoughts about learning new things, how big is the Universe, and other similar things.

The dream experiences I wrote about in A Forever Place actually happened to me. They were overwhelming (like when I delivered my youngest son when he was born). When I woke up from each of the dream experiences, my heart was pounding, my skin was prickling from goose bumps and I was breathing heavily. In each of the dreams “…I stared at Infinity and Infinity stared back at me.” –Very intense!– Also, “…I was not alone. Someone was there behind me and to my right, but I knew that if I turned to look I would see nothing with these finite human eyes.”

I wanted to write about these experiences in a way that was so descriptive you could be there with me in A Forever Place. I hired professionals to help me write in an appealing and descriptive manner and I very much want for you to experience the intensity of those experiences as much as I did.

I will try to stay on appropriate topics from week to week, but I may wander a bit now and then.

Join me in my life’s journey.

David Wine