Parakalein

"Going Inside" is the idea of entering into the innermost regions of your heart, mind and soul and finding in that innermost place parts that feel fear, anger and hurt.  These parts believe that they have to do something to get attention and care so that they feel acceptable and worthy of care. At the core, deep inside, there is also a warm compassionate, wonderfully calm, wildly courageous, and welcoming acceptance that calms and cares for the parts from inside, where God dwells.  Regardless of what you call this reality it is the spiritual core in us that reflects the "image of God".

I recall as a kid hearing the we needed to love God with all our heart, soul and mind.  For years I thought this meant that I needed to seek something out side of me to get approval or acceptance as if the only God that existed was outside of me.  Today I know that the seed of God's love as well as the seed of self-centeredness are both in us.  The freedom of our choice is to nurture the presence of acceptance, affirmation, and appreciation.  What is also true is that we often, because we fear losing or we desire to win, reach for the food that nurtures self-centeredness rather than to see the Spiritual-Self as at the center and feel cared for by that center.

In nature there is a witness to this reality. At the center of the solar system is the warm, radiant, resilient light of the sun.  If we could journey to the center of the earth we would find increasing warmth as at the center of all things is the warmth of compassion and calmness reflective of the creator.

So at the core of who you are is the God who made you as you are.  The image of God inside you can be "quickened" stimulated by many different relgious experiences.  I personally believe that the message of Jesus is to let that love of God we see and witness in Jesus come inside of us stimulating the love of God that is already in us to "life".

The journey inside finds everything we need and want already in us.  This is the sacred space for the sacred place to un-blend ourselves from the fears and longings that distort our perceptions and blend the heart, soul and spirit into the innermost experience of acceptance, appreciation and affirmation of ourselves and all others.

Going inside you find all you ever needed you already had you just did not know it.  Jesus came to help us to know it.  God's internal and eternal love that is accepting, affirming and appreciative of and to all.