Monthly Archives: May 2007

When I was growing up and sitting in church every Sunday listening to my dad or anyone else speak about Heaven, I remember thinking to myself on more than one occasion, that it sounded awfully boring to me.

I mean, it was a nice enough idea to imagine pearly gates and gold bullion boulevards and no pain or sorrow and angels floating around in full view . . . But I kept wondering, what I was going to do up there for all eternity. You can only imagine so much singing and rejoicing before the novelty wears off.

This train of thought actually came up for me because I’ve been wondering off and on about whether the bliss I’m trying to follow is really some place on a map that I can get to and once there, really feel that I’ve arrived. Do I ever reach a point where it feels like I’ve made it? Do the pearly gates ever close behind me as I drive up to my version of a mansion where I’ll just kick back and chill from that point on? So I asked the Shower Team about the idea of the journey versus the destination. Where’s the “there” I want to be—and how close to heaven can I get?

You have correctly felt or suspected for quite some time that there is no real endpoint to your existence or some sort of graduation and awards ceremony that marks the completion of what you keep coming here to do—which is to joyfully and vigorously and energetically and passionately continue the expansion of who you are. And while the idea of a long break or vacation from the stresses that you often fill your life with can understandably seem like a nice idea for a while, pretty soon the notion of eternally not doing much of anything can get old fast.

Some part of you has understood that there is a kind of truth to the statement, “Heaven is a place on Earth.” because you recognize that when you are really experiencing your life in the fullness that is available to you, when you are creating that life from a place of absolute joy and passion and zest and eagerness . . . then you truly are in Heaven.

Even more important than that, is the recognition we would offer you that not only is Heaven not some place you are waiting to go in order to slip into a shiny robe and play a harp for the rest of eternity, but that Heaven is not a place, period. Heaven is not a destination in any sense of that term. You often hear the words spoken that, “It is the journey not the destination that matters.” But like most words that smack of platitude, you tend to pay lip service to it and then, typically, dismiss it and get right back on your treadmill to presumed glory.

What we would like you to understand is that there is no there there. And in fact, there is really no here, either. What you want is neither here nor there . . . where you stand or where you hope to go. What you really really want is on the way from here to there— to wherever or whatever you are currently imagining Heaven to be. But we promise you—it wouldn’t matter how grand and glorious, how stupendous or spectacular that destination turned out to be . . . sooner or later you’d start to get bored there and want to move on. Or you would want to change it somehow. You’d want to make some improvements on Heaven because that’s just how you are—constantly evolving, constantly forming new preferences, constantly deciding on new directions or dreams . . . It is what makes you eternal and what makes you part of the eternal expansion of all that is.

It is also the reason we are always encouraging you to enjoy yourself more, to strive less, to make your life the joyous journey that you intended it to be. And it is the reason we keep saying that it doesn’t matter where “here” is . . . or where “there” is . . . you can and will get from here to there . . . and then you’ll straight away want to be heading somewhere else. And will.

So when you concluded long ago that Heaven sounded boring you were right in the sense that any heaven—any destination you arrive at no matter how delightful—will still yield to you new desires, new dreams, new destinations. Heaven will always be another point on the horizon or another addition or new look to where you live . . . some place or some thing you’re looking and moving toward . . . and the heaven you can feel is always yours to choose, yours to celebrate and savor—as you continue to pack your bags and launch the next leg of your journey.

I do hear that. And I like the idea of a life continually in motion, of always being on my way, even as I recognize that not everyone embraces the traveler archetype quite so readily. But at least until I forget again that what I really want is neither here nor there, I/We shall remain—even as I/We continue our constant journey—transitionally complete.

I love the Shower Team. They put up with a lot of moaning and groaning from me sometimes and they just keep coming back around with their own brand of (sometimes) tough love. Not long ago I was whining extra long and loudly about wanting to once and for all put some particular issues behind me that had been getting on my nerves. More to the point, I was getting on my own nerves for not being able to let go of some discouragement and worry that I was feeling.

In the course of waa-waa-ing again about all this to the Team, I first got a very clear and pointed suggestion (command?): “Look where you’re going—and don’t look down!” And in that same moment, much to my surprise I got a vivid mental picture of a story from the Bible that I’d heard many times in my childhood.

It was the story of Jesus walking on the water. His disciples were in a boat and the seas were rough and they looked up and saw Christ walking toward them on the stormy surface. He called to one of them, Peter, and urged him to step out of the boat and walk toward him. Peter obeyed and found himself walking across this stormy sea toward Jesus’ outstretched hand—until he took his eyes off Christ and started looking down at his feet and at the choppy, churning waves. At which point he sank like a stone.

I wasn’t expecting Biblical imagery in response to my predicament and so I asked the Team to ‘splain themselves .

It can be a very difficult thing for you to hear and accept that you never really improve any situation by focusing on what’s going wrong. You never really solve a problem by focusing on the problem. You never get yourself to a place that feels better by focusing on what feels bad (but don’t tell the psychologists that).

A more precise and important way of putting it is that you cannot move forward in the direction of your dreams and desires when you are focused on the fear or the worry of failure. You cannot move in the direction of what you want when you are insisting upon staring at what is, where you are.

In fact we would encourage you to never pay attention to what is unless it is delightful to do so. Never give your attention to “what’s real” or “what’s true” unless that reality or that truth feels joyful or hopeful or comforting or reassuring or encouraging . . . For as long as you are giving your attention to anything that distresses or concerns or confuses or frustrates or scares you . . . then you are holding yourself in a place where the joy or the fulfillment or the love or the appreciation or the satisfaction cannot flow freely to you. You are stuck in a place that feels bad and you are stuck there for no reason other than that being what you are choosing to focus on.

There are any number of examples or stories or illustrations of this fact, including the one you’ve remembered. Anytime someone says to the one up on the roof or the ladder or crossing the rickety rope bridge: “Don’t look down!” they are essentially saying the same thing. The very best way to get where you want to be is to fix your gaze on that point—if only in your imagination—and don’t take your eyes off it. Walk steadily in the direction that you are looking . . . because the second that you take your attention off where you want to be and start looking at what’s going on around you, then you falter or fumble or stumble . . . or sink.

No genius inventor ever conjured up a revolutionary new approach by getting stuck in his or her fixation on what was not going well. No one ever amassed a fortune by focusing on their poverty. No one ever got well by ruminating on how awful they felt or found themselves in a satisfying relationship by obsessing about their loneliness.

You are as continually and completely supported in your progress—in your stepping out of the boat—as any apostle in any parable or story real or mythical. You have access to that same outstretched hand and those same reassuring eyes if you will allow yourself to remember that You are part of a Universe that wants only your success and joy and satisfaction.

Keep your eyes on that point on the horizon that calls to you. Let nothing and no one distract you from where you want to be. Make any other facts or figures, problems or conditions, “truths” or “realities” irrelevant . . . Remember where you are going and no matter what’s going on around you or beneath you . . . don’t look down . . . and you will step easily and assuredly across any raging sea toward your desires.

My minister dad would be so pleased to know that I am still learning lessons dating back to Sunday School. I think. In any case, I’ve felt much freer of that discouragement since getting this message. I know too well that keeping my eye on the horizon rather than on whatever’s raging or nagging or nipping at my heels is easier said than done sometimes. But now there’s a clearer image of that outstretched hand—or hands—and the seemingly miraculous calm that accompanies moving toward it or them. It leaves me so much less to worry about . . . so much more to step faithfully toward . . . and all that leaves me/Them stepping much more lightly and feeling for the moment, reassuringly complete.