Freedom Is Holy, Part 2
In my last blog I said that love is liberating. I don't think most people realize what this means. They say they are saved, but saved from what? What do we need to be saved from?
We need to be saved from drugs, tormenting thoughts, addictions, food problems, anger problems, worries, doubts and fears. We need to be saved from hypnosis, the effect that people, places and things have on us. We need to be saved from the baggage of the past, our compulsion to believe more in what others say than in our own God given intuition.
We need to be saved from our impatience, our little cruelties, and our propensity to resent and judge others.
We need to be saved from our compulsion to enslave ourselves, dig ourselves into a hole, and get ourselves involved with wrong people.
We need to be saved from our misbeliefs and wrong assumptions.
We need to be saved from the effects of our wrong living, from disease and illness. And we need to be saved from death itself.
Love has real power. But the kind of love of which I speak is love from God. Because we spend our lives lost in our imagination and emotions, and because we are willful and resentful, we are not aware of the presence of God (except as occasional anxiety and conscience). So we surely are not aware of God's love and have not experienced the touch of God.
That is why we must search. Those of us who yearn for truth and who yearn for something pure and good are never satisfied with mealy mouthed answers and the phony shallow love that the world has to offer. So we keep searching, and one day we find.
I said that love is liberating. Let me give you a simple mundane example. Have you ever done something wrong, something that carried a consequence (like a big fine or loss). You braced yourself and told the truth, and instead of being dumped on, the other person had mercy and forgave you? How grateful you were, and what a burden was lifted from you.
How wonderful it would be to receive God's forgiveness in such a way that you knew for sure. One of the most beautiful essays I ever wrote was called Repentance: The Happy Sad Emotion of the Blessed.
When our conscience makes us aware that we did something wrong (like hating someone or being impatient with our child; like being phony with someone; or saying something mean), if only the person could let their conscience overwhelm them. Without attempting to comfort oneself and without looking for comfort or reassurance from other people or distractions--then the pain of conscience would become sadness and mourning. It is said that God does not despise a contrite heart.
The sincere regret (without looking to anyone else for any consolation) leads to God's forgiveness. The pain refines into sadness and then the sadness into joy. The clouds blow away and the sun begins to shine. Joy returns. The burden is lifted.
This willingness to admit wrong (within) and to bear the pain of seeing how wrong we are and how helpless we are (we cannot make ourselves good) draws the compassion of the Father.
