The Light in the Woods

2/26/10 Reflections           It’s just as easy to believe in God as not. If you don’t at least try, you’re basing your thoughts of God on your own attributes, which are pitifully inadequate. If you were to ask God about Himself you would be instructed by a powerful source. But you do yourself no favor if, after inquiring of God, you close your eyes and stop your ears against what you might learn.

Every day God guides us and protects us in ways we cannot comprehend because our minds don’t expand that far. Our inabilities should be comforting to us though – every weakness forces us to acknowledge the power of God, which must be working for our good since if God were against us we would know it all too well.

The more humble we are the more able we are to trust in God. Humility is not the same things as humiliation. Ego leaves us open to humiliation, but humility is the antithesis of ego. Humility is a state in which we are assured of pleasing God because we understand the need to make our wills subordinate to God’s.

God is our government – He makes us and He makes the rules by which we live. He gives us our rights and presents us with the circumstances that fulfill His plan. He sees to our welfare and expects us to take responsibility for obeying what He puts in our hearts as the moral way to deal with each other. His plan for us is broad; He does not micro-manage, leaving our free-will liberty to us as much as we need.

Sometimes our egos try to take God’s government over for ourselves, and sometimes we allow other egos to do it for us. When this takes place, it’s time to remember to go back to God in prayer to realign ourselves with Reality. Forget those who won’t do this, for whatever reason they have – the basis of a right-relationship with God is the individual and it’s the individual response to God that matters.

If everything else were to be taken away from the equation, our relationship with God would remain. Our spirits live on; it should be our spirits that hold our attention well above anything else. It is paramount in God’s agenda – His help guides you past the hype of humanity and sets you free to follow His morality; not anyone else’s. Rest yourself in living righteously; pledge allegiance to God and you will not go wrong.

1/19/10 Inspirations             The more I experience God the more I would need to know in order to do Him justice. I can’t explain the unexplainable, yet this is exactly what a believer is expected to do. This is a world where all you have to do is show skepticism and you appear to have wisdom. But those who have wisdom of Reality — that is, a world more attuned to the Creator than to what He has created – tend to remain silent and waiting.

The first thing you learn when you become truly enlightened is that there is a God and He is in control. You may object to feeling like a pawn in a chess game, but if you do you’re reacting with your ego whereas God is dealing with your spirit. To be spiritual is to be fully free; to accept God’s control so that you may exercise your free will from within the condition that truly responds to human free will — God’s desire to show love and be loved.

This cosmic consciousness is the key to true joy and deep peace. To a humanist happiness for all is a noble cause; to a mystic it is an inheritance from God. It takes acknowledgment of divine control to attain real peace; it will not come about through human desire for it to be so. But our free will can be used to accept recognition of God as Creator and to guide our actions toward working from within God’s master plan.

This master plan cannot be known except generally – the specifics are left to the mind of God, which we cannot probe deeply enough for now. But this is how creation works best; with enough mystery to encourage our participation in God’s plan, and enough knowledge to accept the wisdom of its Creator without question.

As each individual is blessed with mystic perception the fire spreads even more quickly. One day all will grow to abandon ego and embrace spirit – at this point the world can end at last, and we may all awaken into true life of perfect joy in the full presence of God.

11/7/09 Inspirations          Ever since my Great Epiphany coming up on 5 years ago, I’ve been beating myself up over the fact that, much as I want to, I really don’t like people all that much.

Now that I feel so much closer to God, I assumed that I would become the ideal – someone who sees all human beings as children of God, and projects God’s love for His children as my own love for my brothers and sisters all-inclusively. When that didn’t happen I began to think of myself as the problem.

It’s true that the effort to love my neighbor is still my goal because it fits with what I know of what God wants, but the closer I get to God the further I get from people in general. The contrast between divinity and humanity becomes clearer and more essential the more I know of God. I had thought the more I experienced God the more adept I would be in pleasing Him. But when it comes to other people, all I have gained is a clearer, and darker, view of humanity.  I see us as walking egos, opposed to the goodness and mercy of God at every turn.

As the contrast between divinity and humanity grows in knowledge and grace in me, I’ve seemed to have drifted in the opposite direction that greater experience of God should have led me. Is this God teaching me through contrast again? I believe it is. Somehow it fits that this disdain for humanity, including my own, must dominate me for a while. It is a process I must learn to accept and quit fighting against.

