Letter from God – Bo Lozoff – Paul Harvey
Originally written by Bo Lozoff for a Christmas newsletter in 1989. Here's the article as read by Paul Harvey on his radio program.
My Dear Children (and believe me, that’s all of you),
I consider myself a pretty patient Guy. I mean, look at the Grand Canyon. It took millions of years to get it right. And how about evolution? Boy, nothing is slower than designing that whole Darwinian thing to take place, cell by cell and gene by gene. And I’ve even been patient through your fashions, civilizations, wars and schemes, and the countless ways you take Me for granted until you get yourselves into big trouble again and again.
I want to let you know about some things that are starting ticking me off.
First of all, your religious rivalries are driving Me up a wall. Enough already! Let’s get one thing straight: These are your religions, not Mine. I’m the Whole Enchilada; I’m beyond them all. Every one of your religions claims there’s only one of Me (which, by the way, is absolutely true). But in the very next breath, each religion claims it’s My favorite one. And each claims its bible was written personally by me, and that all the other bibles are man-made. Oh, Me. How do I even begin to put a stop to such complicated nonsense?
Okay, listen up now: I’m your Father and Mother, and I don’t play favorites among My Children. Also, I hate to break it to you, but I don’t write. My longhand is awful, and I’ve always been more of a “doer” anyway. So all your books, including the bibles, were written by men and women. They were inspired men and women, remarkable people, but they also made mistakes here and there. I made sure of that, so that you would never trust a written word more than your own living Heart.
You see, one Human Being to me — even a Bum on the street — is worth more than all the holy books in the world. That’s just the kind of Guy I Am. My Spirit is not an historical thing, it is alive right here, right now, as fresh as your next breath.
Holy books and religious rites are sacred and powerful, but not more so than the least of You. They were only meant to steer you in the right direction, not to keep you arguing with each other, and certainly not to keep you from trusting your own personal connection with Me.
Which brings Me to My next point about your nonsense: You act like I need you and your religions to stick up for Me or “win souls” for My Sake. Please, don’t do Me any favors. I can stand quite well on my own, thank you. I don’t need you to defend Me, and I don’t need constant credit. I just want you to be good to each other.
And another thing: I don’t get all worked up over money or politics, so stop dragging My name into your dramas. For example, I swear to Me that I never threatened Oral Roberts. I never rode in any of Rajneesh’s Rolls Royces. I never told Pat Robertson to run for president, and I’ve never ever had a conversation with Jim Bakker, Jerry Falwell, or Jimmy Swaggart! Of course, come Judgement Day, I certainly intend to…
The thing is, I want you to stop thinking of religion as some sort of loyalty pledge to Me. The true purpose of your religions is so that you can become more aware of Me, not the other way around. Believe Me, I know you already. I know what’s in each of your hearts, and I love you anyway with no strings attached. Lighten up and enjoy Me. That’s what religion is best for.
What you seem to forget is how mysterious I Am. You look at the petty little differences in your scriptures and say, “Well, if this is the Truth, then that can’t be!” But instead of trying to figure out My Paradoxes and Unfathomable Nature — which, by the way, you never will — why not open your hearts to the simple common threads of every religion?
You know what I’m talking about: Play nice with one another. Love and respect everyone. Be kind. Even when life is scary or confusing, take courage and be of good cheer, for I Am always with you. Learn how to be quiet, so you can hear My Still, Small Voice (I don’t like to shout). Leave the world a better place by living your life with dignity and gracefulness, for you are My Own Child. Hold back nothing from life, for the parts of you that can die will, and the parts that can’t, won’t. So don’t worry, be happy (I stole that last line from Bobby McFerrin, but who gave it to him in the first place?)
Simple stuff. Why do you keep making it so complicated? It’s like you’re always looking for an excuse to be upset. And I’m very tired of being your main excuse. Do you think I care whether you call me God, Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, Wakantonka, Brahma, Father, Mother, or even The Void or Nirvana? Do you think I care which of My Special Children you feel closest to — Jesus, Mary, Buddha, Krishna, Mohammed or any of the others? You can call Me and My Special Ones any name you choose, if only you would go about My business of loving one another as I love you. How can you keep neglecting something so simple?
No I’m not telling you to abandon your religions. Enjoy your religions, honor them, learn from them, just as you should enjoy, honor, and learn from your parents. But do you walk around telling everyone that your parents are better than theirs? Your religion, like your parents, may always have the most special place in your heart; I don’t mind that at all. And I don’t want you to combine all the Great Traditions into One Big Mess. Each religion is unique for a reason. Each has a unique style so that people can find the best path for themselves.
But My Special Children — the ones your religions revolve around — all live in the same place (in My Heart) and they get along perfectly, I assure you. The clergy must stop creating a myth of sibling rivalry where there is none.
