The Truth Will Make You Free
Paula Thompson, a Nonprofit Director from Colorado.
It may be easier for me to say how The Urantia Book hasn’t changed my life, because it has virtually had an effect on how I view everything. One thing the book has not done for me is take away life’s challenges. I am sure my life is just as challenging as it would have been had I never found and read the book. Having said that, I can say with absolute certainty that the truth, wisdom and philosophy of The Urantia Book has helped me get through every difficulty, even tragedy, with calm assurance, grace and dignity.
Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” I always wondered what he meant by that. What would the truth free you from? I searched for truth in many places, and my experience with so-called “religious truth” did not have a liberating effect on me. In fact, most often after I heard these declarations of “truth” I was more burdened than I had been before I heard them. That is, being told that I was a “wretched miserable sinner” who would “go to hell” if I did not do exactly as ecclesiastic authorities dictated, did not exactly lift my spirits nor make me feel free. Neither was I inclined to worship a God whose primary purpose was to punish his erring children, or one who favored one child over another. My own imperfect parents were more wise, kind and loving than that.
At the tender age of 16, I had a heart to heart talk with God and I told him, “I’m not sure how you are God. You may be the way they say you are, and if you are, I’m sorry, but I can’t worship you.” After a moments reflection I added, “Somehow God, I don’t think you are that way and I’m just going wait for you to reveal how you really are to me.” I had peace, for inwardly I felt he would do just that. Four years later, in the midst of the worst crisis of my life, I found The Urantia Book.
Words can’t describe the joy I felt when I read statements like;
“Divine righteousness is not dominated by strict retributive justice; God as a father transcends God as a judge.”
I was completely lifted and liberated when I read;
“God is inherently kind, naturally compassionate, and everlastingly merciful. And never is it necessary that any influence be brought to bear upon the Father to call forth his loving- kindness. The creature’s need is wholly sufficient to insure the full flow of the Father’s tender mercies and his saving grace.”
I let go of a great deal of anxiety to learn that;
“What you are today is not so important as what you are becoming day by day and in eternity.”
I marveled to contemplate;
“Therefore settle in your philosophy now and forever: To each of you and to all of us, God is approachable, the Father is attainable, the way is open; the forces of divine love and the ways and means of divine administration are all interlocked in an effort to facilitate the advancement of every worthy intelligence of every universe to the Paradise presence of the Universal Father.”
These profound words of truth rang like a gong in my soul, and they did surely make me free.
The Urantia Book showed me the way to overcome doubt, anxiety, fear, confusion, despair and loneliness. It’s not that I don’t still grapple with these emotions, I do, but the words of wisdom and love in this astonishing book come to me in dark moments and restore my faith “that all things work together for good.” The book saved me, from myself, by showing how to overcome base human tendencies. Even so, the book did more than just help me with negative and perplexing human emotions, it has given me something that is more valuable to me than all the riches in the world, and that is hope. Hope for myself, my children, the future of the human race, eternal life and perfection. It has given me absolute faith that there is reason to have hope for us all.
There is one more way in which The Urantia Book has changed my life and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention it. More than anything I have ever encountered, The Urantia Book has given me a cosmic perspective, a way to view our fragile human estate the way God views it; with tolerance, love and forgiveness.
