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Scripture for Today ~ I Corinthians 1.30 (NLT)
30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.
Wisdom Quote
Can you, from time to time, just nurture a little warm feeling toward yourself? I truly believe that's all it takes (for sanity and realistic expectations). A little warm feeling creates an atmosphere of acceptance, of allowing. And within that atmosphere there is a kind of encouragement for goodness to grow: the goodness that is you, the goodness that is life in you, the goodness of creation in you, God's goodness in you.
*Gerald May. Simply Sane.
Musings of a Modern Day Mystic
Blessed Christ, within me, there is each aspect of creation. I find myself in creation, and creation finds itself in me. And, together, creation and I, and I as creation, find our goodness in you, the Good.
I, indeed, find this marvelous truth, that in the economy of grace, God unites me as one with you. Then, I find, as the Scripture witnesses, the Father makes me in time and in you as you, the Son, are eternally. This is a mystery before which I praise the Wisdom of God. I find myself rejoicing in the sublime truth that in some mysterious way the imputation of the righteousness of Christ to me works with the righteous effort I am called to, as animated by union with you, that I might be now and always becoming fully spiritualized into your Likeness.
Apart from you, Blessed One, there is no good in either nature or me. This is not because you have created anything wrong or evil. Rather, you have created all things in you and they come forth from you, continuously. So, seeing we in ourselves are neither good nor bad, we are most truly ourselves not laying claim to goodness or badness in ourselves.
This abdication of claim leads to a void, an emptiness, that we who claim ourselves as bad and good, or one or the other, shun. For we have not accepted your offer of habitual rest, the holy sabbath, that is freedom from a claim to good and a clinging to guilt.
Instead, we find ourselves torn between feelings of being good enough or not good enough. We find ourselves judging ourselves in an effort at an inner propitiation or inward expiation of our estrangement from emptiness. Yet, this emptiness is the void wherein we rest in you free of all need to claim good or bad in regard to our selves. We claim you, then, in renouncing all other claims. And the emptiness that threatened us becomes for us the way to the fullness of life in you.
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Yes, my Lord, in my very claim, this day, of renouncing all good, I, also, do renounce all bad, and I find rest from the weary toil of trying to prove either my goodness or badness to another or you.
And religion exacerbates, often, this restlessness, projecting onto you and, then, to us, this insanity of divided self. So, religion, meant to lead us to rest from ourselves, often bars us from harmony in our selves and you, and grace that provides rest by turning us from our selves to you. Yes, the very religious means to turn us toward you, and to grace, keeps turning us to ourselves and from you, apart from grace.
My Friend, I find that in turning to you, I find rest. I find, likewise, myself and all creation. I can rest beyond the pull toward good or evil, for I rest in you.
My God, grant that I might learn better to rest, to allow grace to guide me to nourishment of my being as good in and from you, the Good. Then, lifted out of myself as one apart from you and finding my self within you, I might embody the freedom and rest that we can discover in you, not in ourselves except as within ourselves as in you.
May this prayer be answered, so that in my acceptance of your unconditional acceptance of myself, I might invite others to accept themselves in your Love. I am certain, my Friend, that you will for me to to be an atmosphere of grace amidst the storms of condemnation around us. You desire for me to be a means of your kind and generous Presence giving solace and rest to those who have never learned what it is to be kind to themselves. I know you never intended the faith of those who came to you for respite, when you were walking this earth, to turn into an institution of judgment. Lead me, then, as one among your mystical Body, beyond both good and evil, into the loving transmutation in the healing Light of your Smile.
Suggested Reflection
What does it mean to live beyond good and evil?
What do I mean above by "rest"?
What does it mean to remain ourselves while, at the same time, lifted out of ourselves?
Spiritual Exercise
Do prayerful meditation on Romans 8.1. Pray about any lack of kindness to yourself that you need freedom from. If you are experiencing any lack of inner rest and harmony, pray for a healing within and restoration of inner balance and quietude.
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