The moon and stars they wept...

The moon and stars they wept

The morning sun was dead

The Saviour of the world was fallen

His body on the cross

His blood poured out for us

The weight of every curse upon him

One final breath he gave

As heaven looked away

The son of God was laid in darkness

The ground began to shake

The stone was rolled away

Christ’s perfect love could not be overcome

Now death where is your sting?

Our resurrected one

Has rendered you defeated

Forever he is glorified

Forever he is lifted high

Forever he is risen

Christ is alive, Christ is alive!

~ "Forever" Johnson/Bethel

How are we to process this? How are we to live and love and walk in the “real” world, while knowing this wondrous miraculous story of Jesus’ death and resurrection?

We all have a resurrection story….don’t we?

Have you ever been the unlucky recipient of someone’s bad day? Have you had to endure the stinging words? The words can be nails in your cross and thorns in your crown, can’t they? As much as we know the words aren’t ours to carry, sometimes we do carry them. I know I have done this. My heart is on my sleeve, I wear it and I show it and others see it. So when these words were said to me, my heart latched onto them….they clung to me, and still cling to me. My hands are a testament to the injury, to the hurt, to my inability to let it all go.

And my Easter story is still unfolding. I am waited for my resurrection story….and while I wait, I am continuing to learn and find God, in it.

In the scripture reading, Jesus says I give you a commandment to love one another. The love message is the power of the Gospel. It’s so simple: Love God and love your neighbor as you love yourself. We often think we need someone to love us….in this “me” centered world….but what we really need is someone for “us” to love. And the world is desperate for real love, isnt’ it? So it isn’t hard to find someone who needs to be loved.

Loving the way God loves means that we can love someone when we know there is nothing in it for us. Loving unconditionally. Without a thank you card for it. Have you ever done a favour for someone? And then been disappointed when they didn’t write you a thank you note? If so, then you did it for “you”, and not for them. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write the note, if you are the recipient, it just means you need not expect a note when you are the giver. Let God’s message to you….be to know that the gift of love is just that – a gift. In order to know this and feel it implicitly, we must first know the experience of God’s love in our own life. When you have this kind of love, then you can give it away…for God’s love is infinite and always being replenished. “God loves me”. May this be a mantra you can say to yourself. Every day, every hour, or whenever you think of it. God Loves Me. God loves ME. GOD loves me. God LOVES me. Putting the emphasis on a different word, changes its meaning slightly but it is still filled with God and with love. And this real love, - God love, is about dying to self, and living to love others.

Love is the way you treat people, the way you think, it is time, it is energy, it is effort, it is money…it is giving up your pride, it is keeping a good attitude. Love is a way, a choice….when we emit love, it ripples to others. When we wear our hearts on our sleeves, we have to keep God even closer so the heart is protected and held in complete honest love.

Stop for a moment and imagine what feels good? What makes your heart smile? What is good? Smile as you silently name those things. Let God create little celebrations for you.

Then imagine what brings you aches or sadness…name them in silence and in your prayers, may you hand them over to God. He can take them for you.

Do you know what I’ve learned?

God never promised that we wouldn’t have those aches. He didn’t promise that. But what He did promise was faith to get through the aches, and come out the other end with more of God in our hearts.

God wants us to know that as long as we have breath, someone needs our gifts. – our gifts, our talents, our love. Someone does need them. Can you believe it and know it?

So the next time you pick up on someone’s energy and you aren’t so fond of it… ~ remember God, and send them beams of love in return. In a prayer, in a glance. With just one candle, that light will spread.

That’s tough isn’t it. It’s easy to be nice to people who are nice to you. It isn’t as easy to be nice to people who are mean to you. I have forgiven, I truly have….but my fingers and hands tell a different story. Perhaps God is asking me to go to the deepest level of forgiveness. What is that? How can I allow myself to go deeper in forgiving this person? How can I stand here and tell you to love someone that has hurt your feelings, when I am seemingly having so much trouble with it myself.

