Rues, regrets and remorses. What are they anyway but looking back and longing for the freedom of my chains? That line from the song "Loving Arms" is playing in my mind a lot today...and for the last few days. Probably because the talk on the news is so much about "building better," not going back to the "way it was."
Nostalgia usually prettifies our memories of the past...regrets dirties the same. Diamonds and dirt. Either way, looking back stays us in the slippery comfort of self-will. Both, when we stay there, lead to a general paralysis.
There is no moving forward even to go in the wrong direction when we are facing backward. That's all rues, regrets and remorses are...facing backward, praying for a prettier view. That's like praying for God to change our remorses into something we can feel nostalgic for...just another way to live looking back. No wonder God doesn't hear that prayer.
The hard lesson to learn is there is nothing inherently wrong with nostalgia or regrets...both serve a useful purpose. Happy memories on a lonely evening in the midst of a pandemic are a comfort; regrets give birth to Rohr's wonderful statement, We don't get to God by doing it right, we get to God by doing it wrong.
We must needs accept that getting stuck in looking back, i.e., getting stuck in self-will, is an open invitation for our ego to have at it, or, us. There is no God there is clearly redundant.
Ah, but here comes God to save our day. There is no God there is redundant on its face, but it's also an invitation to us to look deeper...if God is in everything, find God here. There will never be a place where we cannot find God if, as and when we look. Our desire being to exchange our will for God's will, we'd best look.
Seek and ye shall find. -- Matthew 7:7
Thank you.
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