Allowing

We can suffer peacefully if we practice the art of allowing. Most of us think that suffering is something that has come to us because of our sin, or our faithlessness. In today’s western Christian thought there are many us of that have been trained to think of suffering as a weakness, a sign of a lack of faith, and as an attack from Satan. I know most of our reactions at this moment are, “excuse me?” We do not think that the words suffering and peacefully should even be in the same sentence, let alone that one can lead to the other.
In his book LET GO Fenelon writes, “When we are careful to let go of all needless worries and restless thoughts… then we shall find ourselves on plateaus of peace.” How hard is that to do today? How many of us are ready to let go of needless worries? How many of us even see our worries as needless? I would guess that few of us see the things that we worry about as needless. No, we have the tendency to hold on to them with all our might, think of every angle of a problem, spend sleepless nights thinking about our worries, talk about our worries to others any chance we get, and beg God to solve them for us. So then, we live with the idea that peace only lives outside of ourselves and can only be found in someone rescuing us from our suffering or worry. We forget that the answer lies within our minds and our thoughts.
Fenelon defines what he means by “restless thoughts” and “needless worries” as “self-centered thoughts, rather than loving, outgoing ones (thoughts).” When we are caught up with our own worries we are being self absorbed and lose sight of what actually controls our lives. If you really think about it, worries are needless. Jesus said himself that worry is a wasteful activity. In Matthew 6:25-34 Jesus tells us that no one can add anything to their life by worry. Jesus encourages us to allow God to care for us. I love the Message version that says in verse twenty six that the birds are “careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.” I like to think of it this way. I do not need to worry about the things I can’t control because I cannot control them. I also do not need to worry about the things I can control because I can do something about them. In this thought, I have just taken away everything there is to worry about! I realize that I am not in control of this life. I have to allow a higher power to do that for me.

When we get caught up with our worry and become self absorbed and self centered we tend not to have good relationships with those around us, or with our Creator. We tend to be anxious, irritable, easily frustrated, short, snippy, and angry. Think about it for a moment. If I am suffering and worrying about the outcome of something that I cannot control, or not acting on things that I can control – I am frustrated. My energy is being used up in useless, or needless, activities that are not accomplishing anything. We even use our faith to justify the reason for our frustration. “This is not God’s will, how can this be God’s will?” We go back to that place that says that somehow God is a cosmic bellboy and if we offer enough tips to God we get what we want the way we want it. We forget if we claim the name of Christ, that we are dead.

“Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ. And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That's a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It's because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn't long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it's all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk.” Colossian 3:3-8

Allow yourself to be shape by God, not worries. Allow yourself to remember who you really are, a child of God! Recognize when you are wasting your energy and practice remembering that your life, your ego, it is dead. The life you are living is Christ's and since it is God's life to be lived, it will be taken care of.

Namaste'