Imagine Living In A Bigger House

"How Big Is Your House?"

Imagine living in a bigger house. How big is the house you currently live in? One bedroom? Two bedrooms? One story? Three stories? Wouldn’t it be silly if you lived in a big house but only occupied the smallest room at the back of the house! It sounds ridiculous, but do you know how many folks only live in a small part of their house? It is called their reality and they never venture outside the door of one small room.

By now you’ve probably figured out that I’m not talking about a wooden structure that houses people, but about a person themselves, their psyche. Most of us have painted ourselves into one small room we call our personality. We define ourselves by it, by our thoughts, and by our emotions. The idea that we are anything beyond that has never occurred to us!

Just ask someone to change the way they think about something and you’ll quickly see what I mean. “Well, that’s just the way I am”. “That’s just the way I feel”. If we see ourselves as our feelings or our thoughts or our bodies, then we have created a very small, safe, little room in which to live.

This is the function of our ego, to put us into a safe predictable space. Anything that suggests we move too far out of this comfort zone will usually be perceived as a threat by our ego and we will move into fear. “What is outside my safe room?” We are nearly certain that it is the domain of monsters and dragons.

Organizations of all kinds specialize in keeping people in their appropriate rooms. Religion is especially good at this. Just consider for a moment how beliefs function as a way to keep one in only one room of their house. Beliefs are just a set of ideas that we have decided and agreed upon as the “way things are”.

Of course, we don’t really have enough experience from our limited one-room perspective to know how the universe works or the imaginings of God Almighty, but we like to give it a shot. This wouldn’t be such a problem if we weren’t so arrogant and un-teachable on the subject. But we decide we know how things are and then we keep the door closed.

What if you decide that you want to occupy more than one room of your house? It will be a little scary. In truth, most people never decide to do that. Fear keeps us locked behind closed doors.

The current political situation in the United States is such a great example of this. Much of the political rhetoric plays upon people’s fears. “There is only one way to get us out of this mess and it is my way. The other way is scary and will lead us deeper into a dark hole.” This type of narrow thinking divides people and creates mistrust and anxiety.

The good news is that we live in a free-will universe. We are free to open the door and explore God’s creation at anytime. In fact, God would love to give us a tour of our beautiful home but will wait for an invitation to do so. There are new ways of being and seeing that will open up for us when we are willing to set aside our fears and journey with God’s Spirit.

Love is the golden key that opens the door to a greater awareness and consciousness. Spirit is our companion and guide on the journey. What awaits us is an expanded ministry and a more abundant life. By meeting God within, in our inner temple in the quiet of meditation, we can invite God’s presence and guidance into our lives and begin the exciting process of discovery of who we are and why we are here.