But the most important thing I learned from hearing other people’s ideas about God was that what we believe makes a difference in how we live and think in relation to God and those around us. It showed me that a model of a loving God was more able to produce loving people, full of charity and grace, while a model of a vindictive God brought with it, in many ways, more harm than good, producing people of a more harsh and sometimes unforgiving and unaccepting nature.
It was clear to me then that in order for me to grow and move forward on a spiritual level, I would need to leave behind any kind of thinking that portrayed God in an unloving manner. The God I had come to know was full of love, mercy, and understanding. Anything that portrayed God differently did so contrary to my own experience. What I needed then, I knew, was to let go of dogma and tradition and explore love for myself.
God, I had faith, would lead me to the truth.
— Excerpted from The Truth as I See It: A Collection of Spiritual Writings by Adam Soto (p. 36)
Mind / Purpose / Truth 