Behold I Make All Things New

These words have always sparked hope and optimism in me. The promise of a beneficent power that restores the "years the locusts have eaten" and lets us begin again, with a fresh slate, devoid of baggage, is a gospel I can wrap my heart around.   Of course, every one of us has some regrets about the past. It is human to wish that things had been different for us. We may regret decisions we've made, words we've spoken or not spoken, actions we took or failed to take, opportunities not seized or situations we could have left alone. Each of us could make a list. But why dwell there? While regret is a normal human emotion, it's a learning device, not a mantra. Disappointment, regret, and remorse are all useful in revealing what matters to us now; emotions to help us see what didn't work, so we can realign our intentions. However, regret is a state to visit, not a place to live.   Regardless of what has or hasn't happened in the past, the question before everyone of us is: What now? Where do we go from here? Whether we are celebrating 20 years of life or our 20th year of retirement, Spirit is calling us to shake the dust from our feet and begin again.   It's time to retrieve shelved dreams, prime our creative pumps, finish the play, take the dulcimer down from the shelf, plant some new seeds of possibility and approach this precious life before us with renewed zeal. Our past led us to this moment. From this precious awareness, we can wipe away lingering regrets and replace misgivings with new commitments that align with our deepest values. We can listen expectantly for our deepest truth, our most passionate aspiration, calling us to express the best that is within us. New life in the body is a breath away. With each in-breath we take in life giving oxygen that renews every cell in our body. With each out-breath we release the CO2 that would debilitate our well being. And so it is with our psycho-spiritual well being. We breathe out the past - the missteps and regrets, the habits that would debilitate our well being. And then, having made room in our consciousness for new life, we take in a fresh breath of possibility, the promise that with God all things are again possible.  (Matt.19:26) The very word spirit comes from the root word, Spiritus which means breath. It's vital to remember that our spiritual life is nothing less than the Life of Spirit, and the degree to which we allow it motivate and guide us. This Life, which is greater than any power on earth, is breathing us, seeking to be made known through us, and as us. This is a life changing truth! Should we fully embrace this promise we can and will behold a new Life, made new by allowing Spirit to be Spirit in us. As it says in the ancient scriptures, "know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."(Jer.29:11)

The Joy of the Present

During this Christmas season, many people will engage in the tradition of exchanging gifts with loved ones. Though our family no longer get caught up in the rapacious shopping frenzy of consumerism gone wild, we still find joy in this ritual of giving and receiving. In moderation, with conscious attention to assure gifting remains an activity of heart and generosity, it can enhance well being, and add sweetness to the holidays. Throw in holiday parties, delectable goodies, and special sacred  services, and we can find much comfort and joy during this Christmas season. However just as the birth story of Jesus was not all magic and a chorus of angels, our Christmas season celebrations can involve human foibles that can threaten our comfort and joy. During the holidays, many people feel the strain of expectations; from falling short of some imagined quota of giving enough, or receiving enough, to the emotional demands of family members  that can ascend to unattainable heights this time of year. It's as if the miraculous becomes the expectation. Despite expectations, not everyone seems to have room in the inn of their hearts to behave the way we would like. The people gathered round family celebrations may not bear any resemblance to the wise and generous magi from the East capable of showering us with adoration and fine gifts. And we may be disappointments to them, failing to appear as angels on high singing their praises from heaven above. When we hold rigid expectations for others behavior we set them up for failure, as we set up ourselves for disappointment. However, even though such expectations are unrealistic, the ideals behind them are worthy of our faith and our aim. We can go on expecting the best in others and ourselves as an ideal that may someday be realized. Yet, there is a deeper perspective available that can spare us from the disappointment when expectations are not met. Here it is: the best gift you have ever received, bar none; the gift that will never become obsolete, or wear out, or fail to satisfy your deepest desires and expectations for happiness. Jesus compared it to a pearl of great price. He told his disciples that it would not come with expectation; that it was at hand and in the midst of them. It would be the fulfillment of all their wanting, the satisfaction of their yearning for peace, love, joy and well being. He called it the Kingdom of Heaven. To obtain this gift, you don't have to stand in line at Costco, or fight the crowds at the mall, and delivery time is nil. It is here, within you and I, right now. No matter what you receive, or what you give, nor what they do or say this gift will not shrink from its infinite promise and ability to meet your deepest need. It's the gift of the Presence in this precious present moment. I know of no better antidote to the dismay of unmet expectations, be they the holiday variety, or otherwise, than to pause and remember. Take a conscious breath and come back to the present moment, and re-member who you are, and whose you are. Dropping the angst of expectations, will allow you to drop into the heart of Being, into the virtual lap of God's love. In this heavenly awareness, the miraculous becomes the obvious, Spirit attends to your re-birth, and all your wants disappear. Herein lies the possibility, the actuality, of a "Merry Christmas."

