Let It Go - We must not conceive of prayer as an overcoming of God’s unwillingness, but as laying hold of His highest willingness. — Richard Chenevix Trench, Archbishop of Dublin
When I was sentenced to prison for 24 months, I was certain that this was not the destiny that God had planned for me. I admitted that I had totally screwed up my life through my alcoholism and that I had made so many mistakes in judgment as a result of my drinking and addiction to alcohol magnifying my character defects. However, I was sure that God would rescue me from this hell. Every morning, I would wake up at 5am and go out to the weight pile and lift weights and pray "Please, dear Lord, make a miracle and take me out of here; if You would save me so that I could Your work and help other alcoholics or addicts. Please!" I prayed this prayer or something similar to it for almost 4 months, certainly more than 100 days.
When no answer came, I started to pray, "OK, so if my wish is not Your wish, then what is my purpose here. Please tell me why I must be here. Tell me what good is to come from this ordeal. Tell me what you want from me. Please!" I prayed this prayer for over 100 more days. Then, the answer came to me.
The answer came to me in a voice, my voice, a thought in my head....it was as if this foreign idea was given to me. "Steve, do you know why I have allowed you to experience this. You wanted a miracle? The miracle is that, despite my help and my protection your whole life, you never had faith in me or in you. Your worst fear was prison, so I decided to let you experience your worst fear so that you could see that We, you and I, could get through anything...Al your life, you never trusted me or you. Every new stage of your life, you feared failure and yet you, we, always succeeded...so now, I decided to teach you to believe in you and to believe in Me. I am sick of your doubt, sick of it. So I decided that I would send you to where you would either sink or swim...so swim!!" I finally heard a message that I did not want to hear, but became open to hearing...God's Highest Willingness.
I was praying for rhinestones and God was offering me diamonds...
Praying or holding an intention for a particular result is not intended to be a struggle or endurance contest. True prayer can bring us peace and illumination as easily and effortlessly as flicking on a light switch brings light to a room.
After you have prayed sincerely, release your prayer to God. When you mail a letter, you must let go so it can be delivered to where it is going. After dropping the letter in the mailbox, you do not stand there and make sure no one tampers with it, watch to see that the letter carrier tucks it away safely, follow him or her back to the post office and trail the letter through the sorting process, insist on sitting next to the mail sack while it is being flown across country, follow it through its next sorting, do a se–curity check on the next postal deliverer, and make sure the addressee picks it up. At some point you must just let go and trust the postal service to do its job. To breathe down the neck of postal service workers would only annoy them and waste your energy.
Pray and act decisively, and then release your intentions so God can take care of you in ways that you could not take care of yourself. I release my sense of struggle, and trust You to answer my prayers and fulfill my dream.
God is my trustworthy source of Good. I let go and let God.
----------
This meditation is an excerpt from Alan Cohen's meditation book, A Deep Breath of Life. If you liked today's meditation, please support the author and purchase the book by clicking here.
When I was sentenced to prison for 24 months, I was certain that this was not the destiny that God had planned for me. I admitted that I had totally screwed up my life through my alcoholism and that I had made so many mistakes in judgment as a result of my drinking and addiction to alcohol magnifying my character defects. However, I was sure that God would rescue me from this hell. Every morning, I would wake up at 5am and go out to the weight pile and lift weights and pray "Please, dear Lord, make a miracle and take me out of here; if You would save me so that I could Your work and help other alcoholics or addicts. Please!" I prayed this prayer or something similar to it for almost 4 months, certainly more than 100 days.
When no answer came, I started to pray, "OK, so if my wish is not Your wish, then what is my purpose here. Please tell me why I must be here. Tell me what good is to come from this ordeal. Tell me what you want from me. Please!" I prayed this prayer for over 100 more days. Then, the answer came to me.
The answer came to me in a voice, my voice, a thought in my head....it was as if this foreign idea was given to me. "Steve, do you know why I have allowed you to experience this. You wanted a miracle? The miracle is that, despite my help and my protection your whole life, you never had faith in me or in you. Your worst fear was prison, so I decided to let you experience your worst fear so that you could see that We, you and I, could get through anything...Al your life, you never trusted me or you. Every new stage of your life, you feared failure and yet you, we, always succeeded...so now, I decided to teach you to believe in you and to believe in Me. I am sick of your doubt, sick of it. So I decided that I would send you to where you would either sink or swim...so swim!!" I finally heard a message that I did not want to hear, but became open to hearing...God's Highest Willingness.
Praying or holding an intention for a particular result is not intended to be a struggle or endurance contest. True prayer can bring us peace and illumination as easily and effortlessly as flicking on a light switch brings light to a room.
After you have prayed sincerely, release your prayer to God. When you mail a letter, you must let go so it can be delivered to where it is going. After dropping the letter in the mailbox, you do not stand there and make sure no one tampers with it, watch to see that the letter carrier tucks it away safely, follow him or her back to the post office and trail the letter through the sorting process, insist on sitting next to the mail sack while it is being flown across country, follow it through its next sorting, do a se–curity check on the next postal deliverer, and make sure the addressee picks it up. At some point you must just let go and trust the postal service to do its job. To breathe down the neck of postal service workers would only annoy them and waste your energy.
Pray and act decisively, and then release your intentions so God can take care of you in ways that you could not take care of yourself. I release my sense of struggle, and trust You to answer my prayers and fulfill my dream.
God is my trustworthy source of Good. I let go and let God.
----------
This meditation is an excerpt from Alan Cohen's meditation book, A Deep Breath of Life. If you liked today's meditation, please support the author and purchase the book by clicking here.
No comments:
Post a Comment