Today, any worry or sadness that arise in you--any childlike vulnerability--gently and with great trust set it in the lap of Love.
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Psalms says, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully [carefully] and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”
I have thought often about the first half of the passage, but have paid little attention to the second, which, today, seems important. Not only are we made by Love, but we have been given the full ability to see, know, and appreciate our essential nature, our divine qualities, our worth. Our souls know that we are wonderfully made. This knowing is a necessity and a divine right. Many of us are not tempted by whispers that we cheat, lie, steal, be mean, promote injustice, but we don't realize how much more vigorously we need to fight against the suggestions that we are powerless, ineffective, un-beautiful, unworthy. Today, know that your soul knows your divine nature. Rest there. From Rob Bell's What We Talk About When We Talk About God:
"With Jesus, what we see again and again is that it's never just a person, or just a meal, or just an event, because there is always more going on just below the surface. Jesus sees what others miss. He is aware when others are oblivious. I love how the apostle Paul put it in a letter to friends. 'May the eyes of your heart be enlightened.'" Today, may we all recognize the spiritual substance and activity and depth and potential in our daily thoughts and acts. Open our eyes. Bring to consciousness what we need to see and understand. Today, feel the presence of the sacred in your daily activities. It is an illusion that our daily tasks are not sacred.
Rob Bell, author of What We Talk About When We Talk About God, says "We live in a lite world--one that bombards us from thousands of directions with advertisements and escape in every conceivable form and television shows about people doing mindless things and elevators that play mind-numbing versions of songs we used to like before we heard them a million times. This noise, in all its visual and psychic forms, can numb us, making this day feel like it's without weight because it's just like all the others as they all run together. Today, know that your interactions and conversations are infused with the sacred, your treatment of yourself is infused with the sacred, your attention to the demands of your day are infused with the sacred. Pause and feel the depth of Love and creative Life pulsing through all you do. Today, feel Life pulsing in you. Feel Life giving you a sense of renewal, providing you energy, reinvigorating hope, touching long buried dreams. Feel Life restoring you, awakening creativity, activating your intelligence. Life is a power that moves in you and through you.
Today, know that creative work is participating in God's conversation. It is not building a career; it is not asserting our identity; it is not pushing an agenda. It is a humble, vulnerable, sincere, brave willingness to actively participate in Love's work and ways of communicating with creation.
Today, know and feel that Love loves you with integrity, without manipulations or tricks, with absolute thoroughness and trustworthiness. Divine Integrity is a power moving in your life, helping you to see and tell the truth to yourself, helping you live in alignment with your highest values, supporting you in your efforts to be brave, authentic, honest, and sincere in your relationships and actions. Divine Integrity also gives you wisdom to discern when a situation or a person is not healthy or safe for you and brings hidden dishonesty to the surface. Today, trust in the immense and effective power of Integrity.
Today, when strong emotions or memories arise in you, first let Love hold them. At his point, you don't need to understand them, analyze them, justify, or criticize them. Just let Love hold them with strength and gentleness, and without judgement. Begin there. Then, in time, whatever you need to know or understand will be revealed.
We need the kind of rest that restores not just our body but our spirit. Today, make sure you do something that nurtures your spirit, whatever that may be: a nap, prayer and meditation, exercise, playing outside, listening to music, singing, dancing, drawing, cooking, gardening, hugging, good conversation, reading, lying on your back and looking at the sky.
Without times to rest and fill ourselves with spiritual sustenance, we become depleted, sharp, and ultimately of little use. Ask yourself what real kindness you can give yourself today. In his book What We Talk About When We Talk About God, pastor Rob Bell reminds us: "And atoms, it turns out, are 99.9 percent empty space. If all the empty space was taken out of all of the atoms in the universe, the universe would fit in a sugar cube . . . Your chair appears to be solid, but that solidity is a bit of an illusion . . . your chair is ultimately a relationship of energy -- atoms bonded to each other in a particular way that allows you to sit on that chair and be supported. Things like chairs and tables and parking lots and planets may appear to be solid, but they are at their core endless frenetic movements of energy.
All this to say that matter isn't what we think it is: a solid mass. What if all that empty space is filled with Love - a conscious, intelligent energy and structure, closer than your breath? |
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
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