The beauty of Faith and Trust, for me, is It doesn’t change in the Invisible. I know that as I breathe into my heart and let my human mind dissolve into That, I Am That. It is formless and changeless.
It can be another story when we get lost in the outer, the visible, and begin to ‘expect’ what that outer scenario or person will do, how it or they will respond to our projected hope. There’s a strange paradox here.
The imprint that is in my heart ‘whispers’: “Faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (I Corinthians 13:13)
As I look to see ‘if I am remembering the words correctly’, I find what comes before.
“For we know in part… But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” (I Corinthians 13:9-11)
My mind ‘sort of’ takes notice of the word man. It’s been part of a mind-set to shift to inclusive language for over 20 years now in my life. My Higher Mind has come to translate ‘man’ to words that do not exclude my feminine body and being. I even have written ‘another word’ under ‘man’ in my Bible.
The word I wrote at some point, probably when I was teaching it, was ‘grown’, when I became grown. Now it might be something like ‘mature’…yet, it seems even beyond that. Maybe ‘whole’, when I became whole, or even “one”, when I became one with the One.
Then the ‘whisper’ interrupts what It sees as ‘less significant’ mind-stuff probably:
“For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” (I Corinthians 13:12)
A flash of a memory comes, from years ago, in this ‘multi-reality’ dialogue. I was aware that my second marriage was in some bumpy territory, dissolving somehow, and I desperately didn’t want it to happen. My ‘imprint from my childhood’ was that marriage was for life…until death do us part. My first marriage had ended, I didn’t want that to happen to the second.
One night, we were trying to communicate…and it just wasn’t happening. I was feeling ‘lost’ in something I didn’t understand. Suddenly a more expansive consciousness, Vaster yet silent, enveloped me. Silent words came as I looked at my husband: ‘You don’t even know me’. The words were simply there…unspoken. Tears came, gentle Silent tears, a knowing of the Unknowing.
I smile now as I remember myself then, barely in my 40’s…with my just-completed doctoral degree in education, including a focus in counseling, which seemed totally inadequate for what we were experiencing. It had to have been hard for him also, just out of seminary, finding his own way to ‘stand on holy ground’.
One of the conversations I remember between us had to do with just a word, it was the word ‘substance’. He was trying to tell me what ‘substance’ was.
For me, it was something completely different. It was physical, or at least the material from which something is made. It could even mean material possessions. It could include ‘stuff’ even like ingredients for a cake. I was feeling exasperated, not angry, but like it was hopeless. It was a ‘prickley’ feeling…
He never told me that he was trying to describe what Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, called Substance… Years later, I would use words like ‘Essence’, concepts like the ‘Ultimate Reality’ that underlies all outward manifestation and change. I would Know and teach that “Faith is the Substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
There was too big a gap in our human awareness. And we didn’t know it or know how to bridge it. We didn’t know the Substance, the Essence that we both shared. We didn’t have a way that we could see it and clearly communicate it.
We were simply in ‘different countries, speaking different languages’. Both were right for the country in which they existed. And we didn’t manage to find the permeable boundaries.
Faith, hope and love, these three…and the greatest of these is Love. Maybe this heartbreak in my life, when the divorce happened, was part of the Igniting of what I now call the ‘Living Flame of Love’ in my heart.
Was this a Stepping Stone of the Heart that would take me to some Future stepping stones of the mind? Was this part of the Light shining on the darkness that would bring the seemingly unceasing Questions?
Is That what lies above and below questions and answers as they spiral higher and deeper in this Vastness that I now call ‘The Essence of the All That Is’?
PRACTICE: BRINGING YOUR LIFE INTO THE CURRICULUM…
What have been the heartbreaks and break-through experiences in your life? How has a Vaster Love been ignited? This is not limited to personal relationship, it can include work, purpose, anything… Your heart will tell you.
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