Chapter 2 – Our Story
What is Our Story?
There have been elements of this motivating story throughout history, for example the Golden Rule, which states we should do onto others as we would have them do onto us. A chart of the Golden Rule depicts its statement in 13 different religions from Baha’i Faith through Zoroastrianism.[1] One example is the statement from Jainism: “One should treat all creatures in the world as one would like to be treated.”[2]
“Today we are living in a global village. Accordingly, we are all global citizens in addition to belonging to our particular groups, races, cultures, religions, and nations. Being a global citizen brings both privileges and responsibilities. The Golden Rule may be the best guide we have for bringing all the world’s people to live together in peace.”[3]
These spiritual concepts have been with us for a very long time indeed; we must now fully embrace and manifest them in our daily lives. Perhaps many of our fellow global citizens follow their own impulses rather than this Golden Rule because they see no reason; there is no compelling, motivating factor urging them to make the effort to seek a more spiritual and meaningful life. Our global village requires something that would bring about a spiritual renaissance; it needs a motivating story.
Before getting into our spiritually motivating story it must be remembered the foundation of our life is the firm belief that everything depends on our Heavenly Father; He has created everything, is in everyone and loves every person. It is upon this foundation that we base our life. With this firmly in mind we can present our story.
The story is our guiding principle, what motivates our life; therefore it needs to be strong and coherent enough to urge us to follow its implications. We will then live it just as compellingly as those who participated in the early westward migration of America. Another such story led persecuted individuals from many lands to come to our shores seeking freedom starting in the early 17th century and lasting up to our very own times (politicians permitting). This story becomes the guiding principle of our life, what we base our actions upon and what provides our existence with meaning, direction, and purpose.
Only a strong story could give such an inspiration; the usefulness of our story depends on its being strong; mankind is reluctant to change its ways, to try something new. A weak story would not be able to provide enough motivation to break with tradition and bring the story to life.
This story must be persuasive enough we will be motivated to gladly act upon it; not only should it be strong but also compel us to put forth the effort to realize its goal which is so alluring great effort will be joyously put forth to actualize it. Because of this inspiring story we will be as focused on realizing it as the Pilgrims were when they sought freedom from persecution four hundred years ago.
The effect of this story must be to improve the life of everyone as well as the society in which we live. Another effect must be to bring each individual into a closer relationship with God, so we can truly realize He is with each of us and will manifest the fruits of the spirit in our daily lives.
The first element of our story is the presence of God within everybody. The spirit of God within is also mentioned in the Bible.[4] Before the life of Jesus not everyone had this indwelling spark of God within, since then everyone of normal mind has this spirit of God. This truth of our Heavenly Father being within each of us is the most important part of our story.
We must also realize that everyone is equally indwelt by our Father; He does not respect any person more than any other person; we are all equal under His guidance. This concept of each person equally having God within means each of us has equal standing before God.
Knowing God is within us has astounding implications; for the individual, uniting or fusing with this God fragment is the way we attain eternal life. As we increasingly follow the guidance of our Thought Adjuster, as we earnestly seek to do His will and follow His guidance, we will grow spiritually and eventually in this life or the next we will actually become one with this God fragment. For society this concept of God within means every citizen certainly has value, every human being contains God and must be assisted in any way possible.
We must each make our own choice between good and evil, truth and error, material and spiritual, human and divine, time and eternity.[5] This choice is up to each of us as an individual, we can choose to do whatever we want or choose our Father’s will; we can choose between a finite existence and unending service into all future eternity. Eternal life is truly ours for the asking. Jesus said: lay firm hold on the assurances of sonship with God and the certainty of eternal life….[6] The certainty of eternal life: ask and you shall receive.
This certainty is a real experience in our lives as we honestly seek to do the will of our Heavenly Father. Where we might be in a thousand years is of no concern because our faith affirms we will be someplace interesting where we will have opportunities to serve and live and grow.
Our firm faith and confidence in the truth of eternal life (demonstrated by the resurrection of Jesus) is another important aspect of our story. We needn’t worry about the eternal future because we of faith know we already have eternal life.
This certainty of an existence into all future eternity is the second component of our story.
The final segment of our story should be obvious but in current society this is not the case. We are every one equally indwelt by an actual spark of God. Everyone. Equally. Every one of us is a sibling to everyone else; we are all sisters and brothers; we all have the common bond of humanity and God presence. Why is it we cannot get this truth?
Society needs to incorporate this truth into its very fabric; realize when any citizen of this planet is in need, when any individual has been discriminated against, when any person seeks assistance we have an obligation to find an equitable solution to the situation. It is true there are cases where the individual has given up all hope and refuses to assist themselves; this is a fact of life on our troubled planet. But even these individuals are indwelt by God; they deserve respect and guidance toward a more fulfilling life.
Even though this fact of universal brotherhood is the final component of our story, this is where each one of us can have the greatest impact. The other two components, presence of God within and eternal life, primarily are personal and internal manifestations; something we experience within ourself. This issue of universal brotherhood is external; we express this one in our daily life; it is how we react to situations we encounter as we pass by.
This issue of brotherhood is where we declare how we stand; exclusion or inclusion, hate or love, rejection or acceptance, a narrow existence or an eternal life of service doing God’s will.
When our society fully accepts this, we will have reached a higher spiritual plateau.
If we fully live this story we will be guided, assisted and protected. This does not mean bad things cannot happen to us, rather it means when they do happen we will be helped in our efforts to continue the struggle.
Simply stated our story is every mortal of sound mind has within them a fragment of our Heavenly Father, this God within is the promise of our eternal life and when we fully realize this we will know we are all sisters and brothers.
One consequence of incorporating this story into our everyday lives is that we will exhibit in our lives a new statement of the Golden Rule. This new version is: “Treat everybody knowing they have the spark of God within them.”
Every thinking person on Earth has within a literal spark of God; everybody therefore has value, meaning, purpose, and the chance at eternal life. No exceptions.
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“The Golden Rule,” © 2000, by Paul McKenna, available from Canadian Multifaith Federation, 3570 Victoria Park Ave., Suite 207, North York, On, M2H 3S2, Canada, www.cmfsrc.ca ↑
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Ibid ↑
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Ibid ↑
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Bible, Daniel 5:14 for example ↑
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All references are to The Urantia Book unless noted otherwise. The number refers to the single column version in the format page.paragraph, 2095.1 ↑
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1475.4 ↑