Affirmation: My faith is
stronger when I allow mystery to have a place in my life.
In Rachel Remen's book The Will to Live and Other Mysteries,
she offers up the opinion that most people are more concerned with mastery than
with mystery. She goes onto give
examples of events she and others have experienced that cannot be explained
with science or with logic but if one is open to believing in the unbelievable,
the events not only take on meaning; they become powerful examples of spirit
alive and at work in the world and in our lives.
My Christian faith is grounded in
mystery. At some point I had to decide
to believe the unbelievable. Let's admit
it the whole story of Jesus Christ's birth, death and resurrection is pure mystery. If I were to assume that my limited
intelligence or anyone's, even that of the brilliant, is able to understand
God, I would not only be arrogant but stupid.
For heaven's sake we may one day completely understand our own bodies
but we will never be able to duplicate them.
Only Divine power could have created a human being. We may one day be able to travel the Universe
but will we ever reach its outer limits? Sir Arthur Eddington, British
astronomer, physicist, and mathematician of the early 20th century said,
"The universe is not only stranger than we imagined, but stranger than we
can imagine." and David Finkelstein, a brilliant physicist said, "We
haven't the capacity to imagine anything crazy enough to stand a chance of
being right." We are human and so
we are limited in our understanding but we are also spirit, made in God's image
and likeness and therefore we can tap into, connect to the unknown and perhaps
even rest in it.
I have discovered that in order for me to be at peace I need to
embrace the mystery of my faith and the mystery of life. I choose to believe in a personal God, one
who can work miracles in my life, one who is listening to my dreams, concerns
and petitions and even the whispers of my heart if I stay close, open and present.
I am not aware of any personal acquaintances that have experienced significant miracles. I wish I
were. Certainly, I have read about others who have and when my husband and I
visited St. Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal in Montreal, I was stunned by the
hundreds and hundreds of crutches hanging on the walls that were left by people
who had come there for a miracle and found one.
I recently googled "miracle locations" and one site, ListVerse.com,
listed the top ten recorded miracles.
You may recognize some of the more well known, Fatima, Lourdes, Our Lady
of Guadeloupe, and more recently Padre Pio.
All of these places and events are known for the unexplainable. Lourdes, the site of the appearance of the
Blessed Mother to St. Bernadette, has 68 "official" miracles but
thousands of unofficial healings.
Are the healings simply the result of the power of positive
thinking? People really believe it will
happen and so it does? Could be, so what?
Something miraculous occurred.
Maybe that's the secret to miracles; if we are open to them, if we truly
believe, "even as a grain of mustard seed" our beings are transformed
into receptors for miracles.
Notice I have a tendency to focus on the illogical positive experiences
that happen to people, this is after all a site for creating positive
affirmations. I avoid focusing on the
occult or unsettling things one might hear about or see in the media. Those don't help me in any way to feel
hopeful, peaceful or grounded. It's my
choice on that which I focus. I know there is evil in the world.
The news coming into my life these last few weeks has been very
unsettling. There have been multiple
requests for prayers for the suffering and struggles of friends and friends of
friends. In two cases acquaintances that
did not appear to be very ill were diagnosed with cancer and given less than
three weeks to live. I, myself, had a
scare during my annual mammogram when a lump was found and I was sent for an
ultra sound. It turned out to be normal
tissue but it shook me to the core.
Besides deciding to eat French fries and a cookie, "Carpet Diem!”
I needed, I need a way to find peace with the whims of the world and so I did
what I have been practicing, I rested in my faith. I not only don't know what the future holds
other than death and I don't understand most of what life is about but once
again, if I connect to the Divine, to my God, I find I can simply allow life to
be and allow myself to be at peace with all as it is, at lease for this very
moment.
When I went through my yoga teacher training we were invited to
"rest in the inquiry." We were
encouraged during our practice not to try to figure everything out, but to
simply let our asanas unfold. I've taken that practice into my faith. I'm doing
my utmost to shed Divine light on life and into other lives, perhaps even into
the world. I'm offering us an opportunity to let go of our egos, especially
mine and to allow my Loving Father, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, His Holy
Spirit, our Blessed Mother, my guardian angel and all those unseen entities who
want to guide me and you to a richer, peaceful, blessed life the opportunity to
do so. For today, for now, I am allowing
Spirit to inhabit my heart, soul and body.
I've invited it in and I am choosing to simply rest with it. I know I don't know and that's ok with me in
this moment.
I know in today's world this is a path less chosen but my
intention for this year is to "connect to the Divine." My intention for my life is to strengthen my
faith. With those intentions in place I
have chosen to focus on mystery and to release myself from trying to understand
all things. Once I adopted that approach
even the unexplainable became meaningful and God's presence became more real. Along with this gift I've given myself, even
the great unknown, the future and the greatest unknown, life after death has
become less fearful, less anxiety producing and I find I can still breathe and
live peacefully, at least for these few moments.
No comments:
Post a Comment