SAYING 58: Jesus said, “Blessed is the person who has labored and found life.”
This saying is brief, but profound. As a beatitude, it carries no deep, layered nuance or metaphor but simply observes that those who work and labor to find life will be blessed. But, this also suggests that finding life isn’t easy, nor is it obvious. It must be sought after, searched for, and worked out by each of us.
This is not to suggest that the secret to life is external to us. That might be the hardest thing for those of us who have been born into the illusion of separation most struggle to untangle ourselves from: the idea that life, and truth, and meaning and purpose are somehow outside of us.
When Jesus says, “The Kingdom of God is within you,” it is our first clue that what we are yearning for and searching for is not “out there” somewhere, as if it was in the sky, or across the ocean, or hidden in some book, or spoke by some spiritual guru that we must find in our quest for truth.
No, Jesus says quite emphatically that the Kingdom of God – the place where God dwells forever – is within you. That means the truth, the way, the life, the purpose and the meaning you are looking for is already inside of you.
Our search, then, begins by being still; by listening and waiting and becoming aware of the reality that God is with us, and always has been, and will never leave us or forsake us, and that nothing in heaven or on earth – not even death itself – could ever separate us from the love and presence of God.
So, our “labor” is not about going on a sabbatical, or walking along a road as if on a pilgrimage towards enlightenment. Our only labor is to simply stop and recognize the breath of God in our own lungs, and the presence of God in our deepest depths of being.
The hard work we must do is simply this: to open our eyes and see the World – the entire Universe – as it truly is; one with God who makes us all One.
Once we do this labor, we not only find life, we discover that life is rest, and knowing God is being still, and experiencing God is found in silence, and hearing God is found in listening.
This is our only labor. This is our deepest rest.
**
My new book, SOLA DEUS: What If God Is All Of Us? is available now from Quoir Publishing on Amazon now.
Keith Giles is the best-selling author of the Jesus Un series. He has appeared on CNN, USA Today, BuzzFeed, and John Fugelsang’s “Tell Me Everything.” His latest book, SOLA MYSTERIUM: Celebrating the Beautiful Uncertainty of Everything is available now on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In