Life forces…
““We are born on one level, only to find some new struggle towards wholeness gestating within. That’s the sacred intent of life, of God—to move us continuously toward growth, toward recovering all that is lost and orphaned within us and restoring the divine image imprinted on our soul.””
When we think about our own spiritual growth we don’t necessarily think about how our spirituality is woven into every nook and cranny of our being and how it permeates every one of our life events. From the loading and unloading of our dryer to the profound experience of God that leaves us breathless. It all belongs.
If we take our inner life seriously, and I hope you do, we tend towards what I call…”the pop up theory.” We gain stability in one area of our lives only to sense another area “popping up.”
It is just the way it is.
God is relentlessly and persistently urging our healing and growth, so we naturally go through periods of stability and instability. Fr. Richard Rohr describes this as, order, disorder, and reorder. And then we, rinse and repeat.
When a new issue pops up. I usually have a moment… or two… and I give myself the gift of feeling what I am REALLY feeling. Really, I name it, and own it, even if it makes me wince.
Then I do my best to simply say to myself and to God,…”of course, of course this is what you have for me now, this is where my energy is to flow because this is where I will be loved most deeply.”
Then the hard part comes. I take a deep breath and I trust it, I welcome what is to come.
I have done this with some really hard stuff.—autoimmune diseases, a grain free diet, breast cancer, family strife, and a law suit. And with each new invitation, I have grown in trust and patience.
In this way my life is like a spider web with many silk strands woven together, stronger (webs are actually five times stronger than steal) and beautifully woven. As much as I do not want it to be so, my web will be vulnerable to the forces… wind, falling debris, and rainfall will come and unify my web now and into the future.
What life forces…wind, falling debris, and rainfall have strengthened and unified your web?
See The Welcoming Prayer by Fr. Thomas Keeting and Work of the People