No good thing is the Way.
Not friendship, honor, sacrifice…
Sometimes we are called to let-down, fall-short, betray;
and other times we are called to die for our friend.
Jesus let his friends down
at the very moment he was laying down his life for them - penultimately.
Our unique leading in God is our ultimate Way
- not physically-driven, theory-laden, feeling-good: doing-right, loving, etc
But in this process, we must be willing to let-go of our attachment to or resistance to 'good' or 'bad',
Our unique leading in God is our ultimate Way
- not physically-driven, theory-laden, feeling-good: doing-right, loving, etc
But in this process, we must be willing to let-go of our attachment to or resistance to 'good' or 'bad',
to doing ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in our own or in other’s cultural estimation.
This seems backward, crazy, and scary,
and it IS the Way.
.
A whole lot started with Abraham, so let’s start with him.
Abraham is the Father of 3 great religions, the dominating religious paradigms of the West.
Abram was called out from his family, his home, his tradition, his life…
Did his family, his tradition appreciate this?
Did Abram appreciate this?
probably not…
And we see he followed his call slowly, jerkily
This seems backward, crazy, and scary,
and it IS the Way.
.
A whole lot started with Abraham, so let’s start with him.
Abraham is the Father of 3 great religions, the dominating religious paradigms of the West.
Abram was called out from his family, his home, his tradition, his life…
Did his family, his tradition appreciate this?
Did Abram appreciate this?
probably not…
And we see he followed his call slowly, jerkily
- most of us do the same, if we follow at all.
Following God is about following the Living God, in Real-time.
It is not about following rules.
It is not about complying with physically-perceived 'good'.
Rather it is about following God. Period.
A more extreme example:
Abraham was called to sacrifice his son,
not just a person,
not just his child,
not just his long-awaited heir...
Abraham was called to sacrifice all this
AND the representation-of, the container-for All Abraham’s (and Sarah's) dreams
and the perceived channel for ALL God’s promises to Abraham.
Abraham was called to sacrifice Everything,
Abraham was called to sacrifice far, far more than it would have been to sacrifice himself.
And he did it - well, he was willing and acting - it totally counts, from my perspective.
Abraham was Hard Core.
Who among us would do such a thing?
To follow God’s leading right against the tide of all that seems Good,
Following God is about following the Living God, in Real-time.
It is not about following rules.
It is not about complying with physically-perceived 'good'.
Rather it is about following God. Period.
A more extreme example:
Abraham was called to sacrifice his son,
not just a person,
not just his child,
not just his long-awaited heir...
Abraham was called to sacrifice all this
AND the representation-of, the container-for All Abraham’s (and Sarah's) dreams
and the perceived channel for ALL God’s promises to Abraham.
Abraham was called to sacrifice Everything,
Abraham was called to sacrifice far, far more than it would have been to sacrifice himself.
And he did it - well, he was willing and acting - it totally counts, from my perspective.
Abraham was Hard Core.
Who among us would do such a thing?
To follow God’s leading right against the tide of all that seems Good,
and all God’s Blessings to us…
Letting Go of Everything.
.
The bible stories tell us this same story over and over and over.
Then there is the obvious - Jesus.
Jesus tells his disciples, I am going to Jerusalem to suffer and die,
and Peter says - oh no you are not;
and Jesus says - get behind me Satan.
We can all relate to Peter here, even Jesus can relate to Peter.
I believe this is why Jesus replies so strongly against this temptation dangled by Peter.
Peter is not (in this moment) just physically-focused and therefore missing the mark, sinning;
he is trying to block God’s will in the world,
tempting Jesus from his unique calling.
But, Jesus is not swayed,
Jesus will follow his Father right into the jaws of ignominy, of torture, of death, of hell.
Jesus was Hard Core.
Who among us would do such a thing?
To follow God’s leading right against the tide of all that seems Good, all God’s Blessings…
Letting Go of Everything.
.
I was tempted to say Jesus was the end of the story, but no, he is just the end of an age, and the beginning of our age.
