IN GOD WE TRUST

You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom. . . . And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble. —Matthew 5:10,12, The Message -- (Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, October 14, 2018)

There have been three times in my adult life, my spiritually seeking life, that I have provoked persecution...albeit, unintentionally, but persecuted nonetheless. (I Googled persecute to be sure I'm not overly dramatizing: to subject (someone) to hostility and ill-treatment, especially because of their race or political or religious beliefs. Nope, not overly dramatizing.)

The first time, which happened some 30 years ago, I resisted...pushed back, got in her face, set him straight...and even when I "won," I felt like I'd "lost."

The second time, having learned a tish, I suffered in silence...which I do not regret today because it taught me that suffering in silence is just encouraging my own dark and dirty thoughts to attack me...from the inside. (And there's an argument we cannot win.)

The third time...ah, the third time I call blessed. For I did not resist, I did not suffer in silence. I did seek the advice of my mentor, I did follow that advice (in essence, sit and wait on the Lord), and I found peace.

Here's the punchline: The result of the first "persecution" came some ten years later when I was publicly honored by the people at the place where I had been dissed.

The second only affects me when I touch it, when I refer to it. I forget it for years on end...then, it comes to mind, I speak of it and ugly blooms. Which is an excellent reminder that I am indeed the source of all my own woes.

The third time I choose to believe is part of our necessary initiation...which grows gratitude unending so why not believe?

The acceptance, the welcoming, the opening to all that comes our way is our proof to our own self that In God We Trust. Proof to our own self...God does not need it.

Thank you.