"It comes like a gentle dew" (Isaiah 45:8). Grace comes when you stop being preoccupied and stop thinking that by your own meddling, managing and manufacturing you can create it.
We're trained to be managers, to organize life, to make things happen. That's what's built our culture, and it's not all bad. But if you transfer that to the spiritual life, it's pure heresy. It doesn't work. You can't manage and maneuver and manipulate spiritual energy. It's a matter of letting go. It's a matter of getting the self out of the way, and becoming smaller, as John the Baptist said. It's a matter of the great kenosis, as Paul talks about in Philippians 2:6-11, the emptying of the self so that there's room for another.
It's very hard for us not to fix and manage life and to wait upon it, "like a gentle dew."
These last 2 days have had messages that really speak to me as I trust the Universe in providing what I really need, try to focus on each day as a new beginning and enjoy the gifts, and, more concretely, trust that the decision to leave a job that was not good for me will lead me in the right direction to work that fulfills and also pays!! It's managing the balance between these deep spritual truths and daily living in gratitude with our pretty crazy culture and need to function somewhere in it! It's very tempting to be a Thoreau and go out into the woods! I sometimes feel I don't "fit" into the program for "normal" living but am ok with that to a point!! Doesn't always pay the bills!! Not to complain...I am making efforts and promising not to lose sight of what really is important. Thanks for these inspiring reminders.
Yes, it is very, very hard.
Amen to that.
Fr. Rohr has truly hit upon the 'crux of the Rose's matter' of yesterday's posting! If we would really and truly grasp and exercise this 'way of Living' how much more we would 'blossom like the rose' and how many other Roses (Lives) would also remain 'intact' - unimpaired to wait upon God's Grace "like a gentle dew".
This is not to infer being Slothfull or Passive in the Way and Manner of the Holy Spirit!
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