The Light in the Woods

2/22/10 Insights from Prayer              The trouble with biblical religiosity is that it never encourages us to take what Christ afforded us and use it to get beyond Christ and into God. Fundamentalist Christians, while rightly seeing Jesus as our means of a right-relationship with God, think it demeaning to Jesus that we then aspire to go beyond Him and on into the exact realm for which He interceded.

Yes, we are too immature to start with a unitive relationship with God, and need Christ to win that ability for us. But Jesus is a manifestation of God, and having freed us from our limitations God wants to draw our focus when we’re ready so that we may communicate directly with Him. A direct relationship with God is the whole point of salvation and sanctification – to hear some churches say it, seeking such a relationship is the work of the devil; not of the Christ.  The suspicion is that if we all cashed in on our mystic relationship with God won for us by Jesus, there would be little need for the power of the churches.

Mystics run into trouble with fundamentalists because mystics embrace the goal of Christ’s work instead of worshiping the work itself. Christ’s humanity is not the purpose of His existence, just as it isn’t the purpose of ours. The exercise of our divinity, our worthiness to desire union with God, is the end game. Jesus wants us to aspire to that. To a parent at the moment of letting the child go, if the child keeps running back it’s an indication that the work is not done and the child is not ready. Likewise, to the mystics it’s not blasphemy to thank Jesus and accept the relationship with God that Christ won for us – it only means advancing our focus from Christ the man to God who loved us so much He manifested Himself as Christ. The blasphemy is when we are admonished for not worshiping Christ the man.

We worship Jesus along with God each time we communicate with Him, for this is the purpose of Christ. Fundamentalists de-emphasize God’s call to contemplation and personal communication, drawing the focus back to the Bible and the church’s interpretation of it. Mystics use the Bible as a step to the real purpose of Christ. We may still be too weak to take full advantage of Christ’s work, but to deny those who are ready for it direct access to God implies that Jesus somehow failed, and the job of the church is to cover that failure with dogma.

 2/7/10 Reflections             Everything is the way it is because that’s how God wants it. Save the whale, stop global warming – do what you will, the outcome is still whatever is God’s plan. You can be a force for good, but that’s your interpretation of what is needed; unless this is the same as what your Creator deems necessary it will count for nothing. That’s just the way it is, and God keeps dropping hints that we might want to limit our interference in it for our own good. Still we insist on taking over. So what if we’re extremely incompetent? At least we feel good about ourselves!

But maybe feeling good about ourselves is not such a worthy goal. For some of us, feeling good about ourselves is another form of greedy self-regard because we do things out of human pride; circumventing the will of God. Since we do impact nature we are charged with not abusing it. But for some, that’s the green light to go to the other extreme – denying the use of nature when it should be used, being a gift from God.

Most people don’t factor in God’s wishes when taking up a cause, some on the premise that God’s wishes are unknown but surely must conform to theirs; some on the premise that there is no God so it’s all up to them. But this is the Creator Himself they are dismissing – how much simpler and more beneficial it would be to acknowledge that there is a supernatural plan in place; to concede that the care of the Earth has been in God’s hands and will continue to be this way on into eternity. No matter what we do or don’t do, His effect will be what decides the Earth’s fate. Study as we might, all we will find is the mechanics of how God is fulfilling His plan.

Put that way, we might be induced to set aside the hype and the panic talk. We might each consider getting back to the spiritual meaning behind what we do. We can succeed by being partners in God’s master plan instead of failing by conceitedly fighting against it.

1/5/10 Insights from Study            Yes, God created evil, but to Him it isn’t evil. We have come to see it so, but to God all of His creation is goodness. We are not God, and we see things through human perspective; not divine. We wouldn’t think of calling medicine evil because of its bitter taste, but when it comes to God we expect Him to arbitrate justice without pointing out sin. We expect God to extend His mercy without our having to concede we were wrong. We want His peace without admitting we brought about the conflict. We blame God for what we see as evil, but want Him to overlook consequences of sin, which is something of our own making. How is it we can choose to turn our backs on God, then turn around and blame Him for not preventing us from making a mess of things?

Earthquakes are not evil — they are a natural part of Earth’s regeneration process. When one swallows a car with your loved ones in it, an earthquake appears quite evil to you. But the earthquake did not sin against you, and God is not evil for not having prevented the deaths. If a hungry bear attacks your child, it isn’t because it is evil, nor is God remiss in creating the bear’s need to feed.

Only human beings can perceive God’s created things as evil, because only human beings can create sin out of good and accrue the consequences of their actions. It isn’t that evil is doled out to us as punishment in proportion to our sins so much as it’s that we are simply seeing life as a condition of imperfection. We “know” things as evil because we are used to ordering matters to our own specifications, and often they don’t co-operate.

We insist on exercising our free will and God allows that even when we harm ourselves by it. Unless we are mystics, we would not be willing to give up our free wills, even when we know we often use them with harmful results. Unless we are spiritually enlightened, we are unaware of all the cases where God has in fact intervened to save us. We are just as unaware of this as we are unaware of His reasons for permitting us to witness evil. Opportunity, correction, guidance, education, conversion, grace – all good things can appear to us as evil when directed by God’s hand, because we do not understand divine intellect. We cannot assimilate the intensity of God’s love for us and the steps He takes because of this love.

