Vanilla Sky

I just watched the movie Vanilla Sky, and thoroughly enjoyed it. There was one bit that I felt fit perfectly with our idea of personal autonomy.

It comes from the character Sofia. She says, "Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around." This cannot be a truer fact and yet a skipped part of life. All to often we say, "I'll start dieting tomorrow. I'll do that work later. I'll write a thank you card when I get to it." Everything is put off, but why? We don't realize that we can do everything right now. We have the power, the time, the ability to do anything we want, and this is the moment to do it.

I know you say that you don't have the time, don't have the money or effort, but truly you do. The only thing stopping you is you! Decide (again) to relieve yourself of anything stopping you. Do you know what's stopping you? Generally its a combination of stress, guilt, anger, false goals, and lack of confidence among various other things. These are so difficult to abandon, but you can. For me, I can abandon them when I think of God. He does not put stress on me, he requires no guilt, he forgives my anger and self-loathing, He even goes so far as to offer me an unbelievable gift of unconditional love. It is this gift that truly sets me free.

I realize that I must associate personal freedom with my spiritual journey. For me it is God's gift of unconditional love that I have realized through meditation and conversation, that allows me to be anything and anyone I want. I can truly love who I am, because God, an infinite and omnipotent being, loves me. What more reassurance could I ask for? There is no other way God would want me, no profile to fit, no task to accomplish, my purpose is my own and he is happy with it.

For many, this may not be true. I know many Christians who have a profile they seek, a mission to accomplish, a purpose of someone else's choosing. These people are not wrong. They can be just as happy as I. They are loved by God just the same as I am. The difference is that they carry weight from all the things they have decided God puts on them. This is their idea and they are welcome to it, but does it make sense?

I ask you this, is God human? I hope we all agree that he is not. Some might say, "But He made us in His image," I say this came from a human hand, first spoken, then written and re-written and translated over and over, different each time. The statement gives us power, and a special feeling inside, but it doesn't mean all that. God loves everything equally. So if God is not human we can not say that he does human things, for we limit him by putting a human image and human ideas on him. He is above all of that. (This does not mean he is not part of all that, merely that He, and even using a gender is limiting, but He is above everything.)

So realize that God will not reject you or judge you, simply because these are human ideas. Ideas he is above. He is above judgment. This is the message that Christianity should preach. Be above everything and just love. Simply love. Love yourself and others. The golden rule is found in nearly every religion on earth, and yet none of us follow it.

So today, as Sofia tell us in Vanilla Sky, every moment is a chance to turn it all around. So do it. Go out and love.