Jan 04, 2015

I hope all have had a blessed and holy Holiday. I took a short vacation with family, and had a wonderful time. Happy New Year!

 

Pondering’s

 

Today we will continue to examine the potential thought that, indeed, just maybe, somehow, the statement “Nothing is impossible” could possibly be something that is real. We understand that mathematicians and quantum theoreticians state that in theory that nothing is impossible, but to be practical, “everybody” agrees, we can expect things to follow their “natural course” and each step plods along as expected.

 

Except when it does not.

 

 

The renowned physicist Steven Hawkins was diagnosed at age 22 with Lou Gehrig’s disease, or ALS, and given two years to live. He is now in his 70’s, quite immobilized, but still able to think and come up with ideas on the genius level, on how the universe came into existence following the laws that control the movements of the universe. He treats his illness as a part of life, and uses the time it takes just to move to continue to think with his intense focus on his work. He is able to concentrate on things other than his illness and the problems that the illness has caused in his life, to the point where he appears to be able to control the progress of the disease just through his will and focus on other things.

 

Will. Focus. Faith. All of these items really result from a “singleness of purpose”. That is, down in the deepest part of our being, we learn to come to understand that nothing has to be what it appears to be at the moment, and we can shift our direction to accomplish something new, something that we dared only dream about in the past.

 

Jesus called it “Faith of a mustard seed“.

 

But the faith Jesus talked about can only be faith: it has no sizes, so “the faith of a mustard seed” is the “faith of an oak tree“: mighty and strong, able to withstand any buffet from time or events.

 

Faith then becomes something new: it is knowledge, the same knowledge Jesus showed when he cured someone, or even raised them from the dead.

 

Jesus put it this way: “Your Father knows what you need before you ask.” Matt 6:8. Or “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matt 7:7, Luke 11:9.

 

So we are dealing with the creation of our universe, the ability to create black holes, stars, galaxies, — and even dreams. Yes, dreams — yes, and even your most precious dreams.

 

And so Jesus really understood what “faith” is all about. It is not hoping, it is knowing that it is! It is not desperate wanting, it is moving to the point where these various phrases from Jesus become a foundation in our life and we build all we have around them, even when all evidence shows otherwise.

 

Especially when all evidence shows otherwise.

 

But how do we arrive at the point where we can actually live the life Jesus promised? The change in direction of the discussion starting below may seem to be in contradiction to all I have been saying, but it forms the basis of arriving, at the soul level, to the point that we can actually become that “Person of the faith of a mustard seed” that Jesus talked about.

 

Alcoholics Anonymous, the famous 12 step program, is based up this very premise.

 

Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.

Step 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

 

Those in physical addictions have had their body betray them, and find themselves in a mode of life of slavery, slavery to a substance (alcohol, drugs) or action (gambling, sex) that is slowly killing them, and they find themselves unable to function. These steps of AA, and the remaining nine form a means to move the body and its needs out of the way to let in the soul to begin a healing process of the body and mind. If one is in the midst of addictive behavior, I highly recommend the original 12 step program, including meetings, fellow travelers, and all 12 steps as originally stated. Only when the body has been healed can we move to the shift I am talking to gain the abundant life.

 

These first three steps form the basis of the core steps of Faith that we have been talking about. The remaining nine steps outline the methodology of the 12 step program. We may venture into them eventually, but not at this point. Right now I am talking about the type of Faith needed to achieve the point of total direction of our lives, the achievement of Abundance, irrespective of the outward symbols of our lives.

