Im so baffled by how doing good things for others can really help me spiritually.

[Red A.]

"Im so baffled by how doing good things for others can really help me spiritually."

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That was the question. Here is my answer. I would love to hear more on the subject.

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There is a legendary comedy bit by Bill Cosby from back in the 60's where Bill makes a comic observation on the Bible. He notices that When God created the heavens and the earth, God said it was good. When he created plants and animals, they were also declared good. When God created man, God made no such declaration. The joke is that man is not good.

Comedy bit or not, Bill points out something of importance. The word good in English covers has a rather broad definition. "It is good", "Good enough", "For a good time call", and so on. If you go back to the original Hebrew, the word used is the word "Tov". Now the word Tov has a bit narrower definition than good, is means whole, or complete.

Now if you look at the commandments, take away all the authoratative attitude what you find is a kind of a karmic warning, a warning against a spiritual cause and effect, and the effect warned against most often is not really about offending God, it is about distancing ourselves from others.

When I distance myself from others I am distancing myself from Gods creation, the one he created in his own image.

As I look back at my life and my spiritual state, I find that my connection to others is directly connected to my connection with God. As I am separated from others I am also separated from God. As I work to be closer to others, I find myself closer to God.

 

[madison1101]

Great discussion topic. Also, interesting observations. When I saw the topic, I thought of the conversation Jesus had with a teacher of the Law in one of the gospels. The question was, "What is the greatest commandment?" The answer being, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind," and the second greatest is, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Then Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan, where a man was travelling and got robbed and beat up. A priest saw him, and crossed to the other side of the road, and then a rabbi saw him, and also avoided passing him, but then a Samaritan, who were despised by the Jews, came and took the man to an inn, bandaged his wounds and fed him. He then gave the innkeeper money to care for the man and told him he would return and compensate the innkeeper for any extra costs in caring for the injured man. The question after the story was, "Who was the neighbor?" and answer being the Samaritan who cared for the perceived enemy.

Those two commandments involve loving God and others. Doing for others is honoring God's commandments. Plus, in loving my neighbor, I am showing that I care about myself. It is when I isolate, and avoid others that I am not taking care of myself.

When God said that it was not good after He created man, He actually said, "It is not good for man to be alone." That was why He created Eve, so that man would not be alone, but would have a companion, and would also create more life.

We need each other. And, we need to help each other. The problem with me, is I love helping others, but I have trouble accepting help from others. Example: I am having toe surgery on two toes on my right foot, and will be unable to get my own meals for a few days, nor will I be able to drive for a couple of weeks. The hardest thing for me to do was ask for help from friends at church and my family. But, I already have rides to follow-up appointments arranged and I have already told my sponsor I will need rides to AA meetings over the weekend. I won't be able to go to a meeting for a few days, but by the weekend, I will need one.

Thanks for posting this topic. I hope we hear from, others.

Trish

 

[If Not For Grace]

Everyone likes to feel good-if helping others does not make you feel good"(uplift You)
I give up Even little children want to help and it is certainly one of the best ways
to demonstrate love. We do for those we care for.

It helps w/self esteem. As long as we are of benefit to others we are not wasted space. Our efforts to matter thereby we
matter. It's a start--make it a habit and it becomes a lifestyle, now what could be more spiritual?

 

[matthewchapter7]

"Im so baffled by how doing good things for others can really help me spiritually."

---

That was the question. Here is my answer. I would love to hear more on the subject.

--------------------------------

There is a legendary comedy bit by Bill Cosby from back in the 60's where Bill makes a comic observation on the Bible. He notices that When God created the heavens and the earth, God said it was good. When he created plants and animals, they were also declared good. When God created man, God made no such declaration. The joke is that man is not good.

Comedy bit or not, Bill points out something of importance. The word good in English covers has a rather broad definition. "It is good", "Good enough", "For a good time call", and so on. If you go back to the original Hebrew, the word used is the word "Tov". Now the word Tov has a bit narrower definition than good, is means whole, or complete.

Now if you look at the commandments, take away all the authoratative attitude what you find is a kind of a karmic warning, a warning against a spiritual cause and effect, and the effect warned against most often is not really about offending God, it is about distancing ourselves from others.

When I distance myself from others I am distancing myself from Gods creation, the one he created in his own image.

As I look back at my life and my spiritual state, I find that my connection to others is directly connected to my connection with God. As I am separated from others I am also separated from God. As I work to be closer to others, I find myself closer to God.

thats very odd because i have the opposite experience

i feel MUCH clloserto God when i am alone (usually) t han when i am w/ people. I learn a lot from being around ppl but ... i learn a lot from being alone w/ God also.

it is not healthy to be TOTALLY alone ALL the time... but that being said, it is also not healthy to be around sinful humans all the time either... not hardly... to be aroiund sin is to be miserable ... distrubed... uneasy

when i am in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ found in His Church (RCC) i am with Someone who loves me unconditionally, despite not loving some of my imperfect, sinful ways. But He knows how weak i am better than anyone else and does not hold my sins against me as long as i am repentant and willing to let Him help me, which i always am when in His Presence because He shows me what my imperfections and sins are... Soemtimes i dont even know such things until i am with Him...

Anyway, it stands to reason that it is not good to always be with beings who do not love us unconditionally... and even if they do, that love is SO human... and even if a human loves us more or less u/conditionally... well, such things need to be tested to be proven... and most humans fail the test... or at least get a D instead of an A on the test

 

[GeordieTosh]

There's lots of paradoxes in recovery. Helping others helps ourselves is one paradox.

Another that I know from experience is that when I placed my happiness above everyone else's happiness, I ended up miserable.

 

[If Not For Grace]

One of the most important things I got from the 12 step progams was/is learning
about Choices. I learned that I have choices and choices have consequences.
Good Choices=Good Results & Poor Choices = Poor Results.

I learned that doing nothing was a choice. AND That being content could be a choice as well. The important thing was that I was not bound. Not Bound to nor from. That
equals freedom. I received coping skills, the ability to discern, diffuse and redirect situations as necessary. I learned to LIVE and let Live. Living is the important part.