With the darkest view of what people are as a whole emerges a brightness whenever an individual breaks through with unexpected goodness. This is what I am meant to learn in the main – that individuals can overcome the egoism of humanity and radiate loving attributes of divinity. And they do if I look with purpose for this phenomenon. Because I’ve concentrated on the worst that is in people I am that much more in awe of the goodness of individuals when it emerges out of the darkness.

This is a theory, but one thing I do know is that God is working on me as He is working on us all. What a privilege to be shaped by our Creator, and to be able to contribute to the process with His blessing.

6/30/09 Reflections        When I wonder why God doesn’t use me more than He does, it comes to me that I’m holding myself back by not fully accounting for my failings. While I’m diligent that I don’t go out and actively commit a sin, I may overlook the human weaknesses that can lead to sin or at least to prevent a perfect union with God.

I’m the type of person who has an inner view of themselves different from what they really are. My ego thinks I’m young at heart so I’m often shocked by a glimpse in a mirror that shows I’m older than I think I am. I suspect it’s the same with my personality – to myself I appear quiet and docile; others treat me as a commanding, even controlling, presence.

Spiritually, I’m either worried that I’m making myself into something I’m not, or amazed that I truly am a spiritually-obsessed person. Sometimes I feel like the holiest person I know; sometimes I think I’m a shameless fake. Amazingly, my commitment towards God never varies even in the thick of confusion.

There’s something extremely false about me that I can never pin down. Is God showing me how fragile my spirituality is, or am I just a person trying to talk themselves into thinking they’re better than they are? Are my motives pure, or just motives that I wish were pure? And where do they fit in, the times when I feel abased by my own worthlessness? Should someone who spends much time concerned with spiritual matters even strive to examine their human nature this way? Do we get confused and go wrong by mixing the two realms? Or is the disconnect between two natures something to be expected and accepted?

I thought I was pleasing God by ignoring my ego and not engaging in introspection. Now I’m wondering if introspection is actually what’s right for me this minute in God’s eyes.  As long as I feel there is something missing in my relationship with God that keeps me from being more useful in life, I owe it to myself and to God to discover what it is and ask for God’s help on it. So I open up my human nature for God to show me where I need to improve. It must be up to God, because I tend to falsely perceive my own image. I need the truth most urgently right now and I can get that only from God.

5/18/09 Insights from Study         If I could be successful at teaching one thing it would be that God’s love is universal and His mercy is unilateral. He does not pick and choose who to love – He loves everything He created, and so should we. In order to preserve this relationship even in the face of our sin, He repaired our side of the bargain for us on His own initiative.

Now we are stunned by His forgiveness; we are blindsided by His mercy. We can’t believe we have already been assured of salvation – surely there must be something we must do! And so through human pride and our need to be the most relevant thing in the universe, we make up tasks and goals for ourselves that God has already made totally unnecessary.

The proper response to God’s love and mercy is to want to exhibit these same virtues in our own dealings in the world. It’s not about attaining the reward of heaven; it’s about living thankfully for the forgiveness of our sins that has already guaranteed eternal life. To live thankfully means that out of gratitude we agree with whatever pleases God. What pleases God is that we show universal love and unilateral mercy to others, like God has shown them to us.

It’s that simple. If we do this everything else will fall into place, and all that would be left is a more peaceful existence because the good things increase and the bad things become more bearable. To believe this is impossible is to buy into the same flaw that causes us to strive so achingly for something we already have. This flaw is the mistaken idea that what happens on Earth is dependent on human planning and effort. The successful ascendancy of universal love and mercy does not depend on what works we do – that is but a small miracle in the hands of God – so much as on our desire for what God desires. This is the key, for when we ask from this standpoint, God is sure to give us what we want.

It starts with one person – you. Ask God for what it takes to love and forgive those who have hurt you. You have this power when you ask God for it; He shares divine power because you desire the same thing He does. And if enough individuals live this way more will take notice and want to live this way as well. Soon the groundswell will become irresistible.

This is far from impossible – this is God’s plan and the thing that will be, without fail. What the mystics would like to tell you is that life is a whole lot less stressful if you would start today on this new direction. All you have to do is confront yourself with two statements concerning the next person who does you wrong. 1) “I will love this person even though I hate his sin, because this is how God loves him and me.” 2) “I will forgive this person unconditionally because God already has and He is the better judge.”

Your ego will fight you in this, because this method doesn’t make the same demands of the other person. But ignore your ego and live for your spirit. That’s where God’s power and your inner peace can be found.

1/4/09 Inspirations               There’s something that needs to be done in my life, and in the night I struggle with an answer that pops up through the muddled surface of my sleepy mind. But I just can’t seem to grab it and pluck it out of hiding – it’s there but illusive and every time I grab for it, it sinks out of sight.

