Surrendering to Transformation

Recently, I challenged everyone to contemplate “How Do I Love Thee … The One?” and questioned whether we have a handle on that especially when carried to the next step of “How Do I Love Myself?” Or, more accurately, “Do I Love Myself?” Can I actually love my self? Am I sufficient present and do I possess a sufficient level of trust so that I can love my self without conditions? This is the giant step onto the path of personal transformation which can become a catalyst for universal transformation. This is phase one of a lifelong journey – a journey that is not for the faint of heart.

To be willing to transform is the ultimate declaration of faith. In order to open to transformation, we must be willing to let go of all that is known, all that we know about ourselves, all of the identifiers that are so comfortably reassuring. Far beyond belief that often calls on conditions for validation, surrendering to transformation requires a level of trust that many humans find challenging. Transformation is described as a thorough or dramatic change in the form, appearance, or character. It is likened to metamorphosis – the dropping away of what was known in order to awaken to whatever is. Spiritual transformation requires us to embrace a new identity, a new incarnation of which we may not have an inkling. This is the declaration, “Here I am, Lord. Use me!” without checking it out in advance to see if it is an assignment that meets our worldly concept of ourselves.

Whew! What an amazing idea! Do you find the whole idea a bit scary? Very often we feel scared when we are moving into some-thing we don’t know. It may be when we are asked to go somewhere or do something for the first time. It’s unfamiliar and doesn’t fit within our identity, our self concept. It doesn’t match who or what the world says we are. By the way, our first and most limiting mistake is to accept the world’s opinion of who/what we are! There is within you (within each of us) a “divine prototype” … the person that Spirit is expressing … the image and likeness of God. When we subject ourselves to being designed by others, we are constructing obstacles between our human selves and our most magnificent experience of Spirit as us. We participated in constructing the blockages so we have the means – our minds – to dismantle them.

The call to transform is the call of Spirit within to align with our Spiritual Truth. It is not a call to build a new you. Nor are you being called to make temporary changes to make it easier to fit into the world around you. The call to transformation is the call to come home to being fully alive. The call is to return to our natural state. In his song, “I Return,” David Ault captures what it’s all about:

I return … to the source of my creation,

opening to my place of transformation.

Now I see – Love lives in me.

Transformation is a moving inward to fully awaken to being the presence of Love. As Love we are then to function in the world – emissaries of the most powerful healing force in the universe. In many ways, serving as bodhisattvas – those who when presented with the option to move on to Nirvana or return to the world of form to bring light, love and compassion – they have opted to be here now.

Transformation is the return to a clarity of purpose, to a path of simplicity that can thrive within the chaos that often accompanies this human journey. It calls us to inspire, to breathe in and ignite with the fire of Spirit. To recognize that we are just as spiritual, just as essentially perfect as we ever can be. It is up to each of us to be and share that knowing with others. It’s a time to turn off WIIFM (the “what’s in it for me” radio station) and tune into the values and qualities that make this human experience a gift. Start by consciously choosing to change how you re-late to the world around you. There’s a very interesting and sometimes challenging practice that I like to call, “don’t just do something, sit there.” Sit there long enough to open to the Divine Within. When you encounter a challenge, don’t default to habit. Choose NOT to deal with your circumstances, however tempting that may be. Rather, deal with your inner experience. Center yourself and then, from that calm center choose how you are to respond to circumstance remain-ing clear that circumstances do not control you. You control your circumstances.

I invite you to join me first focusing on transforming individually and then on how to make a difference universally. This journey can lead us along the path of St Francis of Assisi …

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,

Where there is hatred…let me sow love Where there is injury…pardon

Where there is doubt…faith Where there is despair…hope

Where there is darkness…light Where there is sadness…joy

Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled…as to console, to be under-stood…as to understand, to be loved…as to love. For it is in giving…that we receive,

it is in pardoning, that we are pardoned, for it is in dying … that we are born to eternal life.

Namasté

Rev Trish

This entry was posted in Latest News, Ministers Musings on August 26, 2016 by CSL Metro.