Is God Trying to Tell Me Something?

We live within the city limits, in a mostly quiet neighborhood. A block away from us is a Unity Church. I've often thought I should go check them out. They are one of the few sects of Christianity that include the concept of reincarnation into their beliefs. Though I've lived virtually next door to them for almost four years, I've never set foot into their church. I've been meaning to...but come Sunday morning I enjoy my time to myself. My outlook on church attendance is best expressed through what I wrote in my journal:

Some people go to church to find God. I go within myself and connect with my spirit. A church is a creation of man; my spirit is a creation of God.

How this serves as a segway to what I really want to write about, I have no idea. I'll explain what makes me wonder if a cosmic message isn't sneaking its way onto the doorstep. In the past two months there have been two different religious solicitors who have rang our doorbell. Typically we get one every six months. The first visitor was from the Assembly of God Church. (I attended one of those once. A woman started speaking in tongues. Looking back on that scene in my mind's eye, it reminds me of when Harry Potter started speaking parseltongue and everyone looked at him strangely.) The man at the door asked me if I'd like to learn how to get into heaven. My reply was, "Thank you, but I'm not interested." It felt peculiar saying it that way--yet, I felt like he could have been asking me if I'd like to buy hog bristle brushes from him and would I like to know how they can get my hard wood floors exceptionally spotless?

Yesterday another solicitor came to the door, this time Pooky took duty of answering the door. When he came in he brandished a pamphlet which he handed to me. The lady was about my age, and he passed along that she complimented my flowers. (I have spent a lot of time swooning over my flowers this year, so it was nice to be noticed.) Later on, while taking a break from our marathon reading of Harry Potter, I looked at the pamphlet and see we were visited by the local Baptist Church. Inside the pages read: How to Be 100% Sure You Are Going to Heaven. Again the theme of "getting into heaven"!

I digress for a moment in my story. I inquired with Pooky if he thinks our house is being targeted, that perhaps our house gives off a peculiar vibe that attracts religious solicitations? Could it be that it is time I removed the giant neon pentagram from the roof of the house? (Just kidding on that. The only thing our yard displays is a lush garden of flowers.) I am not certain if our religious visitors knock on anyone else's doors in the neighborhood--then again I don't spy to see if they are going door-to-door.

Being of open and fair mind, I thought I'd read the brochure given to us. Maybe in all of my years of self-study on comparative religions, of studying various spiritual philosophies, dogmas, and practices, I somehow may have missed something essential. I suppose I should state for the record that I don't believe in the notion of heaven as typically set forth by mainstream faiths, nor do I subscribe to the belief that one gains access to the "exclusive club" by who or what they believe in. From what I know of God, God is not exclusive--being that way is the domain of organized religions and of humankind.

After reading the brochure I was left feeling clueless and perplexed. I'm still not quite sure what they were trying to tell me. The word "sin" was frequently used, in the context of "price" and "penalty", with a meta-message of "reward" and "punishment". None of this spoke or resonated with my soul. I apparently read the Bible much differently than these folks. Yet, always the seeker, I like to think that perhaps there is a message or theme that I might somehow glean and learn from.

I'm reminded of what incited my belief in God. I had been an agnostic most of my life, bordering on atheism, yet I always believed in the existence of the spirit and soul and of the "supernatural" and "paranormal". Perhaps what is confounded me about the message of "getting into heaven" has to with looking at the same thing but describing it differently. The story about the three blind men each touching a different part of the elephant and describing it comes to mind. For me, my elephant came in the form of Mt. Rainier. Those who have lived in the shadow of the mountain know that as you travel from Seattle to Centralia, the view of the mountain dramatically changed. One might think it is two different mountains. In the north, the mountain shows a singular inverted V facet. Where I live the mountain resembles a giant M. If you view the mountain from its lesser known eastern facet, the mountain looks completely foreign, having yet another distinctive appearance.

Perhaps it is just one of those oddball coincidences of life that the religious solicitors have frequently knocked on our door with a similiar message? But then nothing in life is ever truly random. Everything is connected, happens for a reason. I seek to ascribe meaning where none need to be applied; I think that even in the weirdest of ways, in the most seemingly meaningless moments, that is when God (spirit) is trying to tell me something.