Freckles And Waking Up Part 2

continued…

I spoke yesterday of Truth, that Truth has no opposite. There is a wonderful song from years past that says, “waking up is hard to do”.  Why? Why are we so frightened to sit in stillness? Jesus said, “Take no thought for your life.” He does not suggest to take this thought and leave this one, or focus on this or that, he explains, “Take no thought for your life.” None.

Doesn’t that scare you? He later compares the Father to nature, by suggesting the tree’s are taken care of, that we are taken of, so don’t even think about what to wear. Does this scare you?  This is profound, because to me it is rebellious. The world out there is telling me that my thoughts matter, and so I identify with the thoughts in my head, good or bad  and then world suggests that I can change them. But we can’t simply change thoughts that continue to flow. Jesus is saying, no don’t follow the world view, you are whole already, words can’t explain you, can’t explain what is actually happening, so trust here and now.

Does this scare you? This is faith. Giving everything you think you know away. Admitting you don’t know who you are really. Because if we did, we would stop identifying with the thoughts, and turn our soul focus on God. We would shut up. Jesus is telling us in a loving way, be quiet and listen, in fact to a certain degree is letting us know we have no trust in God. Do we have free will? Yes we have the choice to listen in stillness, or not. This is why love is freeing. That we are loved so much that we have choice. But fear tries its hardest to make us think, and thinking we do. That is why St. Ignacius is the Jesuit who discerned God in everything.  So in not taking thought as our life, we leave the judge, jury, and critic in the mind, because we see that it is not the truth of us, and we enter discernment. In discernment we are called to listen closely, and discern love only. Someone degrades us, puts us down, calls us names, rubs our face in our life like owners do with dogs when they show them to not poop, and all the rest of it, we are called to discern this and respond. Every experience presents us with a call to listen and love.

But we don’t, we talk to much, refuse to listen, and judge. I love the story of the adulterer, the town wants to stone her to death, because she broke man’s law,  and so they try to trick Jesus by giving him a problem, “Lord this woman has committed adultery, she must die, that is the rule.” They give him the stone because their attention is on world justice, not the justice of God. Jesus has already told us that, “God is love.” So Jesus doesn’t want anything to do with them, but they continue. So he gets up, a little bent out of shape by the ignorance of man, and says, “if you have not sinned, throw the first stone.”

That is a rebel, a revolutionary, a lover, full attention on the Truth. No opposition. No argument. That is waking up. Love in action. Most people are caught in being positive but their inner life is negative.

Does waking up scare you? Good. It scares us all. But this is the place we are called to go. To live. Love doesn’t cater to people’s nonsense, nor is it a door mat, I have learned this lesson many times. We all must. Love doesn’t  control, judge, condemn worry, torment, murder, etc…. So yes living love is rebellious, revolutionary, and out of the box of comfort.

A man during the civil rights march spit on Martin Luther King, he simply took out his handkerchief and wiped the spit off, turned to the gentleman and said, “Sir I believe this belongs to you.” That is love, that is rebellion. Jesus is asking us to rebel, go within, start a revolution, and rise up. Being present is not cowardly, not being present is.

Part 3 tomorrow