Probably all, or most of us anyway, have heard it said that it is better to give a resentment than to get one...and if we've done that, we have learned that there is no worse advice. Because now that resentment we thought we gave away is going to come back when we are way beyond the original occasion. It is going to come back and slap us right upside our head without a word of warning, and an even deeper resentment is born.
That's why our first instruction is to not get a resentment in the first place...but how do we let it go if/when we fail that first instruction?
The first step in ridding ourselves of a resentment is to admit to God that we have one. Never believe that we can release a resentment on our own...by giving it to another, by calling it spiritual growth and kidding ourselves that we have risen above it, by talking it away...what is euphemistically known as "venting." Venting is just gossiping with a pretty dress on.
The major problem with resentments is simply that they do not leave easily, thus coloring practically all of our thinking, feeling, doing, being until we are brought to surrender. I doubt that they actually leave at all...they just get transmuted into the gold of unasked-for humility, of which we can never get enough.
It takes serious detachment to get grateful for humility that got born as a justified resentment (and what other kind is there?). But there it is. That's the secret to being freed of resentment: Still more spiritual growth.
Gather nothing, release everything. Attachment-to holds us back...detachment-from sets us free. It ain't easy...it's merely essential.
Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment