Have Faith in the Value of Life

The thing we have in common with everyone in the whole entire world (and, indeed, with every plant or animal) is life. Life binds us all, connects us all, strings us together no matter how different our forms and functions, no matter how varied our motives and methods. The value, the meaning of what we are is in the life we hold. The life goes, and the value goes with it. The meaning slips away. The identity fades into mist, dissolves. The connection disappears.

Arcana Celestia: 2 – 3

Emanuel Swedenborg

For whence comes [the Scripture’s] life except from those things that belong to life, that is to say, except from the fact that everything in it both in general and in particular bears reference to the Lord, who is the very Life itself; so that anything which does not inwardly regard Him is not alive; and it may be truly said that any expression in the Word that does not enfold Him within it, that is, which does not in its own way bear reference to Him, is not Divine.

Without such a Life, the Word as to the letter is dead. The case in this respect is the same as it is with man, who-as is known in the Christian world-is both internal and external. When separated from the internal man, the external man is the body, and is therefore dead; for it is the internal man that is alive and that causes the external man to be so, the internal man being the soul. So is it with the Word, which, in respect to the letter alone, is like the body without the soul.

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Life is what binds us together. It’s the interior gem, but we tend to look at the exterior, getting distracted by the wrappings outside instead of the true gift inside.

If what we see on the outside seems broken, or useless, or difficult to understand, we dismiss it.

We do this to ourselves and to each other. We see emotional issues, mental instability, physical flaws, quirks and personality differences, and focus there. We see insecurity, imperfection, mistakes, bad choices or simply different choices, and we assess value on those things.

How foolish.

Gitanjali: Thou Hast Made Me Endless

Rabindranath Tagore

Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure. This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life. This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales, and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new. At the immortal touch of thy hands my little heart loses its limits in joy and gives birth to utterance ineffable. Thy infinite gifts come to me only on these very small hands of mine. Ages pass, and still thou pourest, and still there is room to fill. [Source]

As if, in the seen and felt world, we could measure and accurately value life. As if, in our own limited experience and understanding, we could find a universal measure that would help us see what life is and what it means.

We have no such measure, and that’s where the faith comes in.

Faith in the value of life, what it is, no matter what it looks like. Faith that our own abilities to see, measure, comprehend, and assess might be flawed; are always flawed; and yet we are still, ourselves, as valuable as the others we would judge wrongly.

Faith in life, its worth and value beyond what we see of it with our senses, allows us to accept ourselves and others. We can see the flaws in the exterior, deal with them gently, knowing they do not change the worth of what is inside. And that is the only way to show love.

Beloved Friends

Juan San Emeterio

Dear friends, make proper use of your time; do not waste it miserably in pointless blame-casting and reproach… Be sure that if something arouses indignation in you, it is victimization… If something embarrasses you, it is your own weaknesses… If you have contempt for something, it is your own banality… If you despise something, it is your own aberrations… Do not be judges even of yourselves. Instead, be witnesses of yourselves, and governors of yourselves, and let compassion and love be your guides, and be sure that your words are always filled with consolation, hope, and guidance for others, never recrimination or condemnation… That is the way you should honor yourselves. [Source]

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