Gaspare Diziani. Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. Metropolitan Museum of Art
God lives only in reality—in what is. We then, who yearn to live in the presence of God, must also live in what is. We learn to do this by praying always for deeper acceptance. This acceptance is lived out by our willingness to humble ourselves and allow God to enter our life in any way God chooses, knowing that all shall be well even though we don’t yet see how. Until we make the choice to deeply trust God’s good will for us and let go of how we think our lives should look and how the people in our lives should behave, we will never know freedom. This doesn’t mean our choice won’t be painful, but deeper acceptance of however God enters our lives will soften us and enable us to move into a new place of healing in spite of the pain.
Waking up to this truth is a process that continues all of our lives. It calls for a constant letting go of our biases, grievances, regrets, preconceived ideas, and old patterns of thinking and acting. It calls for letting go of others and allowing them to have their own journey and experience their own struggles, trusting God to be as creative with them as He has been with us. It calls for accepting them where they are now and loving them right there. Without this, relationships break under the weight of the expectations we put on them. If we will stop fighting the reality we find ourselves in and accept in love and trust what is, we will find the weight begins to lift from us and from our relationships. We will at last be freed from the slavery of our expectations, regrets, and illusion of control.
When we finally come to this, our minds begin to awaken to our hearts and to our true self hidden beneath the clutter we have hoarded there to protect us from the pain of the world. Accepting all that God brings will awaken and fan the flame of the Holy Spirit within our hearts, enabling us to see and befriend our yearning, to live into our longing rather than struggling to resolve it, and to live in the spaciousness of our emptiness rather than constantly trying to fill it. We learn to wait in deep humility and patience for the veil of our illusions to lift, allowing us to see and accept our reality and, in seeing, to choose rightly.
The inner space that is cleared by this deep acceptance, is, at its root, a matter of trust in God’s goodness and timing. Making the choice to accept everything that comes with awareness and full responsibility sets us free, moves us towards wholeness, and makes us real. This is our work—to become whole people in the world of our reality.
The suffering way of Jesus is willingness, acceptance, and trust. As Jesus lived, so are we to live, trusting that new life flows out of the choices we make and all that we let go of. It takes a great willingness to choose to surrender all of our sorrows, all of our needs, all of our fears, and trust the intimate love of a very present God. But if we will choose this descending way of humility, we will find our way to freedom.
May the Source of Love fill, inspire, and bless you as you make the choice for life.
The Hidden Life Awakened p.92