This is why mystics are always encouraging a person’s abandonment of will. It’s saying this: “I’m not divine and can only haltingly absorb divine reasoning. But if I make a point of accepting God’s will as good, no matter whether it seems to me to be loving or evil, I will certainly be at peace knowing my way won’t be wrong. If I unite my desires to God’s, even if I don’t understand them, I’m confident that I’m doing God’s will and showing Him love. And if I do this sincerely, humbly, and obediently, I will be shown by insight what I need to know, and be given the means to do what I need to do. When I am in sync with God all decisions are God’s, even the ones He has subjected to my free will.”

In this desire for union with God we’ll not only have assurance of following the path our Creator means for us to follow, but also we will have a more proper perception of the worldly, temporary nature of suffering and evil.

12/30/09 Insights from Study                   If you want things to focus for you spiritually, consider how much human knowledge you have in your brain; clear that out completely in moments of contemplation and give room to let God-knowledge fill your head. You cannot understand the limitlessness of God-knowledge until you temporarily throw out your dependence on your own intellect.  What you know of the world takes over and limits what you can know of heaven. Trapped by issues of time and space as it is, your brain doesn’t use but a fraction of what it could.  If you mentally remove thoughts of sense and emotion and place yourself sincerely at the will of God, you make your mind receptive to what is divinely possible. Don’t hold back out of fear of evil or delusion – these are worldly functions from which God protects those who invite Him in.

12/10/09 Insights from Prayer             I go alone to a quiet place to talk and listen to my Creator. This is exactly where I’m supposed to be. No fear, no doubt, no despair, no guilt – just doing what God means for me to do. This is the way it is in the Reality of heaven; for this reason I am at peace here. I am content with what I have because I turn my face toward the thing of real importance. If enemies pound at the door I don’t hear them here in my cocoon of safety. If there are corners where I, the temple of God, haven’t swept properly, I acknowledge this and immediately dismiss it. For here and now I exist only to honor my God by receiving His love and offering my own to Him. I go away refreshed, and I don’t grow faint from the clanging and screeching and wailing and shrieking of the world, so satisfied am I with the promise for that world that is the thing I hear above all else.

10/17/09 Insights from Study             Asking God for something is the simplest and purest form of worship there is. The more you do it, the more convinced you will be that this is what is most pleasing to God. Forget about the human hesitation that asking is self-centered. To ask something of God is a selfless act because you are being humble in your petition; admitting that you need God to provide. From this base a mountain of trust can arise.

Don’t think that in choosing what to pray for you are dictating to God which road He should take. These things never enter into the mind of God. It’s enough for Him that you have a need and you recognize that it is He who must fill it.

Goodness will come from prayers of petition, even if it’s nothing other than the warm feeling of doing your best in what God has asked of you. Prayer is never useless. The more you pray the more you understand of the One to Whom you are praying. It’s your need, and God’s willingness to provide for you, that brings you closest to union with the Divine. But don’t be surprised if human-minded miracles do occur anyway.

 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.

9/4/09 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.

8/27/09 Inspirations                My own thoughts of God are so overwhelming I feel like I leave my world to enter His. There, some place where time and space don’t matter, God and I are so familiar with one another that conversation isn’t needed and yet information flows unimpeded. I feel comfortable here, like I’m having to travel but can be at home in unexpected moments of respite. In these times, smiling with God over the glory behind everything He’s created, I am so in touch with Him it’s as if I had created these things myself.

Experts tell us we can’t know God, but I believe knowing God is our final destiny, and along the way, if we allow Him to live in us unreservedly, God will allow us a more glorious look at Him.

These moments of mine I know very well but cannot display to anyone else – my purpose in this is to let those who have already experienced what I’m talking about know that the things of God are not hidden from everyone at all times. If God is walking with you, then you are blessed, and you are the expert you need to heed.

7/25/09 Reflections        God manifests Himself in all things great and small – from Jesus to a ladybug – to tell us of His presence and to assure us that the outcome of life will be good. Scripture doesn’t do this. Scripture tells us the human way of seeing things – that we are bad and will go to hell unless we shape up.

How can scripture be both inspired by God and fallible at the same time? Because God uses scripture to inform us of both the human way of seeing things and things the way God sees them. It contrasts the two views in order to spotlight the divine reality, something we would not consider during our daily lives unless prompted.  God’s presence within His creations is another kind of prompting.

The world that comes to us through our natural senses of taste, smell, touch, sight, and sound is very real to us because the effects of these forces is experienced by all and can be measured. By consensus, then, Earthly life is “real”. But human consensus is meaningless because the creator of the universe is powerful and has the first and last word regardless of human forces. It is His reality that is real, and since humans don’t have the intellectual or emotional capacity to absorb God’s reality, reality can only be taken on faith.

The frailty of human faith is the reason why God manifests Himself in every thing He has created. He is here with us if only we want to receive Him, and if we want to receive Him He helps us do that. Now it’s the supernatural senses instead of the natural senses that come into play.  They are the gifts that help us recognize divine reality. They are given; not developed. By our desire to receive them we ask God for them, and as we ask so we are given.  These supernatural senses don’t have to be measured in order to be real – they come from the master and so are perfect.

You will know how your supernatural senses work when they are working in you, because by then you will be sharing in God’s knowledge and grace, and your ability to absorb reality will be expanded. In mystic theology it’s said that you will be approaching union with God, whereby you begin to see things with a divine perspective and to recognize God’s manifestation in His created things. You will know God’s promise of perfection is real, and this knowledge prepares you to approach the human world with peace and compassion.

Your light beckoning others into a unitive relationship with God is the purpose of God’s actions on Earth – to gather all together in harmony as we seek to awaken into reality at last.