Radical Love

"...enlightenment is the moment we realize that we are made of love. At that moment, all fear of living disappears. For grace comes to the heart when it realizes what it is made of and what it has risen from. In that moment, grace comforts us, that no matter the joy or pain along the way, we are already part of where we are going."        -Mark Nepo - The Book of Awakening Radical love was the cornerstone of the uncommon life and teachings of Jesus. While every major religion espouses love's virtue, the depth and unflinching nature of the love that Jesus personified and revealed is in a rarified league of its own. Most of us cannot conceive, let alone achieve, a love so pure and uncompromising. So exemplary was Jesus demonstration of a love-centered being that many can believe only that Jesus was God who became a man, rather than the reverse transformation. Yet Jesus clearly invited all to follow him in this way, declaring that his attainment was within reach of all of us (John 14:12). He pointed to the kingdom of heaven within, an inner dimension of being, as the ground of our true nature. Herein lies the source of such humanly unimaginable qualities and potentialities; such unfathomable love that stands up to all opposition and doesn't flinch.   Our difficulty in loving the way Jesus loved is not a deficiency in our hardware, but much like my computer experiences, stems from operator error. When it comes to our relationships, we mostly deal with each other externally. We react, judge, assume, compare, criticize, resent, expect, infer, using the surface mind, the ego, which sees itself as separate from everyone, and everything, and most of all, separate from the One that unites us in Love. The sense of separation we feel from God and one another is the common bane of our human experience; the root cause of our struggle to love unconditionally. The uncommon love that Jesus demonstrated was rooted in an unbroken awareness of his unity with God, with equal awareness of the divine within every person.   For Jesus, the scales of judgment were completed removed from his eyes, so that he perceived the pure loving wholeness and innocence in everyone around him, friend or foe. He knew at depth, what we aspire to know, that we all are cut from the same spiritual cloth, that beyond all appearances to the contrary we are the holy progeny of the one life, love, and power we call God. It is only in such consciousness that we can follow the radical teachings that implore us to "love thy neighbor as thyself," "pray for those who persecute us" and "love thy enemy." This is the highest calling of spiritual life taking us to a precipice that offers an unobstructed view of the Light that enlightens everyone, while putting our "little self" at risk of a great fall. It begins with the premise and then takes practice. When I hold to the truth that I cannot be separate from the love of God, I am more likely to risk loving more radically, more wastefully. Expressions of love, like ocean waves that rise, cannot be separate from the sea that formed them. Knowing this requires us to go deeper to access that dimension of ourselves that is guided by the indwelling spirit of love, and from that awareness, we can rise above appearances and see our brother or sister as they really are. Then, like the wave, we can settle peacefully back into the sea of love, the illusion of separation vanquished by our willingness to trust loves promise.   In this season, that celebrates peace on earth and good will among all people, let it be more than a song on our lips, let it be a reality that lives in our heart.

Making Peace Your One Goal

"The peace of God is everything I want. The peace of God is my one goal; the aim of all my living here, the end I seek, my purpose and my function and my life..."   - A Course in Miracles W-205.1 Every war, every conflict with another person, every asserted opinion, every need to be right, is, at its core, nothing more or less than the defense of an illusion. Whether it is our religion, our nationality, our role, our culture, our family history, or our story, we can become so identified with these aspects of our human experience that we lose our true identity in them. We refer to these aspects by saying my religion, my race, my opinion, my story and distinguish them from everybody else with their religion, opinion and so on.   We become so easily lost in automatic identification that we really do need to stop and realize that all these aspects are nothing more than collections of thoughts and emotions. Admittedly, we may be deeply rooted in these ideas and identifications, but the truth is, they are not even close to representing the reality of our Being. Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I Am." He was not talking about his body, but his essence. Before you had a body, or a family, or a religion, you were the offspring of Infinite Life... In Zen Buddhism it is called Original face: the face you had before your parents were born. In gospel terms it is the light that enlightens everyone who comes into the world. Conflicts that lead to resentments, at the least, or war, at the most extreme, stem from our perceived need to protect, and keep alive, a sense of self that is unmistakably false.   This false self is the ego; that is on a relentless struggle to survive. Survival arises from maintaining an "I" thought about oneself separate and distinct from an "other." The ego thrives on the notion of separation - separation from God, separation from other people, separation from all of life. The more we see ourselves as special and different, in competing relationship with everyone and everything else, the more we will keep alive a sense of self that is false. Survival of this false self is fed by being right and making others wrong. Is it any wonder conflicts, small and grand, are widespread on this earth? Yet, we know a greater truth, deep down anyway. There is another reality, and another way of being together on this earth. The truth, revealed by mystical insight and quantum understanding, is of a unified field of life, a hidden wholeness, in which we all live, move, and have our being. At our most elemental, essential nature, we are spiritual, inextricably connected to every sentient creature, woven into the fabric of Life itself. In this field of unity, there is no need to struggle to survive, no separate interests competing for well being. Jesus called it the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom, this consciousness of ever expanding good, is in the midst of us, here and now, calling us to make our home there. To remain at war requires a sustained awareness of separation. To remain at peace requires a sustained awareness of our oneness. The only hope for lasting peace on earth (individually or collectively) is the fact that we have a choice in every moment. One choice leads to the battleground, and one leads to the peace table. Either we judge by appearances, which bear witness to a world of separation and leads to judgments and attacks, or we rise above ordinary thought to see through the eyes of the Christ and recognize our essential unity with everybody and everything. It is a true or false question.