OUR FATHER, OUR FRIEND, WHO LIVES WITHIN

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. --  Matthew 5:5

Blinding flash of the obvious: Unrealized, that is the permission I have ever sought...to be the meek, the inheritor who can pass it on.

Blessed are the meek has been circling in my head for some time now...in realizing that, I know it is in me as me...my responsibility is to live it. 

I don't suppose that we can live as anything we do not fully comprehend. To many, meek means weak, and thanks, but no. We must slowly open to the spiritual nature. 

We waste years ignoring the deeper meaning of life itself, and meek may lead the way. Meek is to be moved within...down to a higher consciousness.  Ah, taking care of No. 1 is now being taken care of by No. 1. 

New light breaking: No. 1 is not us...and whatever flows after that flash is from No. 1, our Father, our Friend, who lives within. 

Oh, of course...the Father and I are One answers exactly how the meek shall inherit the earth.  

Thank you.

ON STAYING OUR HEART IN THE FACE OF OH, NO!

My first journal entry this morning: Do not lose heart.

I immediately realized this was from my Father, my Friend, and I was deeply grateful. Deeply relieved and grateful. 

My road recently seems to be rough, rocky and wrong way. The word "depressed" entered my consciousness yesterday for the first time. It entered as a question so I'm taking my Friend's words as my answer.

Those words assured me that all the 6s&7s appearing in my life are for my benefit... my inner benefit where no one can see (and admire?) them. 

All that others are seeing (or I fear they are seeing and judging) is for my benefit, too. How else do I learn to agree with your adversary quickly? How else to love your enemies?

My recent experience of being at cross-purposes with a friend comes to mind, and I see his "take" on the happening is for my benefit, too. I do not need to explain, apologize, shame or blame either of us. 

He has served his purpose in my life, i.e., deeper spiritual growth, and I have served my purpose in his, i.e., just two ships passing. 

Thank you.

GOD'S HAND IS IN IT ALWAYS AND ALL WAYS

The long-ago blinding flash of the obvious, God's hand is in it when both sides come out the winner, is leading to a deeper understanding of the spiritual nature of "winner."

 

We must begin the process of learning how to accept that another's idea can stand with our own idea and both be God's will, God's way...neither right nor wrong but entirely acceptable as is.  

My self-determined result was that both sides would merge in agreement as one. They may, but not necessarily. In any single situation, each side has their own understanding of God's will, God's way. 

We must come to freely accept each understanding as equally valid. I doubt this can be done by self-will...that's why it's called God's will.

My breakthrough came with my car being towed, and my friend coming to my aid. I praised him to high heaven, named him an angel straight from heaven because that is exactly how I felt in my time of need. According to him, however, "I just gave the lady a ride." 

I had the devil's own time letting that be...or letting go of my idea of angel-in-disguise. 

Comes the Light...I did not need to fold the angel wings; he did not need to upgrade his ho-hum opinion. Both are of God...legit and spiritual, spiritually legit.

God's hand is in it when both sides come out the winner...and a winner joys in acceptance. 

Thank you.

UNEXPLAINABLE? YES, BUT TO GOD

My new maid service is a disaster to my mind. I have spent the last day worrying, fretting...rehearsing...letting them go but also getting my keys back. Getting them told off, set straight, shamed...ah, but in a spiritually sounding way so that I can get my will, my way and sound godly into the bargain. 

The trouble with spiritual growth is it works but never to the satisfaction of ego.

My morning blinding flash: I need to meet their non-service disaster with love...but a new kind of love...not my same-old-same-old currying-favor love (placate and resent), but the love the Sermon teaches of which I am a rank, half-century, beginner. 

It is exciting to realize this is precisely the same as I need to present to the one to whom my thank you card was rudely rejected. 

I feel comforted accepting this as the core of my today's initiation...to be met with disrespect yet to return love that I know so little of. I'm on the path with the three X guy...still spending too much time in trashing thoughts but speaking no disrespect to him or about him.

