The Light in the Woods

9/30/09 Insights from Study             The more we think on God’s works, the more apparent it becomes that God does not act in the way human beings think to be logical. When we accept that this is so, we understand that what we don’t know about God’s ways would fill a much thicker book than the one about what we do know of God. God is mystical to us even though there are hints and clues, and the more these hints and clues become available, the deeper we seek. It’s between each of us and God what we are able to learn of Him, and this process has never ended.

It’s like digging a hole in rocky ground – each rock you discover reveals another beneath it that, when you remove and examine it, exposes yet another rock. You will never get to the bottom of the hole, but the more you dig, the more you come to understand this. You become gratefully content that there is much you can’t do, and get on with the business of enjoying what you can.

We say we get to know God, but we really mean we reserve for God the honor of the wisdom He has chosen to give us. It doesn’t bother us at all that there’s so much we can’t measure, considering what we have been given to know. Our unknowing only brings God more glory in our eyes, and affords us a great opportunity to trust God in the faith of His goodness. He knows exactly what to reveal and what is not good for us to know; we are blessed to be treated individually and perfectly.

 9/29/09 Insights from Study           The beatitudes read like a blueprint for acquiring union with God. The beatitudes correspond to the mystic process, where by increments we receive grace and knowledge until we reach perfection in life after life. In the mystic process we take human life and, through the blessings of the God who made us, build a divine life out of it. The beatitudes are more than a listing of virtues and what we get out of them; they are the process by which we get back to how God created us to be. The sad part is that the people who have the farthest to go are the ones who have the most trouble getting started because they lack the trust in God that is the engine on this train.

9/24/09 Reflections            Some odds and ends of thoughts for today: Some ideas just hit the right chord. One of these for me is that the universe didn’t just “happen”. Something there exists that’s mightier than us. We are in awe of creation for a reason. The presence of the Creator immerses us. We are a special part of creation, and creation is for a good purpose; not an evil one. It’s not until I take a deep lungful of God that I realize I’ve been holding my breath. It’s God’s grace and protection and knowledge and love and everything He wants to be for me that fills me up and prepares me for a life well-lived. Whenever I travel anywhere it’s a big deal for me, so even a pleasant trip is stressful. How good to know God’s warmth and comfort goes with me — even far from home, where I need to draw on them so desperately. It takes a great suspension of human experience to think outside time, but if a person can do it there would be enormous comfort in knowing all that is going to happen has already happened and has the support of God.

9/20/09 Insights from Prayer          Lord, all I ask is that I do Your will in whatever form that takes. It doesn’t matter if that involves my pain – I can take any pain You give me because I know it’s for my good. But I’m human, and being human has sadness, and human sadness persists no matter how accepting I am.

So You know of the times when I can’t persevere; when I can’t live up to my sincerest desire to follow You without question. I know You’ll remain pleased with my desire to do Your will with gladness even if I fall short of perfection. It is the desire that pleases You. How well You know my limitations; that they don’t take a thing away from how You appreciate my abandonment of self.

What could I fear, if all is in the hands of my Creator? It’s when I fall short of perfect abandonment of my will in favor of Yours, dear God, that I’m in danger. That’s when I count on myself instead of on the Almighty. I never fear the loss of self-regard, because it means I have Your perfect help. What I fear is when I forget my fate is in Your hands and I take on something I can’t handle myself.

So help me make my desire more perfect; to accept with a smile the trials You must use toward this end. I want to be humble enough to invite You in without question and to say with all sincerity that whatever You present to me is good. I want to live so that no matter how I in my humanity perceive it, Your plan for me goes on good and glorious. Then I have no worry since, whatever comes, I’m fine with it.

9/16/09 Insights from Study          Why don’t we seek virtues as relentlessly as we seek worldly possessions? Because we don’t understand that the goal of life is love of God; not love of ourselves.

How different the world would be if patience was diamonds and compassion was gold; if we could amass love like money and spend it freely by giving it away. If we went to work each day to make a right-relationship with God instead of a wage. If we could go around dripping with inner peace instead of pearls. If a nation’s main export was prayer instead of cars, and each night we’d all go home and get drunk on the grace of God. If schools taught holiness, if humility was cool, if witness of God’s favors made up the number-one rated TV show. If awards were given out for small but steady acts of kindness instead of foul-mouthed bitterness. If obedience to our Creator was our constitution and everyone followed it in delight. If we could walk our streets in perfect safety because everyone was pushing love of God and there’s always plenty of that to go around.

Utopia has nothing to do with economics or politics or entertainment; it’s about spirit – the state of our relationship with our Creator. Many don’t even know there’s such a relationship possible because they haven’t asked or don’t feel worthy or they have been taught there’s no such thing. What riches we’ve passed by, what favors we’ve refused, what joy we’ve missed, what gifts we’ve left unopened because we’re too busy pleasing ourselves to recognize real goodness when it’s offered.

The kingdom of God is the real Utopia; we will claim it in heaven when our trials here are done. But if spiritual virtues are good enough for everlasting heaven, shouldn’t they be honored as well in this short-lived world? We all have spirituality and it can be cultivated. The seeds are there in every spirit. But it’s God who does the growing, and God loves to be asked to begin. That is when spiritual virtues arrive, and they are supremely precious.

9/13/09 Insights from Prayer                  Lord, You’re the flame that overheats me and the cooling water that refreshes me again. You’re the breeze that chills me and the warmth that blankets me over. In all my life, it’s to Your purpose I live, whether I think highly or lowly of it. You are the Creator; I am the created. My opinion is not needed; my help is not necessary.

