Take on God

By Jennifer Maag and Alexander Maag

Everyone is struggling with an internal battle of some sort. They may choose to suppress and ignore it, or they may choose to work on it, but first they must acknowledge that it is there.
As empaths, authors Jennifer and Alexander Maag resonate with the stories and experiences of others by way of feeling. That is, they feel other people’s emotions on a deeper level. They came to realize they are both highly sensitive and intuitive individuals. While tuning into their gifts and understandings of the world around them, they found healing, expression, and gratitude for their lives. The experiences they shared are both optimistic and heartfelt.
This book aims to applaud God while encouraging self-discovery, growth, and healing outside of the box of modern religion. Take On God came from notes and journal entries written while searching for answers and healing. It became something like, “Dear diary, I am going through spiritual awakening.”
Life is a series of dramas that unfold each day. Throw some past-life traumas into the mix, and you’ve got Take On God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Mar 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781982276485

Jennifer Maag

Jennifer Maag is a licensed massage therapist with extensive training in both Western and Eastern modalities. She is a mother of two who enjoys traveling and experiencing the local cuisine and attractions. Alexander Maag, her son, is an avid reader who enjoys cooking and driving ATVs. He inherited a green thumb from both of his grandmothers and enjoys time outdoors. This is their first book. www.takeongod.com

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Copyright © 2021 Jennifer Maag & Alexander Maag.

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The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-9822-7619-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9822-7620-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9822-7648-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021922001

Balboa Press rev. date: 02/04/2022

Contents

Danke Schoen

Preface: Unpack Your Heart

Welcome to the Future

Superwoman

We Didn’t Start the Fire

Got My Mind Set on You

Let It Be

The Middle

Listen to Your Heart

Who Says?

I Am Not Alone

When We Were Young

Three Wooden Crosses

You’re My Best Friend

That’s What Friends Are For

Help from Heaven

Beautiful Day

Chapel of Love

I’ll Be There for You

Angels among Us

Calling All Angels

Who Let the Dogs Out?

I Want to Break Free

If You’re Going through Hell

I Won’t Back Down

I Will Survive

Beautiful Letdown

You Dropped a Bomb on Me

I Want to Hold Your Hand

Holding on to Heaven

Get Back Up

Don’t You (Forget about Me)

Learn to Fly

Good to Be Alive (Hallelujah)

A Little Party Never Killed Nobody

It’s My Life

Still to Come

Good Fight

Never Going Back

Wheel in the Sky

Girl on Fire

Same Love

True Colors

Shine

Home

Pennies from Heaven

Keep the Faith

Overcomer

Keep Your Hands to Yourself

Carry On, Wayward Son

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution

You Don’t Own Me

Praying

Superman (It’s Not Easy)

Keep Your Head Up

Superheroes

My Way

I’ll Be Missing You

When I Get Where I’m Going

You’re Always Here

Good Grief

See You Again

Fear Is a Liar

1-800-273-8255

You Say

Scars to Your Beautiful

Workin’ On It

Cotton-Eye Joe

Stronger

Danke Schoen

From Alex

I would first like to give special thanks to my coauthor, who is also my mom, Jennifer, for all the work she put into this book with me. At times our creative ideas clashed, but we powered through. I am amazed at the work we have accomplished and at all the time we have put into this book.

I am thankful to my dad for not throwing Mom or me in an institution—but ultimately because he helped shape me into who I am today. We have had plenty of struggles and differences throughout the years that have allowed us both to grow.

I am thankful to my sister, Jasmine, my first and forever best friend. I have enjoyed watching you grow up to become a strong and independent young woman. I appreciate all the good, all the bad, and all the in between that we have shared and will continue to share. I will always be here for you.

From Jennifer

Thank you to my husband for all the lessons and blessings we’ve experienced together in the last twenty-three years.

Thank you to my son, Alex, for encouraging this coauthoring of our experiences. Some of our experiences were harder to move through, but together we made it through to the other side.

Thank you to my daughter, Jasmine, for holding space for me to move with her and Alex so I might heal and work on this endeavor.

From Us Both

Thank you to our family and friends (both those who were aware of this endeavor of ours and those who weren’t) for allowing us to hold our space and each develop a backbone. We wish it would have been as easy as setting up umbrellas behind our chairs at the beach.

