Mar 15, 2015

Pondering’s

 

Step 9. Commit to a life of healing and transformation. Through my thoughts, words, and actions I will demonstrate Who I Really Am in Truth.

 

Once we have surrendered our thoughts and actions to the God of our understanding, we have to start to live out our life in a new way. This can have profound implications in the way we treat ourselves, family, friends and acquaintances. This step is a change in lifestyle, wherein we begin to act as one who has the Abundance of God already in their being, where we can portray ourselves as a person in love with Life and Love Itself.

 

 

This step, like all the others, is one that takes a lifetime of application, until it becomes second nature, one that is part of our very existence. We really can change the way we treat all around us, as we discover that we truly are one being, each of us displaying a different facet of our God. Our life will be different when we connect with the Life of Abundance, and the Life of Abundance is ours for the asking – truly, all we must do is ask, and follow our heart when we ask, so that these steps become a part of who we are in this life – and they will be a part of Who We Are in the next life. In this step, we begin to demonstrate Who We Are, in our inner being as well as the way we act with others.

 

Treating Ourselves

 

For some of us, this step will be simple, and just requires a different slant to what we are already doing. Those of us whose heart was already in the part of healing and transformation, this step is simple. But even here, where our heart is one of giving, we have to look carefully at Who We Are, and the way we present ourselves in the life of other people. Among the most difficult traits that some of us have is that trait of giving of ourselves to others to the point wherein we effectively cease to exist. All we think about is pleasing others, and that is not Who We Are. That kind of doormat, for that is what this person has become, is a ‘people pleaser’, whose very being is submerged in a world of fear and self-hatred. Yes, self-hatred. Do we not believe that we have nothing of worth to offer? Do we not believe that our opinions have no merit?

 

This is not the Creation of God we were meant to be. When we start to transform ourselves into a Creation that expresses the Life of Abundance, we must realize that God created this wonderful Being that is Who We Are. We are Created in the Image and Likeness of God, a Being like God, a being that has an eternal soul whose likeness is God, and a being that is capable of arranging our life to be one of Joy and Love, one with our Creator and Lover. This is our created being, the essence of who we are. Who are we to deny what God has created?

 

Then we have those who are at the opposite end of the scale, the know-it-all, and the ones whose bluster and demands dominate a group and cause endless problems among their friends. There are many variations of this, to the overly-talkative person to the ones who brook no challenge to their entrenched way of thinking. These include the one who dominates the conversation, who do not permit another to speak their opinion, whose word is the last to be heard and will not tolerate another’s thoughts. If your life tends in this direction, then we have to learn to listen, treat another’s thoughts as a thought of our own, a thought coming from a Creation of God, one whose thoughts contain within them a message from God that we need to hear, no matte how different or oblivious they seem to be.

 

No matter where we find ourselves in the scheme of things as they are in this moment, we have to listen to our soul’s desires and place a value on them. We have to see if our present thinking is so desirable that we are willing to live on as our present life is leading us.

 

Most of the time, those who seek to find a Life of Abundance that have come this far in the seeking of such a life are like the vast majority of us, those whose life is somewhat chaotic, usually more than normal at this point in time, that drives one to seek help, and are looking for answers that will help resolve the future. The search is for a balanced future, where fears, worries, and concerns can be alleviated with a hope for the future.

 

In other words, A Life of Abundance.

 

What we Seek we must Give

 

This step presents the great discovery: What we seek is what we must give away. If we seek a life of healing and transformation, we have to give others healing and transformation. If we seek a Life of Abundance, we must seek to give others Abundance in their lives, to ease pain where we find it, and to cause healing in others where we need healing in ourselves. To give to others is to receive the same. This is the great conundrum of the spiritual life. Only be giving to others what we seek will we discover that we already have what we seek.

 

And Luke summed it up in these words by Jesus: “Give and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure – pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standards of measure it will be measured to you in return.” Luke 6:38.

 

Jesus summed up clearly what we must do to live a Life of Abundance: Give, and give freely to all that seek. This is the life of Healing and Transformation that we have described in Step 9. When we seek to give to others, and others will be in our lives just for this purpose, we will discover that when we give to others we will have more to ourselves than before. God has promised this, and God is always True to the Promises made.

 

‘Conversation with God’ puts it this way, in a direct message from God: “Instead of searching for someone to love, be someone who could be loved. Send what you wish to receive. Be what you wish to experience. This is the greatest secret in all of life.

Be what you are looking for, and what you are looking for will find you.”

