Clothe Yourselves in Heartfelt Mercy
Jenn asked me to speak at evening prayer, so this is what I said tonight. The reading I chose was from colossians 3:5-17.
“Free thyself from the past, free thyself from the future, free thyself from the present. Crossing to the farther shore of existence, with mind released everywhere, no more shalt thou come to birth and decay.”
–The Dhammapada
Last week, Matt talked to us about the importance of taking time for ourselves. Time to pray, time to reflect, time to relax. It’s true that such time is vitally important when in reality, there is so much to distract us from peace, from things worthwhile, from the lives we should be living. So much that distracts us from our faith, spirituality, prayer, a clear mind and an opened heart—from God. But there’s no denying it. Life is hard, and full of distractions. Some of which are things that make us angry, things that make us hurt and confused. Things that make us feel victimized and cheated. Things that happen to us for which we feel completely powerless. That make us want to scream out at the tops of our voices “This is not fair!”
It is also easy to be distracted by things that are much more within our control. Our mistakes and shortcomings, the things we have done and the things we have not. I know I spend a great deal of time in reflection on who I am, and who I want to be. What things I have done to become the person I am. While I can see what good I do in the world, it can be so easy at times to become frustrated and hopeless when I see myself repeating the same mistakes, time and time again. I can get wrapped up in feeling like there is nothing that will change my flaws, and change my heart.
But this, is the easy way to live. It’s so terribly simple to allow oneself to be lost in that heartache, sorrow, emptiness, and frustration. Forgetting all that we have because of what we believe we’ve lost or where we’ve fallen short; making our pain into everything. We can create a cloud around ourselves of impenetrable self-pity, however invisible it may be to the outside world.
God asks us for something else. God does not ask us to ignore those things, nor to make light of them. It’s good to recognize them. It’s ok to have pain. It’s ok to have frustration. That’s life. But God asks us to learn from it, and let go. In his book entitled The Genese Diary, a theologian by the name of Henri Nouwen says, “The spiritual life does not consist of any special thoughts, ideas or feelings, but is contained in the most simple ordinary experiences of everyday living. …Little things can quickly change sadness into joy, disgust into contentment, and anger into understanding or compassion.” We must acknowledge our humanness and embrace our struggle to become, and we must not stop there. We must use life as an opportunity to become something new; to become that image of God that we were first made in. GOD gives us the strength within to be in control of our lives, even when things happen to us that are out of our control. God is our strength, God is our refuge.
To dwell in a black rain cloud or a pit of despair is to waste time, and prevent ourselves from doing God’s work. God wants us to become completely and utterly ourselves; and be in love with that feeling. To learn that we are good, we are beautiful, we are loved; we are God’s children. And that we are so capable of creating goodness, beauty, and love in everything that we do. To learn that we are imperfect, but growing. How do we do this? We must learn that God is with us and that we can discover God in everything we do.
God asks us to open our hearts. To seek God. To listen when God speaks. We are asked to find the Holy spirit in our friends, family, acquaintances, in strangers and in ourselves. We are asked to have faith; to let God take the wheel when we feel we are losing control. To get past our mistakes we’ve made, and the grief we suffer. Take less time in analysis, more time in prayer. To take advantage of that gift of free will, and improve ourselves, one
day at a time.
“By degrees, little by little, from moment to moment, a wise man removes his own impurities.”
–The Dhammapada