Only This (first version. Unfinished.)

Are we adrift? Is there no shore? Is it true that we are the creation of infinite anger? Do ancient words have power over us, or is it we who decide how to interpret? How many ways to see the same teaching?

There is “something” here. It is felt so deeply that most of us are unaware of its life within us. But it is not so that we cannot see, and this something is more than within us.
This is more than a sense, more than some indistinct presence, that cannot really do anything for us but watch as we struggle along our frightened way, whistling in the dark. The ancient words say that it is closer than skin. But then they say other things that make us more afraid. This contradiction tears at us with fingers of old shame, their nails dirty with the guilt of ages past.

We keep reading, trying to understand. But which is it? Are we damned, or blessed? If we cannot untangle this burden, then let us release it, and begin again.

Come. Rest here. For not only is there a shore, it is our home, and we never did leave it…and we never could. We can pretend we left it, and we do. We act as if we are separated from this something, which created us. Yes, we are created. We act as if we are also separated from ourselves, and from one another. But in truth, there is no “other”. And yet, there are many “others”, with different beliefs and from different religions, or no religion. But even those with no religion, who think they just popped out of nowhere, from nothing, into nothing; they sense as well this something…this energy, this presence, this everywhere existent, that we call “God.”

Once we say that word, what is left? Do we cower, cover our nakedness, or do we see at last the reality behind the old legends of our Creator? No, be brave. So afraid have we been, that we see controversy in not using the uppercase letter, and in avoiding the many pronouns to describe “Him”. Or “She”. Or “It”. There is no need to fear. If you want to use capital letters, then use them. Let us ask the reader to use whatever pronoun is comfortable, and let us continue.
God does not ask, “What have you done?” He knows His creation only as He created it. Does He think we are wicked? How could He think so, and Himself remain good? If His perfect creation, His Son, does horrible things to his brother, how does God remain sane? How is there peace if even one soul burns? It is hard to see how on one hand, God has only one Son, but on the other hand, His Son has a brother. Hard, but not impossible.