seat of the soul

I wrote this a couple of weeks ago and can’t seem to bring closure to the topic. I wanted to write more, but cannot seem to complete my thoughts or answers my questions. There is no closure, but an ongoing contentious discussion and contemplation, especially for me., so I decided to leave it as is- incomplete and unending, because let’s face it this conversation is never ending.

I’m sitting in a nondenominational community church in Midwest, USA, looking unto a stage chalk full of people who recently returned from a charitable trip to Kenya. My first simultaneous observation- they are all mostly white | there is not a single black person on this team. My ensuing thoughts are not unfamiliar to me as I’m sitting next to my two brothers who, at different points in time, have been victims of discrimination in the US, but that’s for another time.

Why is it that most of the time it is white people who, with collective will, raise the funds to venture into a foreign land to aid ‘the less privilege’. Most churches I know who send people overseas are whites. Most families I know who adopt children are white. Maybe the common denominator is ‘people I know’. Maybe good people who do good things for people outside of their own imminent circles surround me, and they just happen to be white? Is that it?! 

Maybe the pithy difference in approach with the various cultures boils down to values. To reach outside of your own imminent circle is maybe to have attained need of belongingness and love in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a reach from attaining your basic needs. I recently read a book called The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav recommended by my good friend, OKE, and it’s highly spiritual, intended to call people to transcend the five senses, becoming multisensory humans cognizant of the spirit realm. He brings awareness to the progression of human consciousness. If you're interested in that kind of stuff, I also recommend. The author and scientist posits that positive energy, usually exemplified by a loving action towards others, is the epitome of what it means to attain the highest version of one’s self. Well, I’m way oversimplifying the complex arrangement of progressive thoughts he intentionally put together, but please oblige my simplification for the sake of compounding my dilemma with this issue. 

If Maslow is correct, then I have to have food in my belly before I can love and give love. Zukav says to what you put out, it returns to you, so regardless of what’s happening in life, put out good. 

Are these aforementioned whites in this church community progressing in human consciousness faster than the blacks around me simply by going out into the world and putting out good? Is it that whites who are comfortable and have met their basic needs are more conscious of others' needs around them, even extending cross continental? I don’t believe so, because good cannot and should not be measured by distance, but heart, intent, motive. So maybe I'm looking at this all wrong? Maybe it's society applauds those efforts more or that I want us blacks to do more!!! Oh I don’t know. 

I do know one thing- this principle of reaping what you sow (karma) is a natural law, one that is defied by the reality of a verse in the Bible that says, in paraphrase, 'you'll reap the good of what you do not sow' because Jesus is just THAT good. I like this very much because it pushes the bounds of my natural limitation and truly transcends to spiritual heights that we as people aren't meant to attain. This is a beautiful law at work, all because- Jesus allows and promotes it. I believe when we truly understand this liberty, it compels us to actually put forth more good