Isn't that a comfort? I first read a like thought in C.S. Lewis's "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe," one of my all-time favorite books. This is where I first met Aslan who has been in my life since, and I am the better for it.
Coming into contact with goodness in the form of a walking-around, breathing entity or a written-about being or, on the rare occasion, intuitively, and consciously realizing this as goodness...ah, that is our consciousness being raised...without our effort.
We can read love your enemy till our face falls off, agree that that's a good thing (or not...in which case, bless you; if you're reading this, you're seeking) but until we consciously realize that as truth, it is just so many words.
As Fr Richard Rohr has written, We don’t have the power to follow any of [the] major teachings about forgiveness, love of enemies, nonviolence, humble use of power, and so on, except in and through radical union with God.
We must needs remember that we cannot settle for being a quoter, a talker, a spiritual thesaurus on the hoof as it were. It is possible to believe every word we quote, but until we experience them...prove their truth...we are faking it. (Or not being true to our self, which doesn't sound so harsh.)
However, I am a believer in keeping it simple...Grandma Moses simple as in stick figures and primary colors...so it is a comfort for me to believe every conscious "thank you" we pray, every conscious thought of a spiritual nature that we have, that is God making contact with us.
Simply put, we can quit trying so hard...for God will be loving us, even as we are straining to change our own self. He will be seeking us even then...maybe especially then.
Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment