Day 10 - Sweet Blasphemy - Loving God Part II

I have a foundational belief, that being: God is love.

The God who is love is the reason I began this project. I read a book called The Fourty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak and it altered my perspective on loving God. I grew up believing that there was only one way to love God and that my perspective on God (the Christian perspective) was the ONLY [right] perspective. I believed that other religions were worshipping someone other than "my" God, the REAL God.

A parable was told by the Shams of Tabriz, a Muslim scholar who taught and learned from Rumi, a well-known Muslim scholar, teacher, and poet. The parable Shams told was of loving God "correctly" and it was part of the beginning of my eyes being opened to the idea that perhaps there is more than one correct way to love God.

I don't know if I'm violating some copyright rules, but here is the story told by Shams:

One day Moses was walking in the mountains on his own when he saw a shepherd in the distance. The man was on his knees with his hands spread out to the sky, praying. Moses was delighted. But when he got closer, he was stunned to hear the man's prayer:

"Oh my beloved God, I love Thee more than Thou can know. I will do anything for Thee, just say the word. Even if Thou asked me to slaughter my fattest sheep in Thy name, I would do so without hesitation. Thou would roast it and put its tail fat in Thy rice to make it more tasty."

Moses inched toward the shepherd, listening attentively.

"Afterward, I would wash Thy feet and clean Thine ears and pick Thy lice for Thee. That is how much I love Thee."

Moses had heard enough. He interrupted the shepherd yelling "Stop, you ignorant man! What do you think you are doing? Do you think God eats rice? Do you think God has feet for you to wash? This is not prayer! It is sheer blasphemy."

Dazed and ashamed, the shepherd apologized repeatedly and promised to pray as decent people did. Moses taught him several prayers that afternoon. Then he went on his way, utterly pleased with himself.

But that night, Moses heard a voice. It was God's.

"Oh, Moses, what have you done? You scolded that poor shepherd and failed to realize how dear he was to me. He might not be saying the right things in the right way, but he was sincere. His heart was pure and his intentions good. I was pleased with him. His words might have been blasphemy to your ears, but to Me, they were sweet blasphemy.:

Moses immediately understood his mistake. The next day, early in the morning he went back to the mountains to see the shepherd. He was praying again, but this time he was praying in the way he had been instructed. In his determination to get the prayer right, he was stammering, bereft of the excitement and passion of his earlier prayer. Regretting what he had done to him, Moses patted the shepherd's back and said: "My friend, I was wrong. Please forgive me. Keep praying in your own way. That is more precious in God's eyes." (Elif Shafak, The Fourty Rules of Love, pg 51)

I was judging the way that other people connected to God and the path that they took to reach him. In reality, I was prescribing a path to God based entirely upon my cultural context of God. If other's connection to God is real, and if their prayers are sincere, regardless of my personal or cultural belief system I believe that a God of love cannot possibly ignore that. A God who is love cannot turn his back on himself and reject the love given to him.

The book I read began to change my perspective and made me wonder what the other perspectives looked like... hence my journey.