THE WAY OF LOVE...EGO-DEFLATION IN DEPTH

The same Spirit that Jesus received now rests on anyone who follows him. -- Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, May 31, 2023

It is valid, it is allowed, it is encouraged to learn to live by the Way of Love, the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon, my Primer, is still my go-to when I am stuck in self.

It is not a "spiritual bypass" to commit our self to reliance on God and the teachings of God, to know our answers are spiritual in nature no matter our personal piques and vales. 

According to Fr Richard, The forces of empire and establishment will tell you that’s a worthy cause but impossible in this day and age. They are wrong...What it takes are disciples who together follow the Way of Love.

My personal proof of that came just two days ago: A brand new insight about me at age 10 (during the period of my brother's illness and death) had popped, totally unexpected. It all but announced itself as the missing link I'd sought for so long. 

I was sharing that period with my friend, a Methodist minister, and in the share the words valid hurt came from my mouth. Both my friend and I repeated them and smiled. 

Those two words, valid hurt, "explained," forgave, clarified and ratified me then, my brother then, me now...and God into the mix. I had neither inclination nor need to analyze or even ponder them further. 

What it takes are disciples who together follow the Way of Love...the way of I shall fight no more forever, the way of We have ceased fighting everything and everybody, the way of Resist not evil. 

For the selectively Hard of Hearing, the way of ego-deflation in depth.

Thank you.

GO BEYOND REASON TO THE LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT

Christ is portrayed as a “life-giving Spirit.” The believer has a responsibility to live her life in the power of the Spirit. This responsibility should not be taken lightly, as one should not ignore the depth of the Spirit’s power. Walking in the power of the Spirit is life-changing, as the Spirit becomes an agent through which transformations can occur. -- Theologian Grace Ji Sun-Kim in Fr Richard's Daily Meditation, May 30, 2023

That paragraph is powerful beyond words to tell. 

The believer has a responsibility to live her life in the power of the Spirit. 

"The believer"...that's me..."has a responsibility." It is not a choice, a will-I-or-won't-I? Today?...or wait till tomorrow? No. To have a responsibility is Now...not just to think it, or talk it, or even preach it. The responsibility is to live my life in the power of the Spirit Now. 

It confirms me, my BFOs, my realization that one thought originating in the heart not the head has all power...can birth change in the time it takes for the thought to pop.

Now comes Goldsmith's belly-burner: This requires that in my life right now I put into action that which I say...that which I am writing about this red-hot minute.  

Walking in the power of the Spirit is life-changing, as the Spirit becomes an agent through which transformations can occur.

Comes a fleeting clue...it is not ours to cause, we can cause nothing. We are changed, transformed, by the Spirit within. Ours is to live our life showing forth that transformation...and the way for doing just that is the Sermon on the Mount...a for instance, if someone slaps you upside your head, turn the other cheek. 

Easy it ain't...this is probably the basis of Fr Richard's lesson on necessary suffering. Meaning, if it isn't egoically painful, we're not doing it right. Yet we experience a spiritual lift when we do turn the other cheek. There it is...the pearl beyond price, 

Again, we must go beyond reason to love.

Thank you.

ONE PRAYER, ONE ANSWER...THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Divine Indwelling is central to authentic Christian spirituality.... No wonder we seek power in all the wrong places—since we have not made contact with our true power, the Indwelling Spirit.... As when Mary conceives Jesus by the Holy Spirit, it is 'done unto us'  and all we can do is allow, enjoy, and draw life from this powerful gift. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, May 29, 2023

In the very early years of my new life, I was asked something like what my expectations were now. My answer was along the lines that I wanted to find the God of my own understanding. Looking back today, I know I did not have a clue what I meant...but God did. 

Considering the various therapies, counselors and shrinks I have applied to over the years, I can see that I only knew my wants, never realized my need. Materially, I wanted to be fixed in order to get a man, get married, live happily ever after; spiritually, I needed not to get, but to realize what I have...within me now, God.

For a while I looked in the wrong direction, allowing life's traumas to define me as alone and afraid. It was that wrong direction that righted me, that led me to crash and burn, to rise up from my ashes, to find my God. 

I have taken many wrong turns, made many U-bies, yet ever found me in a better place...seeking higher consciousness deeper, i.e., the God of my own understanding. And that is enough. That is enough for me there is nothing more. 

