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         %INTEGRITY OF GOD'S LOVE POWER AND JUSTICE 880609

     The doctrine of the trinity points to God's integrity
which is a human concept which points to the integrity  of
the universe of God's creations.   God's ways are reliable
and have integrity.  They may be seen in natural processes
which are not dominated by human efforts to be in control.

     When  human  efforts  to  be in  control  dominate  a
process,    it   is  just  as  hard  to  understand    the
resultant processes as it is to understand human addictive
behavior.  One  of  the  central characteristics of  human
addictive behavior  is  the  futility of people's  efforts
to   gain  control    of   the   confused   processes   of
addictive/co-dependent relationships.    Such efforts lack
integrity  and instead  are characterized by confusion  in
which    disparate  parts   and   tendencies   are   fused
together       in     coherent ways: control/incompetence,
promises/failures,  hope/despair,     endearment/violence,
sincerity/deception, etc.

     Natural  processes which are not dominated  by  human
efforts  to  be in control reveal the integrity  of  God's
love,  power and justice.  Love is God's integrative power
which  working   with  reliable  justice  to  empower  Her
creatures  to   fulfill their potentials in an  integrated
whole.      An  effort   to  control   the  processes   in
accord   with  some particular  human preconception of how
it should  progress introduces  a  tension  between  human
preconceptions   and  God's  integrity.     Human  efforts
usually  fail  in  the face of such  tension,   and  human
disintegration follows.

     God  has NOT given humans the power to be in  control
of love or justice.  Love, power and justice co-exist only
in the integrity of God's ways;  not in the conceptions of
humans'  understandings and creative imaginations.   Human
efforts to understand, predict and control God's processes
do not ultimately succeed; for such ultimate success would
be  One  with God.   Attempts to achieve such success  are
attempts to achieve oneness with God on the basis of human
desires and efforts.

     We  may be One with God in the integrity of God  only
if we accept God's acceptance of us on God's terms.  If we
insist upon achieving Integrity with God on our terms,  we
are doomed to failure, as are all addicts who seek to save
themselves  by will power which is rooted  in  unrealistic
self appraisals.

     We  cannot be objective about our own limited  powers
and  finitude;  thus,  we cannot understand,  predict  and
control  our limited powers and finitude in  an  objective
way.   We cannot with integrity achieve our own  salvation
through understanding, prediction and control of any kind.

     Religious,    political,    scientific,    technical,
humanistic, moralistic, ethical, economic, etc.   kinds of
manipulative  efforts  can not assure salvation for  those
who  espouse  such  technologies,  or for  their  intended
beneficiaries.  Salvation is not achieved,  it is accepted
as a gift with integrity, if it is known at all. Salvation
is a gift, not an achievement, or a reward, or a purchase.

     God's Love is a gift, not a reward for good behavior.
God's Justice is not punishment for bad behavior.    God's
Justice is his Integrity operating with the Power of Love.
     To  try  to  pay for God's gift of  salvation  is  to
reject the gift.

     Evil  is  not  a  power leading us to  do  bad  deeds
through temptation.   Evil is the rejection of God's Love,
Power  and  Justice  which work together  with  Integrity.
Evil   is  known  in  disintegration  which  follows   the
rejection of God's Love, Power and Justice.  Evil is known
in  the tragedies which flow from misguided efforts to  be
perfectly  faithful  to disintegrative  human  systems  of
ideals,   values and principles.  Human efforts to control
evil   compound    the  evil which they seek  to  control,
for  the  efforts to control evil  spring  from  the  same
misguided  preconceptions  which  occasioned  the original
evil which the efforts seek to control.

     Prayer  is  the process of integration  of  ourselves
into God's integrative ways with Love,  Power and Justice.
Prayer   is   not  asking God to do  something   for   us,
Prayer  is seeking  to be one with God's doing all that is
done   with  the integrity of Love,   Power  and  Justice.
Prayer  is  the  process  of seeking to  live  within  the
integrity of  God's ways.

     The integrity of God's love,  power and justice  will
not   yield   to  human analytic  efforts  to  understand,
predict  and control them.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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