And yet You welcome me into Your arms as if in gratitude when I please You. You rejoice when I proclaim Your glory. You pour out Your love on me whether I love You back or not. But when I love You back You make Your love work overtime – to show me things that no one else is shown; things shared by us alone. Through Your grace You’ve given me knowledge of things I didn’t have to know, but the knowledge of which completes me like the smooth healing over of a wound or the discovery of something thought lost forever.

And so in this companionship I want to bask forever growing in love so that I might please You more and more. It remains to me to welcome You always, if I do nothing else in this life. I am in complete trust; as I walk I don’t want to ever let go of Your hand. I live on this Earth because You will it, but my eyes remain locked in on Your light. I will keep approaching, with my hands out for Your guidance, even when the world pulls me back. I will step on the stones you’ve provided because the ground between and around them is soggy and perilous.

If I’m called away off to the side of the path by other voices, it’s Yours I will seek out of the noise, to walk straight and true towards You. I won’t be lost because You know where I am. I have everything I need for the journey because You are my father and You provide good things.

It lifts my spirit to see others on the way – I want to use Your gifts to me to encourage them and invite others in to join us on the journey.  The time will come when we reach not just Your glorious light but You Yourself at the end of it. I won’t fear that day because my eyes have been on You all along.

9/11/09 Insights from Study          How could you improve if you had no opportunity to work at it? Why would you learn how to fall safely if you could always walk perfectly? What would be the purpose of patience in the face of bliss, compassion in a world of universal joy, prudence if angels were always holding you upright, fortitude if you had an army at your side? When would you feel relief if there was no suffering, satisfaction if there was nothing to be done, love if there was no one to love you, peace if you were not free to order your life, or something to look forward to if life on Earth was all there is?

Heaven is the place for perfection, and there perfection is possible because we can at last look upon God in total and experience Him in His fullness. In the meantime, here on Earth, we need to utilize the bad things to cultivate our spirits. This means using free will to power ourselves through our trials, reacting to them in a way that pleases God and inspires His guidance. It’s a waiting time, getting ready for eternal life, and purposefully living in a right-relationship with God amidst our suffering is the strategy that allows us a bit of heaven here on Earth.

It’s not hard to do – once you begin to give up ego and human nature, the challenge becomes a labor of love. Spiritual benefits are always more satisfactory than the stroking of the ego, the indulgence of the body, or the accumulation of things that must only eventually be left behind.  If heaven is the fullness of God’s presence, it stands to reason that joy on Earth consists of experiencing as much of God’s presence here as is possible.  To this end, I want to take my trials, turn them into occasions of loving God, and cultivate my spirituality through God’s help.

Nothing on Earth compares in importance to heaven. We do well to take Earth’s adversity and use it to get close to God’s over-arching of our limitations. For we are headed to a place where we no longer will have adversity, trials, limitations or imperfections. If the presence of God in heaven is what God deems as perfection, we cannot go wrong by seeking what we can of the presence of God here on Earth. This is what mystics believe and what they do in response to this belief.

9/6/09 Spiritual Presentations              Almost everything I’ve studied in the last couple of days seems to point coincidentally to the subject of personal intercession. It’s as if God is calling my attention to the very thing that shakes my faith.

This comes at a time when I’m in the middle of finally making a move to implement something I think God wants of me. I’m not at all assertive; I hear God, but then I tend to wait for further instructions. The things I’m reading lately seem to want to address the value God puts on our bringing of others to Him, as Jesus presented us to God through His intercession.

This is precisely relevant to the project I’m working on right now. So the coincidences might be designed to comfort me that the steps I’ve taken will bear fruit. Or maybe they’re to let me know that it’s good to have taken the initiative. It seems that this is the way God has chosen to speak to me this time – through coincidence; each instance being appropriate to the issue at hand.

It’s like the opposite of the “dark night of the soul”. Though it’s painful when God withholds Himself in order to impress a truth onto my spirit, there’s a corresponding joy when I come through the test with my faith intact and my love of God enhanced. So I thank You, God, for the trials that cause so much joy when they’ve been overcome. Thank You for the opportunity to love You, to serve You, and to please You. Thank You for Your good plan – the miraculous ways You find to carry it out and Your generous sharing of the knowledge of divine ways.

9/4/09 Inspirations            I honor Jesus as the perfect mystic – aware of divinity’s presence in us; unreservedly willing to allow this perfect love to guide all that’s tried. In showing how the practice of the presence of God is done, Jesus is God’s model of a life lived in divine union; how God can be in us and we can be in God.

This can go a long way in addressing my stubborn doubts about intercessory prayer, which always vaguely seems to me like asking God to do a circus act for the folks. “Tell me what you need and I’ll have God wave His magic wand – that’s how righteous and powerful I am.”

I can fight this feeling if I concentrate on what intercessory prayer is really designed to do – make me feel like I am contributing to the oneness of all of us as God wishes for me to do. I can always use more compassion, and asking for God’s help on behalf of another person is an honorable way to cultivate it. The trick is to see things as God’s work, not mine. If I wind up more aware of the link each of us has to the other, that would be a good result of prayer no matter what takes place in the life of the one I’m praying for.

Jesus handled this attribute of compassion effortlessly, because he had the virtue of humility to make it all blend in together. He obeyed the intuition inside Him, because He was a manifestation of God’s love, as are we all. His whole life was an intercessory prayer of the first order, and His reflections taught generations that God speaks to us through insight. Jesus was the perfect mystic.