Remembering God
A child is born into an alien world. He has just come, that is, his soul has just come from Eden, from a state of oneness with God. And here, s/he finds him or herself in a body, in a world where God is not so present, so visible. And so the babe, as s/he grows up in this world, forgets his origins, her home, as s/he is converted to the world’s ways. The child’s true nature, his oneness with God, is forgotten as he is introduced to and comes to be at home in this world.
His or her soul still remembers where its true home is, but the personality which has been formed in the ways of the world, has never experienced it. And so the person lives in the world, until such a time as his or her soul’s voice comes to be heard and no longer ignored even in the clamor of the world’s ways. Just because a child is brought up in the religion doesn’t mean that he or she will hear the soul’s call or heed it for that matter.
Maybe the personality finally gets tired of trying to conform to the world, or maybe something really difficult happens that awakens a person to other possibilities, to a new consciousness. It is often in suffering that the call of the soul is heard. The soul calls, the soul that is the voice of the Lord within, the Indwelling Spirit of God, and we might respond. The call of Eden is still within us although much muted.
And that is how we become slaves to the world. Totally immersed in, totally converted to the world’s ways, we no longer have any ties to God. Even if we are Christian, that doesn’t mean that we are hearing the Spirit’s call, the “still, small voice” of God, much less following it. I suppose that there are a lot of different ways and reasons for us finally paying attention to the call of our deeper, truer self. One reason is that we see that all we’ve been taught in the world has not brought us peace or happiness.
The soul’s, the Indwelling Spirit’s, call is always for us to return to the arms of God, to live as we were created to be, to live in the kingdom here on earth and finally to return to Eden as we make the passage into the next world.
Many never hear or respond to God’s call, but for those who do there is a whole new world awaiting them here on earth that will point them to that truer self, which was once connected totally to God. And as the far distant memory becomes activated by paying attention to the soul, we find ourselves on new ground, experiencing life in a richer, fuller way. We “re-member,” put back together, our connectedness to God and acknowledge our deep longing to return to that ideal state.
Paradoxically, to live in God’s arms is to gain freedom, the freedom to be who we were created to be. To leave slavery to the world is a jolting journey of detaching from our dependence on the world’s ways. It is a journey to wholeness where we embrace the whole self, the human, conditioned-by-the-world self and the deeper, truer self, the soul, and bring them all before God.
If we listen to the call of our deeper self, of God himself, and heed what he is asking of us, we will find ourselves on a journey, an adventure back to who we were created to be, so that on God’s behalf we might express our gifts and talents, plus what we have learned from living in the world. Then, along with love and joy and peace and patience and all the fruit of the Spirit, we will be demonstrating with our lives just what living in the kingdom looks like. In that way we each become a beacon of the light of God shining in the darkness of the world’s ways.
The memory remains, the capacity remains to be at one with God. The longing for that state of being rests deep within us all our lifetime. It lies as potential within us. All it takes is for us to admit that we are longing for something we haven’t found in the world, that there is something deeper, truer, more connected that stirs faintly within us. This memory, this soul’s longing calls to us for fulfillment all our lives long, hoping that we, our personalities, will hear the call and answer “Yes!”
All we have to do is to admit the longing into our consciousness and follow that “still, small voice” of I Kings 19 to where it would lead us. Along the way we make sure to lift every obstacle to finding our way back to the Source of all our longing into the hands of God so that he will transform those obstacles into a sure path. All we have to do is to keep our eyes on the prize, the Source of all life and our longing will do the rest. God will respond to our longing and bring us home. That is, he will transform us so that we can rest in his arms, live in his kingdom, and express naturally all the fruit of the Spirit: love, peace, joy, patience, goodness, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness and self-control.
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Questions to ponder over the week: Have I discovered the longing within me to return to the Source of all life? Have I admitted that longing into my conscious choices about where I want to go/what I want to do with my life? Have I acknowledged my soul’s desire to return to God? Have I given it free rein? Have I admitted all this to God?
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Blessing for the week: May we be the people of God who hear God’s call to us to return to him. May we bring that longing to consciousness and allow God to lead us where he will. May we organize our lives around the longing for union with God.
News from By the Waters:
All five of the videos about the Exodus story are up on YouTube. Here are the url’s to access them:
Part I: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKfouN0PNH0
Part II: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyvRsnqYrdg
Part IIIa: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZU32Y09UN8
Part IIIb: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHqKay89kjE
Part IV: www.youtube.com/watch?v=84z7KF_uv7Q
My book, “Thy Kingdom Come!”, is up on Amazon in both paperback and kindle versions. Look under Patricia Said Adams.
This week I am asking again a question about your experiences of the Exodus story. Have you had any experiences of union with God or of being in the kingdom of God or of crossing the River Jordan like the Israelites did. It could be a dream or a momentary experience or ??????? I’d love to read your experience. Thank you so much, Pat