Special thanks to Wendy Russell, our friend and Reiki master, who helped to keep us motivated for this endeavor, while also providing us with necessary insight and enlightenment to grow.

To the crew we met at Charmed: Jennifer, Haven, Ashleigh, and Jenni, we thank you all for your energy, support, and guidance in healing and on this endeavor.

We started working on Take On God in late March / early April of 2020. None of us need a reminder of what started then. It was because of what developed that ultimately shook some things loose in us and brought these topics of this book to the forefront of our minds. It is now May of 2021, and we are happy to be finishing it. We have had our fair share of ups and downs since we started this project, and to say that barely scratches the surface.

Preface: Unpack Your Heart

From Alex and Jennifer

Please understand that we very much love and appreciate God for everything he/she/it (genderless really) is. Generally, God is referred to as Father, assuming male, which is how we will refer to him. God to us is much like a father figure, though we fully believe that he has appeared and spoken—and does appear and speak—to people as a woman. Depending on the circumstance, some individuals may be more comfortable with a Mother’s love. God is who and what we need when God is needed (and really, we need God always). Therefore, we listen to God with every fiber of our being, listening for whichever voice he may use. God is our guide in every sense of the word. Without God we would not be writing this for you. So, the question is, would you believe us if we were to tell you he talks to you just as much as he talks to us? Yes, he talks to you! The question is, are you listening?

In Take On God, we aim to assist you in opening your mind to the possibility of more. We aim to teach you that there is more to you, to the world, and to the universe as we know it. What we have to say may surprise you—it may be outside the norm for you—and that’s OK. We are not asking you to change your ways for our benefit or anyone else’s, but for your own. And we aren’t asking you to change at all, but encouraging you to plant seeds of growth. We each have our own path through life. You don’t have to agree with ours, nor do we have to agree with yours, but we will respect both our differences and the commonalities we share with you. We are not here to say that we are holier than thou or that you are holier than we. We are not here to say everyone’s experience is the same—it isn’t, nor should it be. We are each unique for the beauty we can find within, the beauty discovered from without, and everything in between. Life is a derivative of perception, hence why we choose to believe in God, which you may not do—and if such is the case, that’s OK. This is a book written from our experience and from our belief in God, and also a belief in, more, the story of God, for God.

*Because Take On God is written from our experiences, the things discussed herein are not limited solely to this life we are living, but instead apply to the multitude of lifetimes our souls have lived.*

Yes, we believe in God and in reincarnation, especially given all we’ve felt, heard, seen, and experienced. Some readers won’t mind this, and some will. Equally as important to mention is that we will be discussing such topics as rape, suicide, murder, and death within the pages of Take On God. These experiences may be triggers for you. If they do trigger you, we apologize in advance. However, take these triggers as invitations to heal. After all, if you are healed, the topic(s) will no longer bother you. If you will stick with us throughout the course of Take On God, hopefully you will find some comfort in the fact that you’re not alone in any case, and that God hears you (if you believe in God, heaven, and the like), and that everything you experience in this life is a lesson, a blessing, or both and may have been experienced more than once throughout the course of your soul’s entire existence.

If you’ve made it this far, then welcome to the inner workings of the human being, the deepest parts of ourselves we can’t ignore that are waiting to bubble over and be poured out. We hope our experiences will intrigue you, excite you, enlighten you, and inspire you (if something is meant to, it will). If you make it all the way through Take On God, know that at the end we thank you, because if it weren’t for you, the reader, there would be no book at all.

Take On God aims to applaud God while encouraging self-discovery, growth, and healing outside the box of modern religion. Please don’t misinterpret this as us condemning religion, because we are not. Religion is a basis for our beliefs, an entry point into worlds and realms beyond our otherwise simple comprehension.

Everyone is struggling with an internal battle of some sort. They may choose to suppress it and ignore it, or they may choose to work on it, but first they must acknowledge that it is there.

Take On God will expose my struggles from when I shut myself off from who I was and the gifts I had, while also exposing the heartbreaks and fears I grapple with to this day.

When I realized I had shut off my gifts and how I did it, I was heartbroken. However, from this heartbreak I was guided to change direction and move toward who I was always meant to be, the me that most others knew nothing about.

