One of my regular spiritual practices is a journalling dialogue with God - or what Carl Jung called "active imagination". I've shared this dialogue with several people this past week and it has supported, challenged and inspired them as much as it does me. So it's time to share it with you all of you. What I say is noted with a T. What God said with a G.
[Please note: the prayer I mention in the first line is part of the prayer I end my daily mediation with.]
T: Hey there…. I just prayed “Lord I surrender my life to you. I pray to be aligned with your will.” And so I do, Lord… from the depths of my heart, this IS my desire.
G: Let go of thinking that you aren’t. Let go of needing to do it right. Let go of knowing where it will lead. Let go of trying to control the outcome. Use whatever outcome – or situation you are in – to practice letting go all the more. To practice aligning with my will.
T: How do I align with your will if I don’t know what it is?
G: You are wanting to know my will with your head.. so that you can plan exactly how you need to align with it, what that will look like, the fruits that doing so should produce and so on.
You think of aligning with my will as some type of magic formula that is going to have everything work out – according to YOUR will. In the way you want things to work out. Where is the faith in that? Where is the ADVENTURE in that?
T: So then what does aligning with your will mean?
G: It means saying YES to whatever is in front of you… or whoever is in front of you. YES to the promptings of your heart. YES to the parts of who you are – the wounded parts as well as the brilliant parts. It means saying YES to your life as it is AND it means saying YES to the life you wish for and your own desires and dreams – not only for yourself and the world.
T: But what about the coronavirus? Why would I want to say YES to that?
G: Because it IS. When you say “NO” to anything, Teresa, you are in a state of resistance, defiance, closed-ness. And in that state of closed-ness you cannot hear my promptings You will not be able to see, recognize or act within the larger divine plan that, yes, even the coronavirus is part of. You cannot cooperate with that divine plan and may actually, sabotage it. Not that you actually CAN
sabotage my plans – but you can have them take longer to come about. You can make them more difficult to be made manifest – in your own life and in the larger world in which you live.
Yes, I know it is hard to imagine that the coronavirus is part of a divine plan – and many people in your religious tradition will want to say that it is me punishing you. I am not punishing you. I do not punish you. Never. I love you. I teach you. I guide you. I let you experience the consequences of your individual and collective choices – but only with the purpose of you learning from them. And with
the learning, making better choices. And if that is accomplished, then you are aligning with my will and cooperating in the divine plan.
Especially when you can LOVE the learning even if you do not necessarily love the manner in which you had to learn it. If you can take the learning and love more.
That is my plan, Teresa. LOVE. It is that simple.
There's really nothing I can add to that, my friend... other than to know that I send you love and peace and the courage to say YES!
Be well! Please let me know how you're doing!!!