Then, all at the same time, several similar "unexplainables" came to me...with me extending my idea of love...or respect at any rate...and receiving disrespect in return.

This is what I opted for originally...love your enemies, do good to those who curse you. Clearly, that is of God for the reasoning mind still rebels on the reading! 

I am grateful from my toenails up that I have experienced love and laughter solely from doing this that I opted for, i.e., the Sermon.

God is so good to me. Unrealistic...unreasonable...unexplainable...you betcha! Yet I can only want more.

Thank you. 

WE GO TO GOD FOR GOD, AND THAT IS ALL

Lessons learned...lessons a-learning: 

If the only prayer we ever pray in our lifetime is 'thank you' that would suffice. 

As long as we keep praying to be kinder, more loving, more generous, less judgmental, the more we deny the kindness we have, the love we are already filled with, etc.

Grace is always a humiliation for the ego.

The 'last' really do have a head start in moving toward 'first,' and those who spend too much time trying to be 'first' will never get there.

Spiritual growth is essentially counterintuitive...it really doesn’t make any logical sense.

We must go beyond reason to love.

Yet even when we have a strong sense of spirituality and relationship with the sacred, we can experience anguish, doubt, despair, misery, and darkness. 

 'Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me'...thy rod and thy staff are love and laughter,

'He prepares a place before me in the presence of mine enemies'...my enemies are my rues, regrets and remorses, and it is God who prepares the place before me in their presence. That which I ask God to lift is God's gift for my benefit.

We go to God for God...and that is all. 

And so much more...a blessing each and every one.

Thank you.

RISK SURRENDER...LOVE AND LAUGH

Today with trepidation I suspect that my reliance on the Sermon has become my risk-free insurance...give over, give up, give in of self-interest, self-reliance, of self. This is an in-depth lesson in silent speech...oh,BFO, also known as prayer. 

My next step up, apparently, is I now let the love within speak aloud...remembering always that love speaks, love does not preach.

This comes at an opportune time for I am seeking to fully realize that the Father and I are one. One cannot speak of what one does not fully realize.

I get it all over again, for the umpty-umpth time, I will never get "It" until I quit looking. Knowing the help I seek is already mine is true to me from my eyebrows up...moving that down to my belly button or my toenails or wherever God is in the moment, is not mine to do, it is mine to realize...and there, the Father within. 

It is akin to trying to see God with the naked eye. 

We can't be faulted for trying. As has been written, we must try with a will or fall by the wayside. It is in trying the same thing over and over, expecting different results, where we fail...the same thing is our self-determined objective. 

We risk surrender...in the vernacular, I don't know. In that surrender of self-will, we accept God's will, God's way. We love and laugh.

We also have to remember that taking risks invites greater reliance on God: The God of wild places requires risk. -- Theologian Tony Jones

Thank you.

RISK PEACE IN ANXIETY TO KNOW GOD

People waste so much time in seeking to work out what they see. I declare to you that in the seeing My purpose, all is done....the very sight is the power that clears away every obstacle along that range of vision. -- God Calling, April 14

My morning started with either an ego-lowering thought or a blinding flash: It is my 'me' that is dragging foot and calling it anxiety.

I've been feeling like a boatload of anxiety has floated into my life. I've thought of it as "the 80s" and gently sweat through it. Anxiety, however, has its own will and way. It brings favorite fears with it and reminds me that God is not available on demand.

A favorite quote, we must go beyond reason to love, is getting baptized in the river of realization...I quote but do I do? Do I go beyond reason to love?  

Faith, guided by anxiety, earns her wings! 

I have just read again: We must remember that the peace we long for is within, a spark of the divine that resides within each of us. We need to risk opening to the wild places [beyond the security of our material mind] which invites greater reliance on God: The God of wild places requires risk. (With my additions bolded, I lifted this Tony Jones quote from Fr Richard's Daily Meditation of April 22, 2024)

 I hear the Word...The Father and I are One. I risk feeling righted! I pray Thank You. I am peaced.

Thank you.