Once upon a dream

"... with God all things are possible"

Matthew 19:26

Maybe we all forget sometimes who we are. That's assuming we ever knew in the first place who we really are. Then, even if we once knew because someone told us who we are, maybe we didn't understand it really and without understanding there is no reception. Admittedly, it is a huge mind stretch to realize that we are the children of the creator of the universe and that our universal parent is really with us, "closer to us than we are to ourselves," to quote St. Augustine.


So, if we are children of the great One, why do we live like paupers, sick, discouraged even depressed sometimes? Maybe it's because we forgot who we are. And, it's a fact that the more discouraged we become, the less we can do and accomplish and so things just get worse.

We all get distracted by all that is coming at us in our lives, our families, our countries, our entire world, and if we're not careful we might just succumb to the temptation to forget who we are and enter into that terrible state of forgetfulness. Today that forgetfulness is rampant and ruining our world. We feel powerless, unable to make our lives work as we once dreamed. We try and try a million different ways, we try. Since we had forgotten from whom our real power comes, from whom the power of miracles comes, we remain stuck, frustrated and powerless.

Sometimes we even forget for a long time ..... a very long time. And, in our forgetting, we slowly slip down the rabbit hole, down, down, down into a darker place. Maybe the whole world has slipped like that, too. Then, one day, we feel a hard thump as we hit the bottom of that rabbit hole, where its cold and damp and dark and we can't reach back up to where we once were, where we once lived a life with so much promise. 

Sitting there in a rumpled mess, we look around in shock and wonder, "How did this happen?"

We may remember that we had forgotten the key to life. Who tries to open a door without a key? That remembering may feel far away. The thought we're reaching for almost feels illusive. Yet it is our only hope. We try and try to reach for it. Instinctively, our very survival depends on our ability to remember. As tears streak down our faces, we slowly remember that we once had a dream, a vision for our lives, something radiant and beautiful, prosperous and wonderful. As children we were all going to be some kind of superhero. As teenagers our dreams took on a bit more shape and we pursued higher education.

Slowly, gradually, our dreams were eroded away by all the daily demands and a global recession, inflation or deflation or just plain everyday life. Then, in pure frustration, we may - if we're lucky enough to realize it - cry out into the dark hollow cave for help. We'd forgotten for so long, our faith that anyone could ever hear us, was gone. We even realize that and tears turn to sobs. Desperation and despair begin to take over and a kind of comic claustaphobia attempts to strangle us. We almost can't breathe and panic begins to sweep over us.

Then, miraculously, we remember something. It's a little thought, a whisper from deep inside us that we can just barely make out.

"What?" we wonder, "Please say it again.".

"You are powerless without me," you hear deep inside, gently, kindly yet firmly. You really heard that.

"If you invite me into your life, your life will be more than you ever dreamed. I will help you. I am with you. I have always been with you and I always will be with you. Just call on me."

Then, like a flash of lightening, you remember you had forgotten this.

"When did I forget?" you ask yourself, realizing simultaneously as the whispering voice within tells you that it doesn't matter when or how or even why you forgot, but you must remember and remember fast!

In that dark place, cold, hungry and certain that you will die, you get down on your weak knees and softly, sincerely and earnestly cry out,

"God, I turn it all over to you. My life, my choices, where I'm going. No matter what happens, it doesn't matter because I'm turning it all over to you."

Maybe we never really believed God could hear us in the first place. And, if we're honest maybe we couldn't hear God because we never stopped to listen hard into the silence in our minds.  We never even gave God a chance to be heard before.  Maybe we never knew how to listen for God. But, now, we - and the entire world - have no choice, no other alternative, but to listen, to accept and allow God in, to receive all the blessings and goodness God wants to give us and which we need so very dearly. We also realize what fools we have been because if we had invited God into our lives a long time ago, if we had not forgotten, if only we had asked God to help us to surrender our will to His will, maybe this wouldn't have happened and the reverse would have. We might have realized our dreams, rather than this long, dark sojourn into the wasteland and void.

At first you think it's going to take a really long time to get your life back on track. But, you have to start somewhere. Then, the beautiful Hawaiian prayer comes to you, (wonder from who). It leads you, rather than the reverse, 

"Oh, Father, I'm so sorry that I forgot to invite you into my life, into every single aspect of my life. I'm so sorry. I truly am sorry. I mean it. Please forgive me ...." you say over and over again as tears streak down your face ...

"Please, please, please forgive me ... " and in the depth of that earnest plea for true forgiveness, in your most sincere plea, you enter into a time warp of some kind. Maybe it's only minutes, but you know for sure that something just happened and then you feel it. You feel genuinely grateful because you know somehow, in some inexplicable way, God heard you. Instantly, a fresh joy rises within you, and you cry out,

"Thank you, thank you, thank you ... I love you, I love you, I love you." 

Softly you can feel all your tenseness lessening and you can even still hear your inner mind saying over and over again, "I love you ... I love you ... I love you ..." as you drift off to sleep.

The next day when you awaken, you realize you're not feeling helpless anymore. Somehow hope has come to your aid. In that hope, you continue to invite God in more and more, more intentionally, more deliberately because you need God. You need God so very, very much. Then, you find God is giving you ideas, more and more ideas, and you realize that God is helping you help yourself. You realize as you had slipped lower and lower, you were also losing your own creative ingenuity, your right for so much more than you ever dreamed you could have.

Now, miraculously, you feel like you're beginning again, there's a sense of some kind of momentum. Maybe you'll have to do some damage control for a little while, but now the most amazing and wonderful thing has happened. You are not alone. God is with you as God has always been with you. You had forgotten that God was there and ignored God and didn't invite God into your life. You know God is there and in that real life awareness, the joy, the most inexpressible joy floods your mind. Now, you know that you will never forget again, ever. 

You almost feel like Dicken's Scrooge on Christmas morning. Life is flowing again in your heart, mind and body . You feel love and hope and joy and all you can say, deep inside your heart and mind like a mantra ..."Thank you ...  I love you" ... and you know that you will never forget again and might just say that forever.