 

Look at these three steps: step 1 says we have a problem, and our life is out of control. For the alcoholic it is alcohol, but for you and me? We all have problems that haunt us, that give us grief at times. For some, it is habits or actions that have caused them deep trouble in their lives. It is easy to take these 12 steps, adjust them a bit to fit our circumstances, and use them as a means to create a better life, and start a life of faith and joy that beings internal peace and happiness. Many have done this, and I have used the 12 step approach to shift my life in new directions when habits were threatening me with disastrous actions with wonderful results,

 

For others, it is actions that have happened to them and not by them. Here we see illness, desertion of a spouse, abuse, physical, verbal, or mental; loss of a job, any of these events that have overwhelmed us at moments and we do not see a way our of the morass that seems to be digging deeper and deeper. This latter arrangement is harder to equate to the 12 step program, but the keys lie in looking at these first three steps and seeing their insights and shift that is required to face any problem that life throws at us

 

I believe it is easy to see where certain events in our life leave us powerless in the results. A spouse has died; how do I handle that? Or a child has died, or became incapacitated, or is seriously ill, how do I handle that? A spouse has been cheating and the marriage is doomed, how do I handle that? I have been abused, either physically or mentally, how do I handle that? I have a life-threatening illness; I am becoming weak and aging, how do I handle that? My children are reactIng to any of the above situations or their like, how do I handle that? I seem to be caught in the hands of fate, with little or no control over my life, how do I handle that?

 

I will be adjusting these steps to take into account the means to adjust to these situations and to find abundance, a life of joy and happiness, as we work through these problems, using the power of our own creation to lift ourselves to the joy of the eternal One.

 

1) We admit to ourselves, we are seemingly powerless over —-.

 

  <em>Put your pain in this place. See yourself in this powerless point. Admit it. Do not let this go. This is the         crucial point to moving to Faith beyond that of a mustard seed. Admission that I, you, can not do this alone is the most critical point required to achieve the Faith that can move mountains. Yes it is possible, but first we have to see we, in our ego state, can not do this on our own, for we have seen ourselves from the ego center.</em>

 

2) Came to believe that a power greater than my ego could restore us to sanity.

    <em>Now comes the critical point. Do you believe that a Power greater than our egoic center can help us get to that point? Can you, I, admit that we can not do it in our separated space? Only the power of God, the Eternal One, combined with our joining with that Power, has the ability to change the "logical" outcome. We and God are one, for we are an Individualization of the Eternal Power, the Creator of the Universe, and therefore the Power, the Power that  Jesus said was ours to take </em><em>(Greater things than this shall you do). What more do we want to hear? God had told us in many ways that the power to change all is ours for the taking. </em>

 

3) Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.

 

  <em>Now comes the hard part: to surrender ourselves into that power that surround us, fills us, is our internal vital core. Dare we "Let go and let God?" The Power of God Itself, that force that created our vast universe, is ours for the taking. Do we dare? Can we just turn our will over to that Power and let that Power become ours? The Eternal Power of the Eternal Creator is ours for the asking, but we have to ask. We have to let ourselves fall into that power, no holding back, just to let go, let go, let go. Let God. Jesus called this faith, even "<u>The faith of a mustard seed</u>."</em>

 

The steps and processes that we will be talking about in the future will be based on our willingness to part with our egoic self, the pride center, the part of me that says “I can do it myself”, that demands a separated self to say they need nothing else to survive. In reality, we need the universe, and in truth, it is ours for the taking.

 

But only if we let go of the results.

 

Only if we relax into the love of God that forms our very being, our source, our core, the substance of our life, our being.

 

This is who we are. This is our substance, what we can call for. This is the Faith that Jesus called us into, ours for the asking.

 

We will look into each of these steps in more detail.

 

Meditation

 

Our Eternal Wisdom, our Guiding Light, the Creator and Being of the universe, we bow to the inevitable presence that You being into our life. We place ourselves at Your Center, the indwelling Force that creates our spirit, our very being, our conscious awareness that life exists in and around and through us. We hold ourselves open to become aware of your Spirit, to see that Your Love fills all that we see and are aware of. We lift our voice in gratitude for the certainty that life is eternal, that we have a purpose beyond what we see, and that joy and internal peace are our birthright. We acknowledge that we hold the keys to understand how to tap into that flow of energy, that the life filled with abundance is waiting for us to grasp it. Give us the patience to accept Your words of guidance that you offer us on this path.