In our age we have so much permission to inhabit the Kingdom of Heaven, the Reign of God, Christ Consciousness, spiritual reality…
We have:
a lot of Push-back,
a lot of Powers and Principalities of this world adding friction to our path...
We have a lot of justifications and alternate accommodations to hide-behind,
excuses to not follow God’s leading of us
through the Light and the Darkness, through birth and death.
Because that is where we will inevitably go:
Jesus says: If you will be my disciple, pick up your cross and follow.
Being a disciple of Jesus is no walk in the park.
We are called to be Hard Core
- this is not just for the Giants of Faith, the Matriarchs and Patriarchs... every one of us is called to be Hard Core... becoming Spiritual Heroes in our own right, in our own life, right where we are, Today.
Who among us would do such a thing?
To follow God’s leading right against the tide of all that seems Good, all God’s Blessings…
Letting Go of Everything.
.
But, that is not the whole story, it is still not done.
The point of this post is - we cannot do any of these things willy nilly or by theory.
We can't pin-down the Way, any more than we can pin-down Love, Light, Truth. Life.
The best and highest good in our thoughts and actions - in our minds, in our culture, in our religion - are not enough...
Not. Nearly. Enough!
We cannot just die whenever we feel like it, just let go and Give Up;
because sometimes we are called to live, to fight for life - for our own and others:
This is the narrow way - the narrowest of ways!
Far Far beyond any moralizing, ethics, ideals - beyond any external obedience, even of the strictest order.
We are not just called to die,
or to live what we think love is,
or to follow any rule we may devise.
Laws, rules, systems are Not the Way.
We Dance with a Living God - up and down, all the way, and all around.
There is no structured, outside-us, formalized, idealized way to do it.
As much as we wish this were so, act like this is so, are told by ministers and moralizers that it is so
Letting Go of Everything.
.
The bible stories tell us this same story over and over and over.
Then there is the obvious - Jesus.
Jesus tells his disciples, I am going to Jerusalem to suffer and die,
and Peter says - oh no you are not;
and Jesus says - get behind me Satan.
We can all relate to Peter here, even Jesus can relate to Peter.
I believe this is why Jesus replies so strongly against this temptation dangled by Peter.
Peter is not (in this moment) just physically-focused and therefore missing the mark, sinning;
he is trying to block God’s will in the world,
tempting Jesus from his unique calling.
But, Jesus is not swayed,
Jesus will follow his Father right into the jaws of ignominy, of torture, of death, of hell.
Jesus was Hard Core.
Who among us would do such a thing?
To follow God’s leading right against the tide of all that seems Good, all God’s Blessings…
Letting Go of Everything.
.
I was tempted to say Jesus was the end of the story, but no, he is just the end of an age, and the beginning of our age.
In our age we have so much permission to inhabit the Kingdom of Heaven, the Reign of God, Christ Consciousness, spiritual reality…
We have:
- So much modeling about what it is to follow God, to build our lives on the Rock of Divine Revelation, spiritual senses…
- So much freedom to choose spiritual-focus or physical-focus, Grace or Law, Spirit or Flesh.
- So much support and modeling in the bible and in so many ‘witnesses’, we have tradition and ritual, we have the leading of the Holy Spirit.
a lot of Push-back,
a lot of Powers and Principalities of this world adding friction to our path...
We have a lot of justifications and alternate accommodations to hide-behind,
excuses to not follow God’s leading of us
through the Light and the Darkness, through birth and death.
Because that is where we will inevitably go:
Jesus says: If you will be my disciple, pick up your cross and follow.
Being a disciple of Jesus is no walk in the park.
We are called to be Hard Core
- this is not just for the Giants of Faith, the Matriarchs and Patriarchs... every one of us is called to be Hard Core... becoming Spiritual Heroes in our own right, in our own life, right where we are, Today.
Who among us would do such a thing?
To follow God’s leading right against the tide of all that seems Good, all God’s Blessings…
Letting Go of Everything.
.
But, that is not the whole story, it is still not done.
The point of this post is - we cannot do any of these things willy nilly or by theory.
