Weekly Spiritual Thoughts March 30, 2010
Posted: under Weekly Spiritual Thoughts.
Dear Spiritual Companions,
I read something the other day about how our willfulness gets in the way of God’s Will. I do not believe in a God who has any difficulty with our willfulness. God created everything, so therefore God is responsible for our desire to play god. In the Christian tradition this is Holy Week and in so many ways it is filled with human willfulness. The bottom line is we want what we want when we want it. This goes for what is happening in our lives, our country, our religion or anything else that is important to us. Willfulness is about our ego desires in this life. When we have given our existence over to our ego, we have lost our focus on the bigger picture. Our ego will die one day as well as everything else in this life, so if are depending on this life or our ego for any lasting meaning we will be filled with futility. This is good because one needs to see what they don’t have before they can see the possibility of what they could have. It is a part of this journey of being human. It is also why God would not have any difficulty with us being willful. I know this goes against the idea of punishment for our supposed selfish acts, but so be it. A simple question to ponder is why would God find any meaning in punishment?
So how do we know when our willfulness is getting in the way of God’s Will? We begin asking ourselves a question, ”Is that all there is in life?” We find our definition of what is important isn’t fulfilling us anymore. This leads to a certain uneasiness inside of us. We suddenly are aware of the moment and begin to see our lives in a new way. Maybe what someone else defines as meaningful isn’t. Maybe what some religious group says is necessary isn’t. Maybe what used to fulfill us no longer does. Maybe this or that relationship has lost its intimacy. It might be time for us to live with such thoughts or feelings. Meditating, sitting in nature, pondering life as we go to sleep or wake up now become precious moments. We have slowed down enough to begin to take a look at those maybes. If we have the courage to sit with them, we can begin to see where they lead us. We can breathe new life into them by noticing and spending time with our own breath. We might even notice where they appear in our body. It is what I believe Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane. I believe he was chatting with God about an alternative to the cross and death. When Jesus realized this life and his ego were more important than God’s will he said something like this, “Not my willfulness, but your will be done.” By letting go of this life we find so much more. We are so limiting in our thoughts and ways of living life. When we wake up to this fact we might hear God saying, “Did you ever think of living this way instead?” Notice there is no demanding us to do it this way, but rather simply to dare to look at another possibility.
When we give up our willfulness we find such richness and quality in living every moment. When we realize there is no arm twisting from God, we can remove ourselves from the arm twisting done to us by others or Institutions. Actually we see that kind of behavior as contrary to how the spirit is leading us. There is growing clarity of what to do or think. There is less fear of failure, because we have come to realize there is no such thing as failure. By missing the mark in life, being willful, we simply see it as an opportunity to learn and choose a different way. This goes back to why God is not a Being who punishes. We are moving from a child like relationship with God, one filled with fear or punishment, to an adult relationship, one filled with different choices or behaviors with no threats. Jesus, like other spiritual beings who have come to reveal a new way we might like to try, uses Holy Week to be an example of how God works with us to find the best way of living.
If you are a Christian, I invite you to walk through this week looking for Jesus’ example for your life. If you are a Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or something else, I invite you to revisit your spiritual example. See how they are speaking to you about another way to move from willfulness to God’s Will.
Peace,
Gary
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Mar 30 2010