Life is a sacrament

All of life - every single bit of it - is a sacrament, an outward reflection of an inner reality, which is presence.  Reality - authentic REAL reality - is all presence.  It is God's being hood in which we are immersed, in which we "move and have our being."  If we could catch this awareness, like catching the fragrance of a rose as you walk on past it, we would be absolutely awed out of our minds. 

But, we can catch glimpses of this "reality" in our everyday lives.  We all unknowingly participate in this great sacramental life in our actions, thoughts, hopes and dreams.  Some of our actions seem less lovely than others and almost all of us are on a path to deeper awareness or consciousness - which is awareness - of our own personal immersement in life, in the great cosmic God presence.

A few years ago while I was working at a seminary in Western New York, I was chatting with a colleague about issues people have and that mysterious connection between their yet unrecovered childhood traumas and the current traumas in their lives.  I called then those unrecovered childhood traumas interior spiritual shrapnel, the left over shards of metal still inside you from a previous war or conflict.  We are all carrying around shrapnel from the wars we've fought in our lives, in our childhood and from therein.  And, that shrapnel is still like live wire.  It is still magnetic, attracting to us all kinds of life experiences that somewhat mirror the original offense.  That's what I mean by shrapnel. 

We are so much more complex and deep than we can ever realize.  We live - most of us in the western culture - out of our rational minds, that data base we call our brains.  But, that's all it is - a brilliantly wired logic-based computer that retains information and makes connections. Within the heart is our real identity and the portal to the great presence of life, the great divine heartbeat.  It is the heart that is wounded and in which lies that still magnetic shrapnel.  We may dig around in a counselor's office at our memories and intellectually try to sort out our life experiences while the heart's weeping and laughing.  We often become kind of zombie-like in our efforts to sidestep the pain sometimes authenticity requires while actually moving away from where we need healing rather than closer to it.  

I don't think we can remove that buried shrapnel by ourselves.  I think it is an act of Grace that either removes it for us - like the great cosmic heart surgeon God is - or gives us the necessary spiritual gifts to allow us to live with it.  We simply cannot undo the past, but maybe we can live in full awareness and admit and even allow ourselves the honesty that we are all wounded and we are all on the road to healing.  

Everything you do is a magnificent expression of your divine self, radiating outward into the world from the center of your own divine self.  If you sincerely want to heal your life and your hearts, you may want to listen to and look at what is reflected back to you in your life.  As I look at my life, I can see why things may not be as I'd like them and I also can't remove the thorn from my own side.  Only God can do that, but God will and often does that at our invitation.  I think we have to be willing to get close to the pain in our broken hearts in order to invite God into that fire.  This whole process reveals to me this great mystery of who we are - these awesome and incredibly complex, yet beautiful and powerful, creatures.  

I truly believe help is always available if we are willing to call out to God for help and I believe that everything that hurts us today will open the door further to allow God's light to flood our world.  Every broken heart, cracks open the door a bit more.  If we refuse to step into that broken heart, admit it, feel it and experience it, we keep the door shut to God.  If we stay with the pain and the awareness, consciousness will increase and almost axiomatically so will God's presence.