My Blessed Children of Earth, the world has grown too small for your pervasive religious bigotries and confusion. The whole planet is connected by air travel, satellite dishes, telephones, fax machines, rock concerts, diseases, and mutual needs and concerns. Get with the program! If you really want to help Me celebrate the birthday of My Son Jesus, then commit yourselves to figuring out how to feed your hungry, clothe your naked, protect your abused, and shelter your poor. And just as importantly, make your own everyday life a shining example of kindness and good humor. I’ve given you all the resources you need, if only you abandon your fear of each other and begin living, loving, and laughing together.
Finally, My Children everywhere, remember whose birth is honored on this day you call Christmas, December 25th, and the fearlessness with which He chose to live and die. As I love Him, so do I love each one of you. Now, I’m not really ticked off, I just wanted to grab your attention because I hate to see you suffer. But I gave you Free Will, so what can I do now other than to try to influence you through reason, persuasion, and a little old-fashioned guilt and manipulation? After all, I Am the original Jewish Mother. I just want you to be happy, and I’ll sit in The Dark. I really Am, indeed, I swear, with you always. Always. Trust In Me.
Your One and Only,
GOD
A Fulfilled Life Begins With Fulfilled Days
Do you have personal code of conduct? A way you have consciously decided to be in the world.
I don't mean your long term goals of retiring with financial security, or getting a certain car or losing a certain amount of pounds. I mean do you have certain feelings or emotions that you want to experience everyday while on your way to your bigger long term goals.
Here are 7 elements that guide my thoughts and actions each day:
1. Love. I live from a place of love. Love is my essence.
2. Appreciation. I am grateful for everything in my life.
3. Curiosity. Google is my friend.
4. Excitement. I do what I want to do every day. If I'm doing it, it is my choice and I chose to do it with excitement.
5. Flexibility. I have decided to embrace change and spontaneity.
6. Confidence. I choose confidence over fear.
7. Cheerfulness. Being cheerful makes people around me happy and that adds to my happiness.
How about you? What do you want to experience every day? What thoughts, beliefs, language would you have to adopt to make that your reality?
Just a little food for thought.
Accessing the Treasure You Seek
Joseph Campbell famously said "The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek".
Could that be true for you? It was for me.
Of course there are lots of caves. Some very personal, some spiritual and some professional.
One of my caves was the fear of public speaking, and the treasure… well that was more than a million dollars in income, but it was also much more, much, much more than that, I'll tell you about the true treasure I received in a minute.
First, imagine this, me in 1977 I was a 23 year old salesman. Clean shaven, experiencing some initial success as I entered sales from my previous labor jobs of commercial fishing, being a longshoreman, a jackhammer operator and a masons tender… all tough jobs.
I was several months into my new sales job and I recognized that public speaking would allow me to dramatically further my career. Very reluctantly I joined Toastmasters, an organization designed to help people develop their skill and confidence in public speaking. After my first session I let more than a year pass before I could muster enough courage to attend another meeting. That's how terrified I was, and after the second meeting I just quit.
Have you ever had anything that you were so afraid of doing that you just absolutely wouldn't do it EVEN THOUGH you were certain that it would be good for you?
That could be the cave that holds the treasure for you.
Fast forward to 1988, I'm a marketing consultant to Tony Robbins. Tony invites me to attend one of his seminars. I have VIP seating, 3rd row center and at some point, and for a reason that only became clear to me many years later.
Anyway, I put my hand up in response to a question Tony had asked.
And I'll tell you, to this day I have absolutely NO IDEA of what came out of my mouth. When I stood up and was handed a mic, and realized that I was about to speak to Tony Robbins in front of 1,200 people I just went numb. Words came out, but I was in such terror I didn't know what I said at the time, and I still don't know to this day.
The week after that experience I joined Toastmasters again. This time I was absolutely, 100% committed and within 18 months I was public speaking regularly… often to crowds of 50 to 100 people.
In the following years I became a professional speaker. I have now spoken before thousands of groups and my audiences were often in the hundreds and even occasionally in the thousands… and I have been on TV shows where I was literally speaking to millions of people… and I have loved every minute of it!!!
Entering the cave called "the fear of public speaking" allowed me to find a true treasure, a treasure that has now been with me for decades.
Fast forward again, this time to last week- Week 2, August, 2014.
Monday- I was in a recording studio with a HUGE Hollywood sound engineer (the guy does a ton of work on the TV program Glee). I was recording an audio track, in a character voice that I created, to be used in a commercial for a cutting edge high-tec firm.
Tuesday- I had a small part in a stand-up comedy routine at The Ice House in Pasadena, CA with retired wrestler Mick Foley.
