Fearful vs. Indulgent God Images

As children, we learned that the highest authority—even higher than Mom & Dad—is God. So it’s not a surprise that we bundle up all our painful subjective experiences with the Ones-Who-Say-No, and dump them on God. Presto change-o—a God image has been created…

As kids, authority figures were forever popping up everywhere. And when they stopped us from doing whatever it was we enjoyed most, we viewed them as hostile…To whatever degree we experienced fear and frustration, to that same degree we’ll fear and be frustrated by God…For many people, God is punishing and severe. We might also believe that God is unfair and unjust—a contrary force we must grapple with...

Before we know it, we will have grown an inner image of God that makes him out to be a monster…Believing this to be true, we turn away from God altogether, wanting nothing to do with that monster in our minds…This, folks, is often the real reason someone turns to atheism…

When doting parents give in to every whim, they don’t instill a sense of responsibility in the child…In such a person’s eyes, God will let us get away with anything, so we can cheat life and skip out on responsibilities. Certainly, we might know less fear, but since life can’t be cheated, our wrong concept is going to take us down a road to conflict…

Our personal God-image will in some way be a combination of these two main categories…Because our God-image is so basic it taints all our other attitudes about life. It pushes us into hopelessness and despair, believing we live in an unfair and unjust universe, and also launches us into self-indulgent behavior where we reject self-responsibility because we expect God to pamper us…

These submerged ideas must get pried up from the muck of our unconscious thinking…This is not a quick-fix process…We can give ourselves time to adjust, while we keep holding our own feet to the fire of truth…Emboldened by our Lower Self, our emotions will resist changing…So prayers will be important…Our emotions will gradually grow up and out of previously erroneous reactions…

If we want to know the truth but aren’t all that committed to overcoming our resistance to it, then at least we should realize that we’re the ones obstructing the light and our own freedom, not God…The realization that cause and effect is on us, not an angry or indulgent God, is one of life’s main breaking points…And it’s that breaking point alone that could release us from this notion that we’re a victim…The laws of God don’t turn us into puppets—quite the opposite, they make us whole and set us free…

Clearly, talking about God is not easy. And yet, we must try. One major stumbling block for all of us is that we think about God as a person…God is; he (she, it, they) just is…Among other things, God is life. And God is also the force that enlivens life…Through us and all around us flows this powerful “electric current;” it’s up to us how we want to use it…

The way spiritual laws work, the more we deviate from them, the more we live in a misery that causes us, at some point, to turn around and realize that we ourselves are the source of our misery, not God and his laws…To love the laws is to love God…Nestled in these loving laws is God’s willingness to let us deviate from divine laws, if we wish…No one is forcing us to live in light and bliss.

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 14: Exposing the Mistaken Image we have About God

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #52 The God-Image