 

Deepak Chopra said, when tweeted with the question “How do I find the right one?” replied “Stop looking for the right one, be the right one.”

 

Is this not what Jesus said in Luke, quoted above? We will receive all we asked for, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, for what we offer others is what we will receive.

 

Made in the Image of God

 

Once more we will look at this phrase, which has been called the most quoted phrase in the bible. But what has been missing is the meaning of that phrase, from looking at the nature of God. The one feature of God that is most clear is that God is first and foremost a Creator, a Being of Love in the most profound way, creating and recreating constantly the universe(s) and all that exists as an act of Love. God’s Love requires fresh creation, always a life of vibrant love, as intense and more so, as that first blush of infatuation that occurs when two soul-mates first meet. Where so we think that the heady sensation comes from? This impact between two souls only faintly mirrors the intensity of Love that God radiates for all eternity. We are bathed in, and immersed in, as well as being part of the Love of God at all times. There is never any moment when God’s Love is not Who We Are, as we are a part, an individualized part, of that Love, brought here under the illusion of being separate, so that we may discover that heady sensation of being Love from a fresh perspective, as if for the first time.

 

Who We Really Are

 

Now it is time to become truly aware of Who We Really Are. We are not that fearful coward, afraid to look at our life, that being battered by the fates, and yes, all of us feel like that during our life at one time or another, and usually most of the time, even when our outer exterior is the brave front and the outspoken individual. Inside, we all recognize in those moments when all that surround ourselves with is silent, that we are afraid, feel alone no matter how many are around us, no matter how close we attempt to get to another, we are still the isolated individual who nobody knows, with all of our dark secrets locked up inside us to cause us pain and shame.

 

These steps are designed to help us release those secrets in Steps 4 and 5, and give them to God in Step 6, and to accept our Shadow as a critical part of our Being in Steps, 7 and 8. But here, in step 9, we are asked to discover the wonder of our created being that we truly are. It this step that starts us on the path to the Wonder Child that we were created to be, and are by our very nature as a Child of God.

 

The Wonder Child

 

Yes, truly, you are a Wonder Child; capable of creating a world around you that is a paradise on earth. You see, the gates to Paradise were never closed; just our eyes were blinded from seeing Paradise all around us. For what made Paradise? It was not the description made on physical terms of great weather, balmy trees with food everlasting, and the freedom to walk around naked. No, that was all exterior trappings used to describe the incredible reality of the Truth: one could see God Face to Face. Now was the ‘seeing’ a physical reality? In no way, for God can not be described in any one physical manner. Open your eyes, and look around you. Everything that you see, both with your physical eyes and your interior feelings, is God. God can be seen face to face by looking into the eyes of another human. Look into the eyes of a child, look at the sunset, look at the hills, look at a flower, look at the next house – you are looking at God, if you have eyes to see!

 

God is the All in All, the Alpha and the Omega (The Beginning and the End), there is nothing that is not God, for if there is anything that is not God, then God would not be the All in All, just another being, large it is true, but only God is the All in All, with no needs and no demands, for God IS the All in All.

 

God is your neighbor; God is the drunk in the gutter. Jesus put it clearly: ” And God said ‘What ever you did to the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to Me’.” (Matt 25:40) Jesus tried as best as he could to tell us that God is all that there is, but his vocabulary and the ability of his listeners to understand was limited. We will never know all the wonderful things Jesus did say, for his words were not written down for over 30 years.

 

So we do have the ability of live in paradise, and see God face to face. That is the Life of Abundance I have been talking about all this time. This is the life we can achieve by claiming Who We Really Are; back from that blind and self-centered being we were at the start. And yes, we all have more room to grow, for few of us are Masters as was Jesus and the Buddha.

 

This path is meant for all of humanity, but we are to go on this path according to the talents and the journey that we were created to be.

 

This is Who We Really Are.

 

Step 9. Commit to a life of healing and transformation. Through my thoughts, words, and actions I will demonstrate Who I Really Am in Truth.

 

Meditation

 

Our Eternal Wisdom, take us by the hand and guide us gently into the awareness of Who We Truly Are. We understand we are a part of Your Being, open our hearts that we may know that we are Your child, a part of Your DNA, a vital part unlike any other creation in this universe or any other universe. We bow our head for this opportunity for our soul to sing Your Song, that we are sustained by Your Love, as it says in A Course In Miracles. We ask your guidance as we feel our way into this world so that we may express ourselves more and more as a guiding light to follow Your Star into paradise here on earth.