Lessons From Octavia, Page 2.

I started this a couple months ago and just kinda let it drop. So imma try harder to keep it going. The next Earthseed verse says:

God is Power--
infinite,
irresistible,
inexorable,
indifferent,
and yet, God is Pliable--
trickster,
teacher,
chaos,
clay,
God exists to be shaped.
God is Change.

Olamina continues on:

"This is the literal truth.
God can't be resisted or stopped, but can be shaped and focused. This means God is not to be prayed to. Prayers only help the person doing the praying, and then, only if they strenghten and focus that person's resolve. If they're used that way, they can help us in our only real relationship with God. They help us to shape God and to accept and work with the shapes that God imposes on us. God is power, and in the end, God prevails.
But we can rig the game in our own favor if we understand that God exists to be shaped, and will be shaped, with or without our forethought, with or without our intent."

Wow. I've said this in the past and i'll say it again: I've never believed in God the way the average person does. I've never believed God is a person (especially a man, please.) with human-like features or qualities that actually sits somewhere up high deciding to let this person win a gold medal in the Olympics or to give this person a winning lottery ticket or to wipe out an entire village with a tidal wave. If i am ever to believe in God, it would represent energy; an undefinable, unfathomable natural force. Its all around us all the time. And its pretty much exactly the way Octavia describes it in her Parable stories. Now that's a God that makes sense to me...

Anyway, back to the text. To me, what it's really saying is that we are in control of our lives. Completely and totally. That absolutely nothing happens to us that we haven't chosen in some way. Every decision or action we make is a choice and moves our lives forward in a certain direction...in each and every moment.

I can imagine there are some people that are unwilling to accept that. Mainly because it would deny them the opportunity to blame others for the state of their life. They would have to face the one thing they've always feared: accountability. I've had to deal with that issue myself. I've had to face certain things in my past and say to myself: No matter what happened to you, you chose every step you've taken in your life. You are, right now, where you chose to be. And that's a fucking bitter pill to swallow. But i do, every day.

But i don't want to just focus on the negative. There is hope and optimism in what Octavia has written. She's saying that we can make things in our lives the way we want them to be...that its within our power. That we have the ability to "rig the game in our own favor" by understanding and learning how to shape God. That if you stay on the Yellow Brick Road, it will definitely lead you to the Emerald City (ok i know i'm pushing it with that one)...but i'm sure the jist has been gotten.

Shape God and drive your life.