How? I pray, I cry, I sleep, I look up to the heavens at every chance I get…I dance…I sing in my living room…I keep on breathing, and God won’t let me give up. For I still have gifts to share.

The scripture says…..“Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Ok, I’m listening….I can go deeper….I can keep trying to forgive…deeper. I can do this God, because of the Easter story. I can do it because it’s time for the thorns in my heart, and the nails in my hands to heal. It’s time.

So even if it’s hard for me (or you)…I know this….Just because I don’t like it, doesn’t mean that Spirit isn’t offering me something waaaaay more amazing. I can create healing and growth and love by sending beams of light into the universe ~ to be absorbed by all.

I can ask for prayers and support and understanding.

I can ask for God to always be at my side.

I can step away when I need to, and come back when it is safe to do so….all the while knowing that this is a blip, a learning moment, an aha moment.

When test results come back negative for inflammation and arthritis….what else could it be? It is sadness and ache, that began in my heart and traveled to my fingers….did you know that your thoughts are that powerful.

The more we love.

The more love we receive, the more love we feel, and the better we feel.

How amazing to be the recipient of endless love.

Being in a state of balance

Vibrational energy patterns

Only the loving find love and you don’t need to seek it

Any act of kindness puts us closer to source….to the divine. Whether we are the giver, the receiver or the observer…

I’ve been listening a lot to Wayne Dyer, and he once said that someone said something that was unkind, and his friend asked him why it didn’t upset him. Wayne’s reply was this: well, I can choose to accept the gift or not. And in this instance, the gift of those words weren’t meant for me, so I chose not to accept it. To whom does the gift belong? The gift of their opinion, if not accepted, belongs to the giver, and not to you.

Consumed with what others think of us.

We need to allow other people’s opinions to be just that – their opinion. And only accepting the gift of their words, if they are for our highest good.

Carl Jung said, we are making choices, and doomed to make choices. It’s set up for us, and we are also making the choice. The high place…..we have to learn to blend the two opposites. I am a choice maker and I am also being lived. What doesn’t contradict?

Who are we?

We are a physical form….and yet we are completely invisible and no form – at the same time. We cannot find the invisibleness inside of us. Sometimes it’s even hard to name. A paradox that we live with…..my fingers that I can or cannot bend, and the brain waves / or thoughts that move them in the first place.

What does God get out of it?

Go out in the spring…observe the blossoms as the fruit grows on the tree. More divinity, more of love, more of God. When that happens the ego goes away….

How God tells you it’s time for a change….

It’s time for a change….time to walk down another street. You’ve heard the words, you’ve held the pain, it’s time to let go now. God has something bigger in store for me.

Here is a poem by Portia Nelson and it’s been on my fridge for several years, ever since a beautiful friend of mine shared it with me:

“I walk down the street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in.

I am lost... I am helpless. It isn't my fault.

It takes forever to find a way out.

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again.

I can't believe I am in the same place.

But, it isn't my fault.

It still takes me a long time to get out.

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it is there.

I still fall in. It's a habit.

My eyes are open. I know where I am.

It is my fault. I get out immediately.

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I walk around it.

I walk down another street.”

Staying with God and knowing the Resurrection story, can be our story too. I am hopeful for my Easter Sunday when my hands and heart no longer ache. I know with my thoughts and prayers, this will become my truth.

We can be here without being noticed. We can remain humble and healing and open to receiving love and light, always…. We can do good and be good, without expecting anything in return.

Like the sea stays low and remains open to receiving more water from the surrounding rivers and streams. It stays lows, always in a state of acceptance.

Letting what we know is coming – come to us.

May we continue to learn, and be better, always. Not better than you or you or you. But better than we used to be. Making better choices…..being more loving to all who walk this earth….learning from the sea – being better and without being big, without a “look at me” mentality. Be good, be small, be loving and all will be more connected to spirit and the divine.

May you be in every moment, as Mother Theresa used to be – connecting every person to the many disguises of Jesus.

Where there is hatred, let me bring love.

Where there is injury, your healing power.

Amen

©kekrul April 25, 2016