We can't pin-down the Way, any more than we can pin-down Love, Light, Truth. Life.
The best and highest good in our thoughts and actions - in our minds, in our culture, in our religion - are not enough...
Not. Nearly. Enough!
We cannot just die whenever we feel like it, just let go and Give Up;
because sometimes we are called to live, to fight for life - for our own and others:
- Sometimes we are called to lead; and other times to follow.
- Sometimes we are called to be empowered, to shine our Light and shift our world; and other times to have humility, to accept, submit and quietly wait in our prayer closet until…
- Sometimes we are called to be playful and open, receptive, trusting as children, gentle as doves; and other times wise as serpents, acting strategically.
- but in Following God it is not a structured thing - like accommodating ourselves to the earthly seasons.
- It is a spiritual thing - accommodating ourselves step by step to our Unique Divine Dance.
This is the narrow way - the narrowest of ways!
Far Far beyond any moralizing, ethics, ideals - beyond any external obedience, even of the strictest order.
We are not just called to die,
or to live what we think love is,
or to follow any rule we may devise.
Laws, rules, systems are Not the Way.
We Dance with a Living God - up and down, all the way, and all around.
There is no structured, outside-us, formalized, idealized way to do it.
As much as we wish this were so, act like this is so, are told by ministers and moralizers that it is so
- but, this is just not so.
Therefore, we cannot just Give Up, die, submit, obey... outside authorities.
We cannot coast in any trajectory, inertia ruling us. (As much as I would wish this were so!!)
We cannot do something just because something is a Good Idea,
or it looks like service or like love,
or we think the bible says it,
or it suits our personal ethics,
or even because God led us that way yesterday…
Because each day anew;
TODAY, if you hear God's voice, harden not your hearts.
Rules are for children, and we are called to be adults
- and to Say and DO WITH the Progenitor, as Jesus did, every moment.
In this Way we will go where we never imagined.
We will experience highs and lows,
we will expand and contract,
we will let go and we will fight,
we will die and we will rise.
To paraphrase Paul:
we learn to be in Joy with both little and much,
with seeming success and seeming failure,
with social derision and general acclaim…
We die to All our own and other people’s ethics, trajectories, hopes, dreams, visions, beliefs, expectations, ideals.
And we do it daily.
Who among us would do such a thing?
To follow God’s leading right against the tide of all that seems Good, all God’s Blessings…
Letting Go of Everything.
.
We will.
We will rise to Life, Abundant.
We will choose to live in Alignment with our Source - our God, our Truth, our Light, our Love, our Life, our Way.
Therefore, we cannot just Give Up, die, submit, obey... outside authorities.
We cannot coast in any trajectory, inertia ruling us. (As much as I would wish this were so!!)
We cannot do something just because something is a Good Idea,
or it looks like service or like love,
or we think the bible says it,
or it suits our personal ethics,
or even because God led us that way yesterday…
Because each day anew;
TODAY, if you hear God's voice, harden not your hearts.
Rules are for children, and we are called to be adults
- and to Say and DO WITH the Progenitor, as Jesus did, every moment.
In this Way we will go where we never imagined.
We will experience highs and lows,
we will expand and contract,
we will let go and we will fight,
we will die and we will rise.
To paraphrase Paul:
we learn to be in Joy with both little and much,
with seeming success and seeming failure,
with social derision and general acclaim…
We die to All our own and other people’s ethics, trajectories, hopes, dreams, visions, beliefs, expectations, ideals.
And we do it daily.
Who among us would do such a thing?
To follow God’s leading right against the tide of all that seems Good, all God’s Blessings…
Letting Go of Everything.
.
We will.
We will rise to Life, Abundant.
We will choose to live in Alignment with our Source - our God, our Truth, our Light, our Love, our Life, our Way.
We will engage our Unique Process of Soul Maturity, Teleios
So, let’s do it Now.
Blessings in your Unique Journey,
Wendy
REALizing who we are in God, into our body, life, world...
So, let’s do it Now.
Blessings in your Unique Journey,
Wendy
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