Wait. I will not overtry your spiritual strength.... - "God Calling," February 11
There it is. The answer to life's problems is in that word "spiritual." The reason why, when the road gets rough, so many of us strain our brain trying to think of how to fix it, and exactly right, is that we forget entirely that we must needs turn to our spiritual strength. Our strength is in the Lord, not our brain.
Equally important is the word "wait." The instruction isn't "wait a minute," it is "wait." The reasoning mind will always want to know "for how long?" The spiritual answer is: "Until your Soul contacts your brain. And while you wait, help a neighbor or clean out your closet or walk the dog. Wait."
In this morning's Easwaran, it notes, "The way we respond to small matters reflects the way we will respond to the larger matters of life." And, to paraphrase Fr. Richard Rohr, how we react to anything is how we react to everything. (I particularly note the similarities because that's how spiritual truths make a home in my head and heart, by finding the same message in many different authors, be it the 14th century monk who wrote "The Cloud of Unknowing," or Fr. Richard Rohr today.)
Therefore, we start the process of change within our self by noting the little bumps in the road, the teeny-weeny bugging behavior of our spouse, our friend, and immediately turning to God with a "thank you." Then we build on that...we build by continuing, forgetting half the time, but picking it up when we remember.
When the day comes that a really humongous sinkhole appears in our life's road, and it will if we're doing it right, we will have disciplined ourselves enough to turn our thoughts immediately to God. Most likely we will feel fear, half panicked actually, but we will be able to trust in the face of that.
That's how we open ourselves to God's perfect outworking in us and through us. We build trust, faith in the Father within. He can and will carry us through.
Thank you.
There it is. The answer to life's problems is in that word "spiritual." The reason why, when the road gets rough, so many of us strain our brain trying to think of how to fix it, and exactly right, is that we forget entirely that we must needs turn to our spiritual strength. Our strength is in the Lord, not our brain.
Equally important is the word "wait." The instruction isn't "wait a minute," it is "wait." The reasoning mind will always want to know "for how long?" The spiritual answer is: "Until your Soul contacts your brain. And while you wait, help a neighbor or clean out your closet or walk the dog. Wait."
In this morning's Easwaran, it notes, "The way we respond to small matters reflects the way we will respond to the larger matters of life." And, to paraphrase Fr. Richard Rohr, how we react to anything is how we react to everything. (I particularly note the similarities because that's how spiritual truths make a home in my head and heart, by finding the same message in many different authors, be it the 14th century monk who wrote "The Cloud of Unknowing," or Fr. Richard Rohr today.)
Therefore, we start the process of change within our self by noting the little bumps in the road, the teeny-weeny bugging behavior of our spouse, our friend, and immediately turning to God with a "thank you." Then we build on that...we build by continuing, forgetting half the time, but picking it up when we remember.
When the day comes that a really humongous sinkhole appears in our life's road, and it will if we're doing it right, we will have disciplined ourselves enough to turn our thoughts immediately to God. Most likely we will feel fear, half panicked actually, but we will be able to trust in the face of that.
That's how we open ourselves to God's perfect outworking in us and through us. We build trust, faith in the Father within. He can and will carry us through.
Thank you.
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