Tag: bible

When a Father Leaves This World

Something in a Son Learns to Stand Alone

Early yesterday morning my father passed away after having two strokes, a heart attack, and kidney failure. This post is dedicated to all the sons who have lost their father due to sickness, neglect, or old age. This one’s for you.

Shock has its own silence, and within that silence a son’s heart begins to unravel truths he never expected to face so soon. A man can be fully grown, seasoned by hardship and triumph, yet the moment a father leaves this world, some interior strand pulls loose. Something young within us calls out for the one whose presence once anchored our direction.

A father shapes more than memory. He shapes the subtle architecture of a son’s inner life; how he walks, how he listens, how he holds his ground, how he softens. Even when adulthood arrives, there remain chambers inside the psyche still waiting for the father’s voice, his guidance, his steady reassurance. When he passes, those chambers echo. They awaken. They ask to be met by the man we must now become.

Loss doesn’t simply remove a person; it shifts the very gravity of our existence. It brings forward unfinished pieces, unspoken blessings, unasked questions, unseen vulnerabilities. These become the new teachers. The absence of the father becomes its own curriculum, urging us toward a deeper maturity that can no longer depend on his presence.

A father’s death forces a son into a confrontation with himself: How do I continue the journey without the one who walked before me? Who do I trust with the tender questions he once held? These questions cut straight to the core, yet they also reveal an unexpected truth: our fathers prepared us more than we realized. Their lessons, their mistakes, their strength, their humanity, all of it remains as quiet guidance within us.

What they could not finish in us becomes our responsibility to finish ourselves. This is not abandonment. This is initiation. It asks us to embody the lineage, to rise with the heart they shaped, to stand as the continuation of everything they once carried.

In Loving Memory of my dad, Bishop Elpedo A. Smith

Morgan O. Smith

Beyond Existence and Non-Existence

The Paradox of God

To say “God exists” is to affirm the ultimate. To say “God does not exist” is to deny the ultimate. Both affirmations and denials, however, are shaped by the mind’s insistence on certainty. The moment one tries to hold onto either pole, a paradox emerges.

When someone claims God exists, they project a reality beyond perception, yet they confine that reality to a category recognizable to human thought. When another claims God does not exist, they too impose a conclusion, binding the ineffable to the limits of negation. Both positions carry a strange truth and a strange error. Both dissolve the moment awareness sees through the duality of affirmation and denial.

Imagine truth as a horizon: from one angle, existence appears; from another, non-existence. Walk closer, and the horizon itself vanishes; it was never a line that could be grasped, but a function of perspective. God is not merely at the horizon but the condition through which horizon, perspective, and perceiver arise.

To say both are true is to honour that reality contains affirmation and negation. To say both are false is to point out that neither claim reaches the source. To say one is true and the other false is to remain in dualistic thought. To call them half-truths is to recognize their limitation yet still attempt to measure the immeasurable. To deny even a half-truth is to bow to silence.

The statement itself, that God exists and does not exist in all these paradoxical ways, becomes the closest gesture to truth. It is not the conclusion but the capacity to hold the contradictions without collapse that reveals God’s existence, not as a concept but as the unnamable presence behind every concept.

The paradox is not meant to be solved. It is meant to exhaust the mind until only awareness remains. What remains is not the proof of God, but the direct realization that the very effort to define or deny was always occurring within and as God.

Morgan O. Smith

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The Face of God and the End of Seeing

Most claim to have glimpsed the divine return with words that struggle to hold the weight of such an encounter. Many never return at all. To see the face of God and live is to step beyond the boundary where existence dissolves, where the self is unmade, and where reality, as it was once known, folds into itself like a dream dissolving at dawn.

Yet, what does it mean to see the face of God? Is it an experience of light so blinding that perception shatters? Is it a presence so vast that identity collapses? Or is it something even more elusive – something that was always here, hidden in the folds of ordinary awareness?

Some traditions warn against such an encounter, suggesting that no mortal can bear it and remain intact. Others speak of it as the ultimate reward, the final unveiling before absolute union. Yet, the paradox remains: how can one see the source of all things when the very act of seeing implies separation?

The face of God is neither a thing to be seen nor an object to be grasped. It is not found by looking outward or inward, for it is the very looking itself. The one who searches, the act of searching, and the sought-after presence all collapse into a singularity where distinctions dissolve. The moment of recognition is not a discovery but an obliteration – the end of every illusion that once passed for truth.

To live beyond such an encounter is to live without the weight of selfhood as it was once known. The personal dissolves, yet presence remains. There is nothing left to hold onto, yet nothing is missing. Some might call this madness. Others, liberation. But labels fall apart before the silent immensity of what remains.

Those who have seen and lived do not return with doctrine. They do not bring commandments carved into stone or revelations bound in pages. They return with an absence, a quiet, an emptiness more alive than any presence. And in that emptiness, a love beyond measure, a freedom beyond desire, and a knowing beyond thought.

Not all will understand. That, too, is part of the design.

Morgan O. Smith

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The Eternal Cycle of Sacrifice

Reflections on Life, Death, and Nourishment

In the vast, intricate dance of existence, every being participates in a cycle of giving and receiving that transcends mere survival. This process, a profound expression of the universe’s inherent generosity, manifests as a continuous flow of sacrifice. This concept is not about the literal intention of flora and fauna but rather illustrates the universe’s fundamental principle: to sustain life through a cycle of nurturing and rebirth.

The symbolism of Jesus as the sacrificial lamb embodies this universal truth, presenting a parable of ultimate love and self-offering. Jesus’ life and teachings exemplify the act of self-sacrifice for the greater good, mirroring the natural world’s cycles where every element plays a crucial role in nurturing another. Similarly, almonds and other natural entities embody this spirit of sacrifice; each seed, fruit, and offering itself to nourish others, perpetuating the cycle of life.


This perspective invites us to contemplate the interconnectedness of life and death, recognizing them not as opposites but as complementary forces. In this cycle, death is not an end but a transformation, a necessary passage for the continuation of life. We, too, are part of this eternal cycle, nourished by beings that came before us and, in turn, will nourish others.

Understanding this cycle encourages a profound respect for all forms of life and a recognition of our place within this grand scheme. It invites us to live with awareness and gratitude, acknowledging the sacrifices that sustain us and committing ourselves to live in a way that honours this sacred exchange.


This reflection on the cyclical nature of sacrifice and sustenance opens a pathway to deeper spiritual insights, reminding us of the interconnectedness of all things and the importance of living in harmony with this universal principle.

Morgan O. Smith

Yinnergy Meditation, Spiritual Life Coaching & My Book, Bodhi in the Brain…Available Now!

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The Paradox of Divinity

Navigating the Infinite Within

In exploring the divine, we often encounter a profound paradox that challenges our linear understanding of existence. The assertion that “God is everything, and everything is God” serves as a gateway to a realm where dichotomies dissolve, and absolutes become fluid. This perspective invites us to consider the omnipresence of the divine in all aspects of existence, transcending the binaries of good and evil, presence and absence, creation and void.

The essence of this assertion lies not just in acknowledging the divine in all that is seen and unseen but also in embracing the inherent contradictions it presents. When we say “God is everything,” we affirm the divine’s presence in every particle of the universe, from the majestic galaxies to the smallest grain of sand. This omnipresence suggests a unifying essence that binds all of creation in a single, divine continuum.

However, the journey does not end with the recognition of divinity. The statement “everything is God” simultaneously opens the door to its negation, implying that if everything embodies the divine, then the divine must also encompass the concepts of non-existence, absence, and even the dualities of good and evil. This paradox challenges us to expand our understanding of divinity beyond the confines of human morality and logic, urging us to embrace a more holistic view of existence where opposites are not in conflict but in an eternal dance.


The notion that “God is both good and evil” invites us to explore the divine not as a judge presiding over a moral dichotomy but as the totality of existence itself, where light and darkness are part of the divine play. It compels us to question our perceptions of morality, good, and evil, suggesting that these are not absolute but relative concepts that emerge from our engagement with the world.

In this light, the divine is not a distant entity governing from above but a presence that permeates every aspect of our reality, inviting us to find the sacred in the mundane, the extraordinary in the ordinary, and the unity in the apparent disarray. It calls us to a deeper understanding of nonduality, where the lines that separate self from other, sacred from profane, and creator from creation blur into insignificance.


This exploration of divinity challenges us to live with paradox, to find comfort in the discomfort of uncertainty, and to seek the divine not just in temples and texts but in the very fabric of our daily lives. It beckons us to see the world with new eyes, where every moment is an opportunity to encounter the infinite in the finite, the eternal in the ephemeral.

Morgan O. Smith

Yinnergy Meditation, Spiritual Life Coaching & My Book, Bodhi in the Brain…Available Now!

https://linktr.ee/morganosmith