Question 59—What does the Gospel of  Oneness have to say about people who take themselves too seriously?

If you want to seem to live longer, then try not to have any fun because time seems to go by too quickly when you are having fun. But actually the people who take themselves too seriously will probably have shorter lives because of the more stress and worry they put upon themselves.

It seems that many problems in life are caused by people who take themselves too seriously.  They become self-important and try to impose their views and ways of life on others.  They seek to restrict or punish other people who don’t conform to their perception of life. This seems to be especially true of religious and political zealots who think their views must prevail, or else the world will sink into chaos.  Because of their sincere and serious beliefs, which they think are so important, they may be even willing to kill other people who disagree with them.

Well, we have plenty of examples from history, don’t we.  The list is long: Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Kim il-Jong, Khomeini, Idi Amin, and many more dictators including all the petty ones.  All of these people took themselves very seriously and wanted to impose their view of life on everyone else. They had a lot of people killed who stood in their way of imposing their view of life upon their societies.

We also have plenty of examples in every day life. We may have family members or co-workers or bosses who take themselves too seriously.  If money is involved, then a lot of people take themselves too seriously because their lives seem to depend on having enough money.

A person who realizes the oneness of all life does not take himself or herself too seriously.  He or she relaxes into the equal love of God and sees the joy of life. People who live in the oneness of life know they don’t need to impose their views on anyone else. They also know that whatever they do unto others will come back to them. They would rather express joy, love, kindness, and help co-create a beautiful life, but they don’t make it into a serious agenda that everyone must follow