Wednesday- I went to a rehearsal with the choreographer for the commercial I was I shot on Thursday.
Thursday- I spent 12 and 1/2 hours on set as the lead actor in a major, 50 person, commercial shoot I mentioned.
EVERY ONE of these things came to me because I entered that cave and stepped from my comfort zone to my courage zone all those years ago.
Once my comfort zone included public speaking I was open to many, many more opportunities. Further steps into my "Courage Zone" allowed me to become comfortable being a performer and a voice artist.
Here's my truth… my experience…
The cave you fear to enter CAN hold the treasure you seek.
But not all caves hold treasure… some hold painful lessons, but in my experience those lessons can also pave the way to the treasure you seek.
So what is the greatest treasure that I have personally gained from entering this cave of the "fear of public speaking"?
It hasn't been the money, even though public speaking has earned me a lot of money. the true treasure is the contentment, the fulfillment and the sense of contribution I feel when I know I have reached millions of people with information or entertainment that has enhanced their lives.
I'm a bit awestruck to think that this adult version of that scared young man is now doing things that he NEVER, EVER, could have even imagined doing, and today I'm doing it with SHEER JOY and absolute GRATITUDE. I'M LOVING WHAT I'M DOING… That is the true treasure that I found in that cave, and it's the treasure I have carried with me for decades.
And the reality is I'm entering new caves in my life all the time, challenging myself with new ventures into my courage zone.
What is your cave? How great could your treasure be? What would it take to move you from your comfort zone to your courage zone?
Would you like a little help? A little encouragement? Call me let's talk- 541-941-4840
Selfishly Strengthening Your Faith
As I mentioned in Gift 7 developing my Faith was a difficult Gift for me to receive.
I'm not talking about accepting the dogma or scripture of religious faith; I'm talking about developing my personal faith in Spirit.
Now what do we do when we need to bolster our faith? When we get knocked for a loop and need to find a way to see clear again?
My practice and my advice is to seek knowledge that challenges or reinforces our core beliefs. Faith is built through certainty and certainty is developed through education.
Here's some information that I hope will either build your faith… or challenge your current beliefs.
Enjoy…
Once you have watched this video read this:
http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/documents/enlightenednext.pdf
Here are 2 excerpts:
Let’s see if I’ve got the gist of your theory straight. Essentially, you’re saying that at least some basic degree of consciousness is woven into the fabric of spacetime itself, and it’s the coherent quantum activity among the microtubules in our brain that allows us to amplify or strengthen the basic universal consciousness that’s already there?
If you ask me “Does God exist?” and you mean “Does God exist in the sense of the white-bearded guy who handed tablets to Moses on the mountain?,” the answer is no. But if you ask me “Does God exist in the sense that consciousness, awareness, and purpose exist in the most basic fabric of the universe?,” I would say it’s a distinct possibility that the answer is yes.
Getting Juiced by Massive Impact
What gets you excited, I mean totally juiced? What charges you with the energy to wake-up early and stay-up late so you can charge forward in the direction of your dream? Maybe the word I'm looking for is passion.
3 words come to mind for me… Massive Positive Impact.
For many years I have had sought to live my life in ways that would allow the work I do to have a significant positive impact. Having a massive positive impact ignites my passion and it has for decades.
For many years an Internet marketing consultant I felt that I was having a positive impact and as I became a professional speaker I felt that my impact was multiplied. Rather than impacting 30 or 40 or 50 businesses per year as a consultant I was impacting 1,000, 2,000 or even 4 or 5,000 people. I loved that.
I'm now on a mission to bring smiles and happiness and keep the Spirit of Christmas alive ALL year long.
What lights your fire?
Our Resourcefulness = Our Resources
I believe that our resources are determined by our resourcefulness and how resourceful we are is determined by 3 things:
#1 Our focus. For example do we focus on ourselves or others? Do we focus on lack or abundance?
#2 The meaning we give things. Does this mean we're doomed or is this a unique opportunity to try something new?
#3 What we do. Do we give up, do we continue forward or do we try something different?
What do you think?
Cultivating a Miracle Rich Environment
Today I want to talk with you about miracles and about cultivating a miracle rich environment.
A few years ago I was accepted by the top commercial talent agent in Hollywood with no previous experience or connections. I see this as a miracle.
2 years ago the top strabismus doctor in the country GIFTED me with a free surgery that corrected my Lazy Eye. Another miracle.
When I experience these extraordinary events I'm full of wonder… and during the last few years I've seen these miracles increase exponentially and I started to look for the reasons why.
Here's what I've discovered…
The more I expect miracles to occur… the more they occur.
But I've found that it's not the expectation that brings about the miracles it's the actions that follow and mindset that accompanies the actions.