Towards dawn, as the light from the distant sun begins to clear my vision, God’s light also comes into focus. I realize the game of hide-and-seek isn’t at all necessary; that all I need to do is to watch quietly how God handles my struggle. The answer I came so close to, and even the situation that demands the answer, is God’s business.

If God wants something done it will be done, and no amount of worrying and fretting on my part would change that in the least. I not only construct the problem, I also get in the way of the solution – until God smiles on me and reminds me that I don’t have to be in control. I’m much better off with recognizing and accepting God’s control, but if I didn’t have the dark to struggle in I may not appreciate the light when it comes to warm me. In that light I know what I need to do – not worry, not struggle, but pray.

12/3/08 Insights from Study            There is one mystic principle that goes so against our natural grain that it makes the mystics sound like over-pious zealots. It is this: That trial and suffering should be actively embraced and even sought out to the exclusion of favors and consolations.

For example: In The Interior Castle, The 7^th Dwelling Place, Chapter 3, Teresa of Avila says that the soul gains a particular love during persecution that it wishes to extend to its persecutors – to the point that the soul would rather do without the favors of God if by this sacrifice another soul is won over to Him.

This proper preference of suffering over spiritual consolation for the sake of God doesn’t go far enough for some religious sects. There are those like the flagellates or the extreme aesthetics who cause themselves actual physical harm to prove their unfailing allegiance to God. However, not only can the mystical principle of acquiescing to suffering become a victim of over-interpretation, the extreme application of it, which might be called self-persecution, is not pleasing to God anyway.

It’s a case of a well-meaning person going overboard to show their love of God. First of all, God knows everything about you and doesn’t need to be shown. Secondly, if you went to such extremes as intense fasting or flagellation, the temptation for spiritual pride lies too close to the surface for comfort. Then too, God never asked for this form of adoration, which purposely harms the body He has created for you out of His love and in His image.

What extremism does to mystic principle is the same harm it does to every human activity. It takes something good and turns it into something harmful. And it generates the opposite of what it proposes to do – it drives people away when they should be attracted to spirituality for their own good.

The true meaning of the mystical embrace of trial and suffering is a wholly different matter. It’s successfully practiced by families in every place and every culture. We go through the trial of everyday work so that we can give to our families what we want them to enjoy. We give to charity, or volunteer our time, or come to someone’s rescue. We are providers to others, and providing always entails some kind of sacrifice. But we feel a satisfaction in doing what we know is right, even though the burden is often heavy for us. We don’t do it for the satisfaction; the satisfaction comes because we do what we should do.

The mystic treatment of trial and suffering is the same mechanism. We give ourselves over to God’s master plan out of a a love of God. In quiet acceptance we acknowledge that His work in an imperfect world must take a toll, and because it’s God’s work toward human good, we gladly take the trials along with the joys. Both things are given by God out of love, and both are not only accepted willingly but also welcomed as catalysts for pleasing God.

The thing to guard against is choosing sufferings of our own in order to show our love and dedication to God. If we do that, even if no one else sees our distress, we are putting our desires before God’s – the opposite of quiet acceptance.  The ego, which is always trying to distract us from our spiritual union with God, has its own set of rewards. Often when we think we’re doing something out of love for God and others, it turns out we are actually looking for the rewards of our own egos. Working for God can be very satisfying – quiet reflection should reveal if this comfort is the ego’s goal or God’s love shining through you with purpose.

11/27/08 Reflections                      To an ant, his anthill is a great skyscraper; to God, our great skyscrapers are nothing more than anthills. To understand your place in creation, you must find out in which perspective reality lies. In truth, your perception of reality is no more valid than the ant’s, because your point of view, like the ant’s, is below that of the Creator’s, which is ultimate reality.

Because your senses are adequate only to perceive the reality in which you live, you have to “think outside the box”, letting your worldly senses give way to your supernatural senses in order to glimpse God’s reality. That perfect reality, and the supernatural senses that perceive it, used to be yours before sin demoted you to a life below true perception. We all have inside us the subliminal need to get back to the way we were originally created.

But to allow God to work in us to that end, you must first give up your ego, which works faultily within worldly misperception, in favor of God’s will, which shines forth out of the faultless reality of the Creator. The setting aside of ego in favor of God’s will solves the problems your ego has created. Imagine a world where ego issues do not exist, and God’s will has its way because of voluntary self-abandonment of all egos!