It is always in the little things we meet our folly and fall. Not in the so-called big events.
We seem, some of us, to be able to let go of those big emotional crimes against us. There is support and theories to help us do this. Yet let someone steal our parking place or beep us to move more quickly and are our egos once more banging the steering wheel in frustration, waving our hands in the air. Succumbing to the littleness that keeps us in chains.
So that is where peace is to be practised and Gods Learning for us to be found – in the little things; the spilt drink, the messy house, the noisy neighbour – here is our classroom.
Take these occurrences as opportunities and revere them as you would a well- respected Teacher – for it is better to learn the peace of God in the ordinary, the mundane than the heart-breaking and treacherous – in my experience.
And besides, do we not need to know ourselves in Him daily? This means hourly even minutely, therefore we need the chance to do this. Catastrophe, although an acutely effective teacher, does not occur all the time, even in the lives of those demanding it for personal change. So where else can He be remembered but in our here and now, in everything we do and everyone we meet. We must be able to recall who we are and Whom we seek in the most commonplace and seemingly trivial of circumstances. The caterpillar does not explode into a butterfly.
There is no ‘one-great-lesson’ which will return all of our thinking to Christ, although all and anything could do so, it is usually a seemingly slow progression back to the light retaining more and more truth in our fragmented mind. And as we have time at our disposal – use it for the sole purpose of reclaiming the memory of the Christ within. Again, nothing special is needed to do this.
Do not wait, expecting some great teacher to appear and directly coach you how to be one who remembers Christ, nor wait for that one miraculous experience which will set all errors of your darkened mind alight, for they will not come.
Wait for no-one, nothing, as it is you who has to make this return trip, internally, privately. But not unsupported.
Take your daily life and dedicate it learning about the Truth of which Christ taught, the truth in you. God’s love and Christ’s peace.
Your life, as it stands now, is not only enough – it is perfect for this learning. You need nothing more than what you have. All can be obtained from exactly where you find yourself. There is no need of special circumstance – nor will they come.
You may seek them out but ultimately, they cannot be used by Him for your learning whilst ever you continue to try and control your path.
Letting go of control takes time and practice – and humility.
Service workers want for nothing, they know, can sense it, feel it, that all they need will be supplied both spiritually and materially. In truth, we have it all already, and awareness of its presence is what time is for, nothing more.
Step into the safety of this sanctuary, walk with it as your backdrop and begin to waken to all those learning opportunities.
They are present every time a small detail goes ‘wrong’, a mood crosses you, a brother slights you…minuscule disturbances, but capable of robbing you, stealing your sight, focusing it back on that manifestation of the mind made flesh.
We hold our own freedom, the body just a thought container.
If you are fortunate enough to already be physically free – free of pain, free of struggle, free in location – then act it!
If your daily and ongoing material circumstances allow you to breathe and move without pain or hindrance, have safety where you live, both in country and house, have food, clothes, warmth – You have it all. All that is needed.
It could even be said that you hold a position of privilege.
Let us then be daily thankful for where we find ourselves, making our first act of gratitude demonstrable in our own daily interactions with the life we have before us.
Challenge your ego’s repeated patterns of ungratefulness, complacency, deservedness, impatience, irritability, self-pity – do not allow yourself to indulge a teacher whose only desire is its own self-fulfilment and your enslavement.
Demonstrate your freedom in Christ.
The freedom, He as Jesus, came to teach us of. It is a gift to have to sight to behold His vision. Do not waste it.
Fly high with the birds at every opportunity
Where else will we be closest to His Rays
In the details of our day let us find the courage
To listen and learn of His way
Leading us back home, we have come far
Yet given us, it is, to follow that Star
Amen.
