Something Grand To Work Towards
Saskia Raevouri, a Disney Animator from California.
How did The Urantia Book change my life?
Before I was able to become a believer in God and have a purposeful life, I needed the answer to one question: What will happen to me when I die? Will I disappear? Will I be reborn as someone else, with no memory of this life? Or will I still be ME, with my personality, my consciousness and my memories intact? Until I had a satisfactory answer, my life was a meaningless round of eating, sleeping (mostly insomnia), shopping for clothes, working to earn money, and stress-filled relationships.
In 1977, aged 31, I discovered through reading The Urantia Book that I would continue to be ME after I died. When I KNEW that to be true deep inside my soul everything changed.
Suddenly my life had meaning and purpose. I now had a DIRECTION to live in–from where I found myself at that moment all the way into Paradise, even if it took four hundred billion years to get there. I began to see things in a universe framework. I went from living in a one-dimensional world to a multi- dimensional world, from black and white to color, from a world populated not only by humans but angels and hosts of other friendly beings who were here to help show the way. Studying our planetary history revealed how I had come to this point through the doings of my ancestors, knowing about the mansion worlds was like an exciting travel brochure depicting where I was going immediately after this life, and learning of our eternal destiny gave me something grand to work towards.
Discovering Jesus and his teachings taught me that God was a friend I could talk to, who understood me even when others didn’t. I learned that being kind to others has eternal value, that such actions are the building blocks of the spiritual universe. Nice guys DIDN’T always finish last, as I had previously believed! I began to learn to tolerate people who irritated me, to see their viewpoint instead of mine. I could now cultivate the things that I knew I could take with me into the next life instead of worrying about how big my wardrobe was. I went from anxiety-filled nights to resting peacefully. (I still have insomnia but now I can contemplate the stupendous universe instead of worrying about eternal oblivion.)
The fact that I would continue to know the people I loved after this life added depth to my relationships. I felt a new closeness to ALL my earth brothers and sisters – one day in the distant future we would be able to look back on our Urantia experience as having survived a shipwreck or a plane crash together. I began to see this life as an opportunity to help each other cope with the disaster, and view it with a sense of humor.
Through the information in The Urantia Book I gained hope, strength, security, peace of mind, and the comfort that comes from knowing we are not expected to be perfect YET, as long as we strive to be perfect.
And that is how The Urantia Book changed my life!
