Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, Dec 3, 2009

Who promised you that only for joy were you brought to this earth?

- Anna Freud, born on this date, 1895


Nope; or, Yep. People who promise “rose gardens” should be steamrollered into the tarmac without a second thought (metaphorically speaking) – which you get to by diligent practice of your “spiritual” path.

Life is Joy and Sorrow. Life is always a balance between the lovely and the painful, on various levels.

If you “believe in” a God who will promise you only Joy, you are (a) delusionary (b) have no real concept of what “God” is for.

No legit “God” offers Perpetual Joy. It just doesn’t jive with Reality and Experience. As a matter if fact, the Deity I know requires us to live with Reality and Experience. And, by the way, most of the Episcopal clergy I know are basically a happy lot. They know that in the throws of suffering, the God of compassion and healing will walk with them, be there for them.

I think that God actually has promised us all that “only for Joy” were we brought to this Earth. It will never come from amassing enough “stuff”. Or whatever the “World” gives, etc. It comes from living simply; from listening to the voice of Holy Silence; from emptying oneself in Love; from understanding Compassion and calling oneself to it minute by minute. This requires a daily “path” that we take up every day.

No one – not even God – can promise Joy. That is up to you and to me. We must choose, moment by moment, to live "Christ’s" life.

Brian+