Today, trust that even if you are having difficulty seeing Love with your eyes or knowing Love with your thoughts, Love is bigger than your eyes or thoughts. Even though it may not be evident to your limited human faculties, Love is present, powerful, and active in your being and your life right now.
In the book Discernment, Henry Nouwen reflects on the power of showing up for prayer time, even if he feels distracted and restless and nothing seems to be happening: "God is greater than my senses, greater than my thoughts, greater than my heart. I do believe that God touches me in places that are hidden even to myself."
Today, trust that even if you are having difficulty seeing Love with your eyes or knowing Love with your thoughts, Love is bigger than your eyes or thoughts. Even though it may not be evident to your limited human faculties, Love is present, powerful, and active in your being and your life right now.
0 Comments
Today, know that your most important work is feeling your connection to Love, your Maker. Although the world seems to be asking you to work harder and faster, to exert more energy and will, your most important calling is to feel Life and Love present and moving in your being. From this awareness, you will naturally discern next steps and the most meaningful expression of your talents - with more calm and naturalness, less urgency and human effort.
II Corinthians, in a passage about our hunger for Spirit, says that we long "that mortality may be swallowed up of life."
Today, let the presence and activity of Life imbue anything in your life that feels dull or lifeless. Let Life enliven your routines. Let Life add play and vitality to your relationships. Let Life guide you to that which nourishes your being. Feel Life active in your cells and molecules. Let Life help you prioritize that which serves love and joy and help you see and let go of that which does not. After the restoration of a friendship, Henri Nouwen writes in his book Discernment:
"I reached a healthy place in which I was able to stop projecting my needs on another human being. We both came to understand that each of us is limited in our capacity to be for another what is needed, and learned to forgive each other for not being God . . . I learned that people can be signs and helpful companions, but only God can guide and fully heal the wounded places in us." Today, have reasonable expectations for your friends, family members, and yourself. Be grateful for all the ways that Love loves you through the people in your life--but don't demand of them that they fill your every need. From II Timothy: "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
Today, Love reveals and enforces your authority and power. Love imbues you with affection and tenderness and unselfish motives. Love establishes and defends your sanity, your clear thinking, your right priorities. In a message to her church in 1902, Mary Baker Eddy wrote:
"Only what God gives, and what we give ourselves and others through His tenure, confers happiness: conscious worth satisfies the hungry heart, and nothing else can." Whatever story you tell yourself about yourself, your spiritual identity and being is so much bigger. When you claim something about yourself, add "I am so much bigger than that."
I have been damaged by events in the past - I am so much bigger than that. I am a (teacher, parent, athlete, artist, etc.) - I am so much bigger than that. I am this kind of person (sensitive, ambitious, restless, an introvert, an extrovert, a perfectionist, etc.) - I am so much bigger than that. I like or don't like (whatever it is) - I am so much bigger than that. I need (control, order, stimulation, distraction, affirmation, etc.) - I am so much bigger than that. We may not yet fully know this bigger self, but by affirming its presence, we open room room to discover. Like being in the middle of a house remodel, when you are being spiritually remade, you can feel as if you are in the midst of interior chaos and confusion. Don't be afraid of the mess. Don't be afraid as you let go of old familiar concepts. Don't be afraid that you can't yet see the final product. Trust the Divine Architect and Interior Designer to do His/Her work on you, that the ripping out of old walls, the setting of a new foundation, the disorder before order is all a part of the process.
(Partially inspired by Lucy Hays Reynold's article "Being Made Over," published in 1917.) From Leonard Cohen's song "Anthem":
Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That's how the light gets in. Today, recognized that your own cracks, your imperfections and suffering, are the places that birth compassion and a source of strength and insight. In After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, Jack Kornfield records Suzuki Roshi's line: "There are no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity." Today, don't demand of yourself that you be 100% enlightened. Don't worship others, imagining they are enlightened. Be generous to yourself about your failings. Be generous to others about theirs. Focus, instead, on enlightened activity. Notice how Love works through your actions and the actions of others.
|
AuthorTarn Wilson is the author of the memoir The Slow Farm and numerous essays. You may read more of her work at tarnwilson.com. Archives
September 2020
Categories |