Feb 17, 2019

The Kingdom of God (8)

“Truly I tell you,” He said,

“Unless you change and become

Like little children, you will

Never enter the kingdom of heaven”.

                  Matthew 18:3

“The kingdom of heaven

Lies within.”

                Luke 17:21

So, what makes the type of meditation I have been talking about different than the standard meditation that is presently in vogue? I am talking about contemplative mediation, that is, moving oneself into a connection with the inner core or God as more commonly noted. These two sayings by Jesus point to a different direction than normally thought of: placing oneself into the kingdom of heaven, now, in this world, with all its imperfections, pain, and fear. Heaven is not some far out place that is awaiting us, hopefully, after we pass from this world. No, heaven lies right here, right now, if we but have eyes to see.

The way to see heaven is to become like a little child, as Jesus says. Now “becoming like a child” does not mean abandoning the ways we need to have to earn a living, but it does mean that we must leave the fearful path that we all tread in life: everything depends only on me, and the world is out to ‘get me’, unless I thrust myself into the face of the world, grit my teeth, and plow forward. The path that Jesus is talking about is the path of a child: to have trust; and in this case, to have total trust in the love of God, at all times and under all circumstances.

Ah, there is that world again: Trust! Yeah, yeah, I trust God, but I fear the world. After all, God is our there somewhere, but I live here, in this lousy world that is full of all kinds of bad things. Everything is out to get me, unless I blast through all that seem to be opposing me. There is nothing that any God, no matter how powerful, can do change the world for little me. Poor me!!!

Thus, goes the inner swirl in our minds; maybe not quite so blatant, but the gist of that thought fills our minds and hearts with fear all the time. Sure, we trust God, but only after this life when we get to the next. But trust God now? You mean NOW?? After all, God is somewhere out there, invisible and beyond anything that I can touch!

But Jesus came to tell us differently. He understood that God loves us, truly loves us to the point that God is love itself, that flowing of joy and being that we call life, life now and forever.

But NOW, not tomorrow or next year – for God is only in the now, this very now, that makes our moment to moment existence. God is not in the future, nor is God in the past, but only now. This very moment. Unless we learn to trust God now, right now, how will we trust God sometime in the future, when the future does not exist, but only NOW exists?

And the crazy thing is, if we can trust God now, we will enter the Kingdom of God, or heaven, now. We enter the kingdom of God this very moment when we truly trust God, like a little child trusts its parents to do the best for them.

A child, if given the love that calls out to its parents, trusts that all will be well, even when scary things occur, like thunder and lightning that brings the little one crawling into the parents bed in the night.

Indeed, the kingdom of God is now, not off in the future. It is now that we need to trust God to only do the best for us, even when that “best” is scary and painful. God loves us with such a love that nothing, and truly nothing, can separate us from the love of God under all circumstances, no matter what we say or do. And if we only learn to truly trust in that love, we will experience the joy of the presence of God in our life, no matter what is going on.

We will continue this thought next time.

Meditation

My God, my daily sustenance; I place my trust in Your Love in all my life. You sustain me every day, and hold me gently in Your Love at all times, if I am aware of it or not, just as we love our children and hold them in our hearts under all circumstances. Grant me the courage to love and trust in Your goodness under all circumstances. Give me the courage to trust Your love, no matter how challenging things seem to be. I trust You, my God, my eternal Lover, my very Being, now and forever.