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OPENING PRAYER
Prayer to Love God above all Things
God, my Father,
may I love You in all things and above all things.
May I reach the joy which You have prepared for me in
Heaven.
Nothing is good that is against Your Will,
and all that is good comes from Your Hand.
Place in my heart a desire to please You
and fill my mind with thoughts of Your Love,
so that I may grow in Your Wisdom and enjoy Your Peace.
* * *
If our minds are ruled by our desires, we will die. But if our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace.
*Romans 5.6 (CEV)
7So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
*2 Cor 7.10-12 (CEV)
* * *
He said, "I will forget the dying faces;
The empty places -
They shall be filled again.
O voices mourning deep within me, cease."
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in forgetting lieth peace.
He said, "I will crowd action upon action,
The strife of faction
Shall stir me and sustain;
Oh, tears that drown the fire of manhood, cease."
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in endeavor lieth peace.
He said, "I will withdraw me and be quiet,
Why meddle in life's riot?
Shut be my door to pain.
Desire, thou doest befool me, thou shalt cease."
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in aloofness lieth peace.
He said, "I will submit; I am defeated,
God hath depleted
My life of its rich gain.
Oh futile murmurings, why will ye not cease?"
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in submission lieth peace.
He said, "I will accept the breaking sorrow
Which God tomorrow
Will to his son explain."
Then did the turmoil deep within him cease.
Not vain the word, not vain,
For in acceptance lieth peace.
*Amy Carmichael. "The Shadowed Way."
* * *
Acceptance, spiritually, is not a mere resignation, nihilism, a defeatism - that would be what Carmichael terms "submission." This mere submission to circumstance is slavish. Acceptance, spiritually, and as Carmichael uses it, is rather something noble, daring, and freeing.
We cannot live at peace with others, God, or ourselves and, at the same time, be wrestling against the situations of our lives. We find peace in acceptance: here, we have a pliable spirit, willing to see God in the situations and find reasons to give thanks.
See, as St. Paul reminds us, our minds can be ruled by desires unspiritual in content. One such is greed for convenience and comfort. Yet, look at circumstances Jesus lived in, in loving obedience to His Father. He lived in some markedly inconvenient and uncomfortable situations: just look at the cross, for one example.
In our minds being "ruled by the Spirit," Scripture reminds us we will be led to "life and peace." This is spiritual life, spiritual peace, for this life and peace arises from the holy Spirit, not from getting what you and I want or what makes us feel special - the sense of wanting or desiring apart from God-Within.
We do not, however, have to remain in circumstances that the holy Spirit wants us to be free of or to remove from. Here, this "acceptance" is a posture of trust in the moment, before, in, and after changes that occur. Sometimes, we are to accept the moment and what is present, while working to change it.
Through spiritual acceptance, we may find that circumstances we thought we needed free of are those we come to see as God's Will. The person who wishes out of a relationship, may find the relationship, while far less than ideal, and one that may be dysfunctional, precisely the relationship given as God's Will. The person who wishes to escape to another job, may find the job is exactly God's Will. The person who wills to escape financial struggles, may discover those struggles are integral to his or her growing in wisdom and faith. The person ill may find the sickness a place of fertile joy and abounding grace.
I was asked, recently, if I had life to live over, would I choose to be a preacher. Likely not a pastor - in the sense of being the head administrative leader of a church. However, I affirmed to the person that I did not regret the call, and at a point in life, when I did not know if I would live, I celebrated my life for the way I had chosen to live it and serve God through it. Now, I am open to other ways of being a "pastor," rather than the chief administrative officer of a church, a role with less of the bureaucracy and more focused on the gifts given me to use for the Body of Christ. Yet, if the Spirit provided no other role, then, God would lead and provide in my present vocational status.
Sometimes, we, indeed, are given something or a place to be for a lifetime or only a time, to find that, even though we would not choose it, we become blessed by it being chosen for us - that is an odd way Grace works: to human logic, Grace is always working in "odd" ways. And Grace may, later, lead us to something else, after we have learned the lessons we were given to learn in that previous situation.
I am not saying God makes happen all challenging circumstances that we are to accept. No, but God is within them, and God wants us to grow to learn to receive life and peace even within difficult aspects of life that we are to accept in faith, aspects neither God nor we would have willed, but happened nevertheless. Remember, Grace may not change the circumstances, but Grace can change you in the circumstances.
Yes, God wants the best for you and me. Yet, our seeing of what is best is often clouded, sometimes totally unseen. At times, we have what we have or get what we get, and keep what we keep, for that is what is best. And through this, we learn a valuable lesson, a lesson St. Paul learned through his life in service to Christ - "For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
This writing goes fully against much of the recent writing on New Thought. This movement, an older movement renewed in being wedded with particle physics, affirms God wants us free from all suffering, and we have the power to make that possible. Yet, any cursory reading of the Life of Christ in the Gospels, and the lives of many great men and women in Spirit, shows us differently. Even if I have power to make my life prosperous, for example, I am not, thereby, either in God's Will for doing it, or bettering my life or self.
If such entitlement to "prosperity" is preached, what is being preached is contrary to the Gospel of Christ. Rather, God's Will is the prosperity of an inner life and peace, one that many have found in poverty and extreme hardships: a case in point is the missionary who wrote "The Shadowed Way."
CLOSING BLESSING
May the God of Strength be with you, holding you in strong-fingered hands; and may you be the sacrament of God's strength to those whose hands you hold. May the blessing of STRENGTH be with you.
*www.erchna.org
* * *
1) Reflect on your past. Note circumstances you resisted or changed that, as you look back, were good for you.
2) Today, reflect on present circumstances you have not been willing to accept. Pray about each one, asking for Grace to accept whatever you need, asking for a spirit of gratitude and for peace within these situations.
3) Ask for Divine Guidance about any circumstances you discern you need to seek change within.
* * *
*The opening prayer is from www.catholic.org ; the Carmichael poem is from www.holwick.com , "Withdrawal."
*Charitable contributions would be appreciated to assist Brian in continuing his ministry. For contributions, contact Brian at barukhattah@embarqmail.com . Brian is in need of more funding to purchase a desk-top computer.
*Brian's book of spiritual love poetry, An Ache for Union: Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major booksellers or the Cokesbury on-line store, cokesbury.com .
*Brian K. Wilcox, a United Methodist Pastor, lives in Southwest Florida. He is a vowed member of Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in South Georgia. He lives a contemplative life and seeks to inspire others to enjoy a more intimate relationship with Christ. Brian advocates for a spiritually-focused, experiential Christianity and renewal of the Church through addressing the deeper spiritual needs and longings of persons.
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