Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Who does the work--us or God?

     I have a hard time getting up on Mondays. It's like leaving behind the fun and relative ease of the weekend and facing the seriousness of your life, and you have to do it fifty-two times a year. Well, this last Monday I woke up early and I lie there in bed, not wanting to get up, not wanting to do anything. I thought, 'Wouldn't it be nice if God just took over, gave me energy and got me going?'
     So what did I do? Was I wafted up out of bed by some supernatural power? What do you think?
     There was no way God was going to lift me and move me through the day, I would've lain there  in that bed all day waiting for that to happen. (And some people do!) No, I had to dig in and, as psychologist Albert Ellis used to say "uneasily force myself" to get going. And I did. And the energy came. And I had an awesome day.
     But without my effort, nothing would've happened.
     So those people that talk about God's grace and God's plan. That's all well and good. But a lot of those people are hypocrites in that they work really hard and then say, oh, it's all God's grace. Sorry, but that's lying. Maybe you can call it lying for a good reason (which is debatable) but lying is lying.
     So then since it's not God's grace, then it's all my effort, right? Well, that's not quite it either.
     Those of you who have reading this blog regularly (and I thank you for that) know that I am big on living in the magical, the supernatural, beyond ordinary human capability. How do we do that? Yes, we bust our butts, we strive ruthlessly. And, as you know, once we put forth that maximum effort, that is where the magic begins. Once we put forth maximum effort that is where we find God.
     Check this out from Teilhard de Chardin's The Divine Milieu:

And yet in all that immensity (of God) there is only one possible place for each one of us at any given moment, the one we are led to by unflagging fidelity to the natural and supernatural duties of life. At this point, which we can reach at the right moment only if we exert the maximum effort on every plane, God will reveal himself in all his plenitude. ...Thus its great waters (of Life) do not call us to defeat but to perpetual struggle to breast their floods. Their energy awaits and provokes our energy. Just as on certain days the sea lights up only as the ship's prow or the swimmer cleaves its surface, so the world is lit up with God only when reacting to our impetus. (italics mine)

     So there's your answer as to how the supernatural happens— it's us and God. Want to live in the supernatural? Give Life all you've got— and then some.

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