Just as Fr Richard wrote, I now believe the answer, the solution, the gift is always the same...the answer to every prayer is one, the same, and the best: the Holy Spirit!

Thank you.

FORGIVENESS...FREEDOM FROM SELF

Forgiveness demands three new simultaneous 'seeings': I must see God in the other; I must access God in myself; and I must experience God in a new way that is larger than an 'Enforcer.' -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, April 30, 2017

When we feel hurt by another's snide or snarky or even untrue remark, that wound is on them...theirs to atone for.  In that instant of hurt or anger...which is hurt in disguise...it is ours to forgive. 

What we all but refuse to learn is the minute we respond in kind or natter at will to others about the hurt....we have us a self-inflicted wound.

A self-inflicted wound makes a mockery of forgiveness in the wash of ego's "poor, pitiful, put-upon me." With ego riding herd, the hurt is justified and hardened by our rigid resistance...going for the victim's balm of pity, and, ahem, to pay back the originator.

The hurt grows by the continuing self-infliction of the wound. Rethinking..."venting" which is a fancy word for blaming...is to nurture it. We are healed by accepting that we made a decision based on self that has placed us in this position of hurt. This is infallible. 

We must accept ownership...kiss it on the lips...before we can know freedom from this pain. 

That freedom is forgiveness; i.e., we must see God in the other; we must access God in our self; and we must experience God in a new way that is larger than an 'Enforcer.'

Thank you.

WHEN SPINACH BECOMES GOLD

Comes the time when we hold our nose and take a leap of faith...we quit quoting neighbors, mentors, friends and teachers...we become less visible, often misquoted, misunderstood, ignored. 

Jump up and shout Hallelujah! 

We're on the right road, heading in the right direction.

NOTE: This blinding flash of the obvious I first realized and posted on 10/7/21. It still bears fruit, and I am still grateful.   

Thank you.

SIT AND WAIT ON THE LORD, II

[This is a reworked reprint of my post of  November 4, 2016.]

In pondering the concept of impersonal love I'm trying to find an apt description for my understanding of it. It is clearly spiritual, but then what? Nonresistance may best fit it, the hook being that nonresistance cannot mean doing nothing in the face of evil. Some famous someone once said that all it takes for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.

Yes, but...there's the Sermon's "resist not evil." What about that?

Ah, here comes the sun! Resist not evil must take us into a higher consciousness...where we rest in the understanding that the Father knows our needs. That is the place we need live. We resist not...in Love. Love is not only the home of our inner Source, it is our inner Source. 

Nonresistance, Love, is what releases our higher power. That power that changes an ugly-appearing situation for the better is not in the reasoning mind but in our higher consciousness.

Resistance is reasoning mind over thinking, ever analyzing, keeping higher help at bay; nonresistance opens the door for our Source to flow forth...I stand at the door and knock.

In general, we don't live 24/7 in a state of higher consciousness, but that is why daily we need to make our self available for God. 

We set aside time every morning, inviting God to change our mind, to detach our thinking from our material wants and open our self to unknowing. Blinding flashes often follow.

Sit and wait on the Lord -- Psalm 27:14

Thank you.

THE PROVEN PATIENCE OF GOD...INFINITE LOVE

My yesterday's blinding flash of the obvious: The very thought of a need is God's 'done and done.' Hence, the ego's fret, sweat and worrying 'how to?' are of naught.

All worry is of the egoic mind denying the evidence of God's already perfected work. 

 
From today's God Calling: But the inner urge of Life within...carries out that task. The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto this.

Have read God Calling for nearly fifty years, and today's entry affirms yesterday's BFO as if it had been preordained...oh, wait. It had been! That's the point! 

James Finley in Fr Richard's Daily Meditation today: To summarize Thomas Merton, there is something within you that is not subject to the brutalities of your own will, for it is that in you that belongs entirely to God.

Again, a black-and-white affirmation of my BFO that one inner-realized thought of a need belongs entirely to God...which fulfills the need in the instant.    

My yesterday's BFO is my pearl beyond price, the assurances from God Calling and Merton are back-ups that I have read before, believed as I read the words, but ego, using self-centered fear, held me in thrall. 

To receive the word from within, that the very thought of a need I just became aware of is already met by God, fills me with awe...with gratitude and awe. 

There it is...the proven patience of God. And what is that patience but love...infinite love? 

Thank you.