A favorite “God teaching” of mine that has sustained me for close to 40 years is this one:
“If you want to know what God wants you to do, ask him and he will gladly tell you. But when you ask, be sure that you really expect him to tell you, for a doubtful mind will be as unsettled as a wave driven and tossed on the sea.” (James 1:5-6)
In wrangling with a particular situation, I’m trying to adhere to my resolution and let time work and patience prevail. Certain days this doesn’t go so well. Today my patience was waning, and so I asked: God, what should I do? Should I do anything? Within minutes, there was my answer in my morning meditation. The very title of it shocked me when I opened to today’s date:
The Thing In The Way
“We tend to make the thing in the way the way.”
It was a short story about the author driving 400 miles to see the Botanical Gardens in Montreal only to find the gate locked when they got there. He was immediately disgruntled for having made the long trip, only to be disappointed. His companion didn’t seem phased by the locked gate, and began walking around the wall that surrounded the garden. The author was frustrated with his companion and became very grumpy and impatient with every step they took. After walking quite a distance, the wall fell away and there was the garden in front of them to simply walk into.
He said, “How many thresholds that seem blocked or barred or locked only seem so from their initial viewing? How many opportunities for true living are barrier-free, if we can only remove ourselves and our minds from their traditional points of entry?”
He suggested today I do this:
1. Center yourself and consider a barrier or threshold you are facing.
2. Breathe slowly and relax your insistence. Stop beating the door down.
3. Breathe evenly and circle the barrier or threshold with your spirit.
4. Breathe patiently and see if there is another way in.
In my particular struggle, I know what I must do. I have always known what I must do, but there are days when I doubt my decision and question my strength. Days when I don’t want to be patient. Days when I want to rush in and fix it, when I know full well that doing NOTHING is the only answer. Again, nothing is the hardest of all things to do. Rushing in and fixing it would assuage my own wants and needs, which must be put aside right now. Today I needed a little extra shove to continue to “relax my insistence and stop beating the door down” and continue to do what it is I knew I must do all along : nothing.
I used to call these timely messages from God coincidences. Then I read “wHispers” by my author friend, Shirley Vogel and I learned there are no coincidences, only gentle whispers from God that guide and soothe us in time of struggle. Shirley’s book is about her struggles in life and how these whispers guided and soothed her out of the great difficulties she faced in a broken marriage and extreme health issues. The magnitude of her faith has helped me stay focused on that which I have depended on for forty years ~ my faith and daily relationship with God. It’s reassuring to know that even when I’m in doubt, he is still here, whispering to me, and will work this one out, too.
My “God” and your “God” might be viewed differently here on earth, but I believe that no matter how you express your spirituality, in the end, it’s all cut from the same cloth, and in time of strife, we should all cling to it. “Whispers”, as Shirley calls them, transcend all languages, cultures, and organized and unorganized religions alike and touch everyone who walks this earth at one time or another. Every time something floats through your mind, flutters in your stomach, or brushes your cheek and makes you stop just for a second, heed the moment. “Whispers” change lives and cause miracles.
And so, as another day goes by, today I heard a whisper, and….I have written.
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