I think it is very important to make declarations. Every once in a while, it is beneficial to sit down and think about what you really believe and write it down in your journal. I do this every once in a while. Not only does it document my progress or growth or development or whatever you want to call it, but it also helps me refine and articulate what I believe.

Four years ago Lisa and I took a vacation in the Dominican Republic. We had a fantastic time. It was so restful for me, and those hours of peace on the beach allowed my mind to rest and form its thoughts. I came up with several declarations early one morning. I was on the beach all by myself. Dolphins were swimming by as the sun rose. The warmth of the sun was already beginning to warm the sand. And as I sat there taking it all in, I decided to write down in my journal what I really really really thought… as if no one cared and I wouldn’t get in trouble. Here’s what I wrote:

1. The love of all things. All beings. All life. My heart swells at the thought. My eyes get wet. The love. The benediction. Permeates all.
2. There is no god with substance, form, location, existence. Yet all is full of benediction, blessing. But even this confines. All-theism. A-theism.
3. Serve. Rescue. Liberate all! Faithful in little, faithful in much. There are none in, none out. All are. Rules divide. Faith expressed through love.
4. Impermanence and transitoriness of all things. All things pass. Nothing is permanent. Change. Urgency. Now!
5. Jesus is the historical event and undying incarnation of all the above. He IS, in whom all are and none aren’t. To speak of him is not to speak of him. To not speak of him is to speak of him.
6. The mind’s perception is the deception. The utter ego-centricity, self-serving, self-preserving, self-protecting, self-seeking, narcissistic obsession of the brain. See this and be healed of blindness.

I really do think this is what poised my mind to receive the z-theory dream. I also think this is what began to prepare me to leave the confines of the church and normative Christian theology.

What a liberating morning!

So this is a spiritual exercise. Decide what you would declare right now. What do you really honestly believe? No one’s looking. Write them in your journal.

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