Sin, Blessing, and the Meaning of Life
If there’s one thing humans are obsessed with it’s sin.
I’ll be honest, I’m also kind of obsessed with it, hence the career in ministry. But it didn’t start out that way. In fact, I didn’t really care at all about sin until well after I graduated from seminary.
This is because many of the more punishing American Christianities use sin and fear of divine punishment as a way to control people. This is rotten to the core and I consider it spiritual abuse on par with physical abuse, as many exvangelicals can attest.
Using the threat of hell and God’s eternal judgment to get people to do what you want is sick beyond sick, so even as a seminary student I avoided this topic.
This also meant that the topic of salvation was a no-go as well.
Even though the Jesuits, Franciscans, and Baptists had multi-year courses on sin and salvation I thought they were worthless. Who needs to be saved when there is nothing to be saved from? And why can’t we just save our own dang selves, why do I need the help of this old man, his dying son, and a flapping bird (as one of my professors once put it)?
Well, anyone who’s lived some life will know that it often has a way of leading us right into the very heart of the very thing we judged and discarded. Once I really began to understand the nature of sin, and learn from teachers who showed me what it truly means to be saved, I changed my tune.
NEW COURSE!
The Foundations of How to be a Healer
Starts April 7th, offered in-person and virtually
A course designed to give you the tools needed to provide effective, powerful, lasting healings for yourself and your clients. We’ll cover practices to help hone your skills, develop ‘shamanic certainty’, and truly enjoy your healing work.
Free Intro Mini-Class for How to be a Healer - April 5th 9:30-11am on Zoom
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Now, as much as I love Jesus I’m not talking about the Take-Him-As-My-Lord-And-Savior kind of salvation.
The salvation I’ve discovered is more like a portal, a narrow path made of the pure grace of God, that I must walk with great care and integrity as it delivers me from all that binds. Salvation for me has been the unearned and unearnable blessing of God’s grace in places .
Another way I think of salvation is like freedom from anything which would keep me from direct connection with God; an enormous category of things indeed. Which brings me to a beautiful definition of sin and salvation/blessing I heard recently.
Sin is anything which constricts a person’s life; blessing is anything which expands it.
This definition came to me from a wise elder desert woman who lives in Northern New Mexico. It reminded me immediately of what I believe to be the true meaning of life which is simply to realize that we always have choices and our choices have consequences. That’s it! Seems simple but it’s actually the most challenging lesson of all.
In my studies of karma-as-sin I’ve learned that serious karma is created between people when we limit each others’s choices in any way. And the deepest, most powerful karma is created when we take a life - effectively limiting all choice for that other being.
Blessing, or healing, on the other hand bestows increasing choice, possibility, expansiveness, and freedom in a person’s life.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Agreements, Karma, and Relationships Workshop - Feb 24th 6:30-8pm in-person in Golden, CO and virtually
Can’t make it in February? Karma workshop also offered March 17th at Sakala. Stay posted for more info
In my healing work, I’ve seen the power of true sin/limitation and true salvation/blessing/healing.
I’ve seen the ways people’s entire lives have been limited by the harm done in childhood, the ways that their choices are always influenced and determined almost entirely by the past. Or incredibly limiting societal rules that say a person can’t do something; can’t love this kind of person, can’t pursue their passions, can’t speak or act in this way.
I’ve also seen the miraculous burst of energy when those patterns are removed and the person is suddenly able to make a choice only from the conditions and needs of the present moment. Or when people fight their societal collective bonds and spiritually overrule the limitations placed on them.
Removing limitations and restoring freedom is one of the core definitions of healing.
And it’s part of the foundational teachings in my upcoming course “How to be a Healer.” I don’t actually use the words sin and salvation in any of my healings - unless I see it would actually benefit my client - but it’s some of the best work of healing.
My ultimate goal with all healings and clients is to liberate them to the extent that they don’t need to keep working with me. Now, that may take many lifetimes (I’m not even there yet with my own healers) or it may happen in one session, but I always hold out hope for the possibility of miraculous and complete healing; true liberation.
We’ll cover all of this and more in the course. See you there!
The Foundations of How to be a Healer - April 7th thru May 5th in person and online
WHO IS THIS COURSE FOR?
⫸ Therapist and coaches who want to access spiritual healing in their sessions
⫸ Psychedelic sitters and other psychedelic professionals who want to take advantage of the healing potential of spiritual medicine sessions
⫸ Yoga teachers who know how vulnerable and healing a good practice can be
⫸ Breathwork facilitators who want to invoke greater healing moments for their participants
⫸ Somatic practitioners and body workers who are ready to integrate spiritual healing techniques into their sessions
⫸ Those who feel a spiritual calling to be a healer but don’t know where to start
⫸ Those who want to heal themselves, and are tired of only healing others
⫸ New and experienced practitioners alike who want deep integrity and power woven into every healing they offer
WHAT WILL YOU GAIN?
⫸ Self healing and deep anchoring into the inner healer capacity and your spiritual lineage and root
⫸ Clarity in your role by understanding where healing comes from and how to become its channel
⫸ Foundational Healing Tools like sacred speech, healing through singing, and working with Essence
⫸ Clean client connections gained by learning how to protect your energetic space, become a hollow bone for Spirit, and working from integrity
⫸ Deeper connections with the great healing masters of humanity and the Earth
⫸ Discernment and the spiritual certainty needed to know when, how, and with whom to offer healing, without getting lost in ego or drama.
⫸ Simple powerful tools and a focus on what works—solid, timeless healing basics that create profound shifts for both you and your clients
Cost is $525 with 3- and 6-month payment plans available.
Feb 24th: Agreements, Karma, and Relationships
Come join us for this foundational workshop on how to tell the difference between agreements and karma, how to untangle both, and how to have deep intimacy and clarity in every relationship in your life.
Cost: $33
Date: Monday Feb 24th
Times: 6-8pm
Location: In-person at the Golden Rock Shop in Golden, CO and Virtually
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Artwork? Top image by one of my all time favorites, the French illustrator Moebius