In following that path, I discovered that life brings us gifts, both gifts we cheer for and gifts we don’t want, but they are all gifts nevertheless. The gifts we don’t want are meant to lead us to turn inward so we may learn about ourselves and open up to growth and healing.

—Jennifer

*Here’s a secret: We will never be completely healed, any of us, as we are not meant to be. It’s in the work of healing that we keep growing, living, and experiencing.*

Our book Take on God showcases the greatest love story of all, the story of finding love for ourselves within ourselves. In making this discovery, the two of us have been able to find peace, love, and respect within that has ignited our joy and excitement once again.

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Welcome to the Future

From Alex

To be present in the future means you must be present in the now. Everything you do from now on is in the future.

W hile the future is vast and limitless, our understanding of the future comes from our past experiences in this life and also from our past lives. All these moments have led us to the now , and now we are in the future. Take On God and my and my mother’s understandings are largely about God, the universe, their interchangeable relationship, and the spiritual gifts that many are given and may never even use. So that begs the question, is everyone spiritually gifted?

Yes, the fact that you are part of God’s creation is enough to allow you to say that you are spiritually gifted, and further to say that you are a divine gift. Furthermore, and for the understanding of Take On God, it must be noted that no soul, not one, is more important than another. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, of course, and we all use, or refrain from using, them differently. Therefore, our experiences are all different, unique to our own person, although they can be similar enough to another’s that we understand the other. For us, we have chosen to write Take On God because we felt nudged to do so, to share our truths about some of the innermost workings of the world, truths that are not commonly perceived. We felt we needed to do our part to explain the truths God has provided us. And in our doing so, these truths shall be provided for you too.

Take On God is for those who are searching for the extra. It is for those who feel enlightened and whole, while also being for those who feel lost and empty inside. Take On God is for us, the dreamers, those who have felt inherently different for as far back as they can remember, while also being for those who feel average. Take On God is for the open-minded individual who is curious about others philosophies and beliefs, and also for those who feel stuck in their ways. Our book will provide insight to those who need it most. If we succeed at that, then it is all we could ever ask.

Trust me when I say, it was no accident that you found Take On God. All the forces in the universe—God himself—made sure you would at the very least acknowledge the cover. I’m here to say that if you have followed along this far, you’ll read it to the end. We welcome you here, to an existence that dives into the beyond. Take On God is personal for us—each of us—and for humanity as a whole, but only if we choose to acknowledge that we can’t have one another without also having each other’s individuality and existence.

I hope Take On God excites you to discover the possibility of living a life beyond what you can fathom. I hope it intrigues you enough to ask questions of yourself and of others. Let’s face it, the world could use a little more unbiased conversation, a little more open-mindedness, and people who can take a step back and look at all the angles. Such individuals are few and far between. We get so caught up in the drama of life that we sometimes miss or forget what the point of it is.

I hope Take On God provides any kind of direction for you that is healthier. If you are one who feels with every ounce of your being that your life has been a sundae, then I hope Take On God is the cherry on top. If you’ve felt that you have been in a constant and never-ending downward spiral, I hope you understand that you are not alone, you are not crazy, and you are far more special than you could ever imagine. God and the gifts you’ve been given in the past have led you to now, this present moment, and will continue to carry you into the future. So, if you’re intrigued, read Take On God. Read it for yourself. Read it for everyone else in your life too. Take On God—take a literal leap of faith and dream, explore, and live again.

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Superwoman

From Jennifer

I n our fast-paced world, people are running around as if they’re trying to keep up, but most don’t know what they are trying to keep up with. Yet they continue to pack so much into their days. I fell prey to this game too. I ended up running on autopilot most of the time with nothing but fumes in the tank. I woke up just as tired as when I went to bed, and wondered why. Many of us feel this way. We find we have less time with our spouses, our children, and our parents, and we scratch our heads wondering where our time went. We labor long hours at work and then try to distract ourselves from our lives with more activities, wallowing by the TV and indulging in eating and drinking to excess, for example.

When I was a player in this topsy-turvy game called life, my world constantly felt like a ride on the corkscrew at Cedar Point amusement park. I don’t enjoy feeling off-center, anxious, or foggy-minded. It took nearly seventeen years for me to take back the reins that belonged to me. It’s not been easy. Quite the opposite actually, and downright scary too.

