Friday, September 21, 2018

You're Already One with God

I get a meditation from Richard Rohr every day in my e-mail inbox (if you want to receive them, go here).  Each week, he explores a different theme; each year has a unifying theme. 

Some weeks, I'm more interested in the topic than other weeks.  Some weeks, I'd like to save the whole thing or find the larger book--but often when I find the larger book, I'm disappointed.

Let me record an interesting insight that came Wednesday from Richard Rohr:

"What we call sins are usually more symptoms of sin. Sin is primarily living outside of union; it is a state of separation—when the part poses as the Whole. It’s the loss of any inner experience of who you are in God. “Sins” often have more to do with ignorance than actual malice. Disconnected people may become malicious, but they did not start there. They began in union, and disunion became their experienced lie.
You can’t accomplish or work up to union with God, because you’ve already got it. “Before the world began you were chosen, chosen in Christ to live through love in his presence” (Ephesians 1:4). You cannot ever become worthy or “perfect” by yourself; you can only reconnect to your Infinite Source. The biblical revelation is about awakening, not accomplishing. It is about realization, not performance. You cannot get there, you can only be there. Only the humble can receive it and surrender to such grace."
Thursday's meditation had a great nugget too:
"I’m convinced that when the great medieval spiritual teachers talked so much about attachmentthey were really talking about addiction. We are all attached and addicted in some way. At the very least, we are addicted to our compulsive dualistic patterns of thinking, to our preferred self-image, and to the usually unworkable programs for happiness we developed in childhood—which then showed themselves to be inadequate or even wrong."

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