By expecting miracles and acting on those expectations while at the same time not being connected to the outcomes of the actions themselves… this is the magic and the formula for bringing about miracles.
This principle of detachment is not new.
Many thousands you years ago it was written in the Bhagavad Gita that "When we detach ourselves from the fruits of action, contentment comes. AND Contentment is the source through which we become free."
More recently, but still over 100 years ago Rudyard Kipling wrote the amazing poem IF. Because it was written so long ago I updated a few words and I changed the last line to be more gender neutral.
Listen for the spiritual principle of detachment…
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, and not deal in lies,
Or being hated, and not give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by scoundrels to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—and not lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And, which is more, the game of life you have already won.
Isn't that amazing advice?
To meet with these things that our culture calls Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same; that's the fertile ground where miracles are born.
When you expect miracles and move towards miracles and find your satisfaction in the doing; with no attachment to the result… when you're living in, and you are content in, the moment, regardless of what it contains… that's when miracles flow into your life… or they don't, and either is OK… but it is living in that fertile place, the present, that allows miracles to flourish.
Another personal example of what I'm calling a miracle happened last year when I became eligible to join the actors union SAG-AFTRA within only a few months of starting my acting career when many actors go years without earning eligibility.
Another recent example was when I was selected to be the exclusive national spokesperson for Hello Santa, the first video chat with Santa app. I was even given equity in the company and when we sold the company earlier this year to Internet media company JibJab I was then retained by JibJab to continue on as spokesperson and they have even expanded my role.
I can go on and on and on… but the message here is that miracles really can, and do, flood into your life and you start cultivating a miracle rich environment.
When you dream—and not make dreams your master; and when you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; when neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you
This is where miracles flourish
I have one final example exponential of miracles.
Here are 3 that happened this last week. Even I was blown away…
I'm currently in Southern California and last week I was down at the beach with a couple of friends walking along the Strand, out of the blue I was stopped by Russ Weiner the founder of RockStar Energy Drink. He gave me a hat and we took some photos together and had a few quick laughs. Today I received a 
Facebook message from RockStar saying they will probably use some of photos when it gets closer to Christmas.
Later that evening my friends and I went out to dinner at a funky little beach pub, on my way out I was stopped by the director of the TV show, Jimmy Kimmel Live. We took some photos together, exchanged cards and he has now asked me to "make some TV" with him… these things have become my new norm… and really I didn't even give them a second thought until this third thing happened and this was SO WEIRD I just had to share this…
I get out of my car directly in front of my friends house. It's a small, quite, residential street. As I'm closing my car door a car slows down to a stop right in front of me. The driver asks if I portray Santa Claus, I smiled and said that I do, he said he was a photographer and that he would like to talk with me about having me sit for some photos in his studio and he handed me a business card and asked if I had one… I handed him one of mine.
He drives off I go in the house and sit his card on my desk and pretty much forget about it. A couple of days later I see it beside my computer and decide to checkout his website. It's a nice site and I can see he's an excellent photographer so I complete the form on his site and tell him that I'm the Santa he approached on the street and that I think he does great work. I also mentioned an amazing photographer/artist on the east coast who I have wanted to work with for a few years and who I have even called and talked to about the possibility of working together at some point. I included a link and suggested that he take a look at this guys amazing work.
Within an hour the photographer responds back saying he is shocked and so happy that I know of this east coast photographers work… he goes on to tell me he JUST SPENT A WEEK ON THE EAST CAST BEING TRAINED AT HIS STUDIO and he has just completed building a new studio here in LA so he can emulate the work of the east coast photographer, the photographer I have wanted to work with for years… and all within a few miles of where I'm staying – AMAZING!
UPDATE 7-09-14 11:56AM- In an email from the photographer:
Thanks again. God sends me people just when I need them!
Joey
This was a 2 way miracle… perhaps all are.
Boldly do what you do without attachment to the outcome and expect miracles to come your way.
All the best to you and to all the lives you touch.
Do you ever feel energetically fragmented?
Do you ever feel energetically fragmented? I have found the singing bowl helps me center my energy.
Find Your Inner Smile
"Most of the time, I don't have very much fun, and the rest of the time I have no fun at all," quipped Woody Allen.
There are times when life can get so crazy, busy and demanding that we end up setting our sights on getting through the day rather than genuinely enjoying the day.
We run on autopilot. We are reactive rather than creative. We get into a mode. Life becomes a daily blur.
Be Jolly Exercise: Studies show that most people who score higher levels of happiness do not experience markedly better life circumstances. So why are they so happy?
Well, one answer is they know how to enjoy their life. The word "enjoy" means to bring joy to something. Today's assignment is to find your inner smile by reminding yourself
- What energizes you
- What you love
- What inspires you.
Memo to self: Remember to enjoy the miracle of existence today.