Thursday, August 22, 2019

Awakening Faith


"Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven."
-The Lord's Prayer

An iridescent radiance mysteriously flows into the inner chambers of our being like liquid light beams, transforming us by its warmth and words of wisdom. This ineffable presence seems to whisper to us with a unique kind of knowing, reminding us of who we really are and by this knowing knits us to itself with a love we only faintly can remember, if at all.

We are empowered by our own self acceptance, knowing that by just accepting ourselves as we are, we are filled with a joyous peace - a peace that does transcend all understanding, that does accept the power of the divine other, surrendering to its care, compassion, wisdom and guidance.  We become wise with a mysterious intelligence which reveals itself as a profound humility, a kind of non-doing that illuminates our minds and life by an ingenius choreographic design. Filtering into our lives, it stirs a recognition, daystars of awareness as we realize the synchronicity of little things occurring in our daily lives.

It is clearly in surrender to that invisible divine presence, inviting and allowing the goodness and intentionality of that vast consciousness, that births our faith. This newborn act confronts and soothes away our need to control, once created by our fear, to allow a real and potent faith to bloom within us. 

It is seeing in the dark, allowing an unknown other to guide us, help us, inform us and love us, even when we don't have a clue how to do anything, that evolves our spirits, growing us up into the powerfully creative humans we were meant to be.  It's in our most helpless state that our divine parent most clearly and powerfully delivers us from all that would tempt us back into the fog.

While we do not see with our eyes, as Shakespeare wrote, we can see with our mind, our inner wisdom catalyzed by our imagination. 

Love does not see with eyes, as we do, because it if did, in our dark, oppressive dimension here, it would not see at all. Love sees the truth of the soul, even loves that which we cannot. It sees with the eyes of the divine. We would experience the greatest encounter of our lives and meet the most joyous of loves if we simply invited the light of that great presence to enter into our dark inner caverns.  
How do we encounter this great lover and creator?  How do we catch the scent of the fragrance of the divine?  We ask, summon the great presence closer at our invitation, surrender our need to control the outcome into the care of this brilliant creator. 

I don't know how it happens, but the sacred other, master or mistress of the universe is consciously aware of our need and pauses only for our sincere invitation, borne on the sweat of our brow, the ache in our back and the longing in our hearts. Our divine parent seems to always show up when we are finally and completely out of our own resources, when all our own plans have been exhausted and we have absolutely no idea what we're going to do.

Candidly, it is as if our divine master, while casting a lifted eyebrow toward us, says with a kind smile on his face, "So, are you really ready this time?  Do you really want my help or are you going to try to take over again?" 

Softly we surrender, and then when the intense moment of our need, presented respectfully and intentionally into the care of our great lord passes, something seems to happen.  It may be a kind of deep, vague knowing that somehow our need has been heard. 

Then, when we are least aware, something happens, a little unexpected answer or opportunity is offered.  As we recognize the answer to our need in that little unexpected e-mail, or phone call or however it shows us, our faith takes hold, rooting and blooming in that instant.  In that single instant, we are changed.  Now, we know. We really know we are not alone.  We never were alone and we will never be alone, ever.

But, I'm sure, unlike anything we may have heard from some of the new thought out there, this is not our doing.  We did not control this response from the divine, or gift from heaven.  We did not make this happen.  It is God's will to respond to us, to give us that which we need.  The divine is in some incomprehensible way working with us, as a dance partner, nudging us along but not taking away the hard challenges and lessons, only lifting the burden when we're truly ready to release it.  

In our world, raging in a turbulent sea of violence, wracked in fear, succumbing almost daily to dark oppressive powers, we may have forgotten the way to the divine other who waits patiently for us.  Too many of us have felt let down by our religions, which have become polarized, prejudiced and have failed.  Someday the recognition will come of  a "Heaven" another realm beyond this one, perhaps existing in another dimension, which our scientists will discover, or we will find ourselves in as we become more whole, less fearful, more peaceful and more whole, embodied by and embodying love.  Maybe.

But, in the meantime, we continue to reach for hope, for healing and for an answer. We reach for the very substance of the divine, which is love, to fill our empty hearts, bodies and souls.  It is by invitation and surrender that we encounter our great lover, parent and partner. Today, while the whole world is throbbing in pain, each of us can decide to invite the light in. We can choose to lighten the heaviness everywhere and anywhere we find ourselves.  There are many who are still lost, fearful to the bone, wearing masks, or spending their lives at the helm of their egos building images and personal empires, spending their time and money on soulless endeavors. Those are the shadows that stalk us at night.  We have to get out of our way and allow the light to shine through us, into the world.  When we're finally finished attempting to build these false lives, then we will hear the angels sing and catch a rainbow in the eyes of another.  

When we let the light flow, like a river, bubble up and through us, overflowing into the cities and streets of our daily lives, the world will change.  This, I truly believe, is the only way we will ever have Heaven on Earth.


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