I’m almost embarrassed to post this (lol) … lest every reader think me a Star Wars junkie :-).  However, the movie was on TV tonight, and I simply had to comment on one specific sequence.  It moved me, so I just had to.

Luke, having discovered enlightenment from an unlikely source (Yoda), is presented with an opportunity to face his greatest fear.  I found it interesting that Yoda actually said to him, “You will not need your weapons in there.”  Yoda knows that every/any defensive mechanism will not help Luke against his greatest fear.

Luke wanders into the morass of swampy foliage, wondering what he will find.  What he discovers is his greatest fear … Darth Vader.  The black cloaked figure fights him, but Luke valiantly riposte’s to lop off Vader’s head … which rolls free to reveal a face … Luke’s own face.  His greatest fear is that he will wind up becoming his greatest fear.

SO MANY valid elements in this one scene … to become enlightened you must face your greatest fears … you must accept your own mortality, and flaws.  You must endure, in the face of what seems unendurable.  You must accept your fears, and not allow them to rule you … if your fears rule you?  You become that which you fear.

Afterwards, during a training session, Luke says to Yoda, “Okay, I’ll try!”  Yoda says, “No, try not … DO or do not!”

The ultimate sequence from this whole scene?  Yoda lifts Luke’s ship from the swamp, and Luke says incredulously, “I don’t believe it!”

Yoda says, “… and THAT is why you fail.”

So what is it that seems SO unbelievable???  It is anything that society tells us is impossible.  It is anything, because of what you have chosen to believe in your life, that is contrary to what you feel guided to accomplish.  We have been trained to believe what we are capable of … and what we are incapable of.  The only thing is … we usually are trained by people who have NO concept of what God is capable of!

God is capable of anything.  If you are to be used by God … you must let go of EVERY limitation.  This does not mean you will become some sort of “Jedi” … it only means that you will be capable of accomplishing anything, and everything, that God intends for you to accomplish.  None of us know what God intends for us … and so, we must prepare ourselves to accept everything, and anything.  It doesn’t mean that something supernatural will happen … it only means that, if God intends it to be … God will be able to use you to make it so.  It could be that God simply intends you to live on a farm, and have a beautiful spiritual relationship … who is to say??  None of us know, all we can do is follow.

God does not force things upon any of us … that is why those who are dedicated to God are needed.  We can help and influence each other, from our relationship with God … but God will never force any of us to do anything.  That is just how much God loves us … God would never force … God only LOVES.

One last Star Wars proverb from this scene to close: “Don’t give in to Hate … that leads to the Dark Side.”

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!

There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.

By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

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