I watched, I listened, and I waited for the answers as God laid out the yellow brick road, showing me which way to go. That’s when I found synchronicities in my life, confirming to my soul that I was and am going the right way.

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We Didn’t Start the Fire

From Alex

W hat can be said about everything we feel, learn, and experience in life? Our lives encompass so many things that we have millions, billions, even, dare I say, trillions of experiences and encounters with other people. This isn’t even counting the experiences we have with complete strangers, whom we run into when we are out and about in public. The topics, the possibilities, and everything else is limitless in the world and in the universe. One such topic is free will.

To exercise one’s free will is to harness one’s power, one’s natural slice of heaven, the divinity housed within one’s soul. With free will, we can choose who we will meet and when we will meet them. We can choose where we go to school and where we will live, work, and eat. We can choose life or death (figuratively, but literally to some degree too). And we can choose spiritual awakening and awareness. For my coauthor and me, discovering our gifts allowed us to discover, and appreciate on a deeper level, our ability to choose, to use free will, simultaneously discovering and appreciating the gifts of love, respect, humanity, spirituality, and faith.

To sum up this everything else humanity feels, learns, and experiences, I would like to share a quotation I believe many have heard: The grass is always greener on the other side. I also want to share with you another quotation that is similar but that seems to be more of an addendum to the previous statement: The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Rather, it is greener where you water it. Guess what? While each of these quotations makes its point, each also has its flaws. Sound familiar? Look at humanity.

The first statement, about the grass being greener on the other side: what does this mean? It basically means that there are more (or better) opportunities ahead, but somewhere else, somewhere you are not. This could be across the fence, down the road, or on the other side. While this can be true, it’s not always the case, so the second quotation adds clarity.

*Personally, I think the statement could be talking about heaven—in which case, the grass is whatever you want it to be.*

Sometimes we need to make adjustments to our lives to experience growth, or greener grass. Such adjustments might include removing toxic friends (or even family) from our lives and leaving them behind—whatever that means to you. Or perhaps one adjusts by finding a new job. To find greener grass, one might have to move. Moving in general is a big life adjustment, whether you move five minutes down the road or twelve hours away from the home where you grew up. (I did the latter and, in fact, have experienced all three of these things I use as examples.)

Saying all of this and taking it into account has literally provided me with a new perspective. Is the grass greener at my new home? Not necessarily. I would say the grass is about the same. You see, wherever you go, you will always have challenges and obstacles. Leaving one place and going to another, for any reason, requires an adjustment. There will be kinks that need to be worked out, no matter what, in a whole slew of areas.

The second statement says that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side but, rather, in places where you water it. This is an entirely accurate statement, but I discourage turning to it in all cases. Why? Well, it almost seems to discourage the reader and encourage him or her at the same time! Huh? Talk about internal conflict.

*This is my perception, so bear with me. Overall, it would seem it is a general and uplifting statement. Let me explain. If I stay in place and water my own grass, particularly the grass beneath my feet, then it will become greener—that’s accurate. Therefore, the statement is encouraging me to stay in one spot and make the most of it, which is fine. But it fails in providing me with encouragement for growth. It seems to say one shouldn’t consider that other job offer or consider that move. It seems to be saying that making adjustments to one’s life is scary. "Remain where you are comfortable, and keep working on yourself. Things will get better." While this may be fine for some, I’m not going to encourage you to behave this way, since it isn’t what I did. Although ultimately you should do whatever is best for you.*

The second statement almost seems to be encouraging you to take that leap of faith and discover what the grass is like somewhere else, no matter what the grass looks like, doesn’t it? You can water the grass where you are just as much as you can water the grass on the other side. Ah, that’s right: it’s all about your perceived where in the statement I am referring to. It could be somewhere, anywhere, or nowhere. Where do you want to be? If you want that other job, or if you want to move, make it happen. Odds are, you’re being called there for one reason or another. Maybe it’s to learn a lesson, to receive a blessing, or to do both, all wrapped into one big ball of experience. So go (or don’t if it isn’t your thing) and experience the grass on the other side. Realize that there is grass somewhere else that you could be watering and