“The prayer of the divine being does not ask for “stuff“ for assistance in living on earth.“
—Jim Rosemergy
A Closer Walk With God
Of course it’s normal to want things to be different, and to want things to work out, and to want suffering to end, and to want peace and prosperity to prevail. This is our human condition.
After laboring for several hours and delivering my youngest son Gabriel, I was in a intense emotional state so that when the nurse midwife told me he was born breach and momentarily stopped breathing, I grabbed the hands of my then husband and made a very loud supplication prayer to God, “If there’s anything in my goodwill bank account God, please help my baby breathe.”
The pediatrician had been called in and was effectively working on my son who was very soon breathing normally on his own.
I doubt I would do anything different in that situation today.
Yet what I do know today is that my relationship with God and universal supply need not be so fraught. So powerless…well yes powerless in a sense that I am not God and I am humble, yet not so powerless in that I have a spiritual role to play.
I know. You’re wondering if we’re not supposed to ask God and the universe for “stuff” to fix, enhance and improve our lives, and the lives of those we pray for, how do we align ourselves with the great mystery?
Native American practices so often involve rituals to align oneself with the natural world—the great spirit. In order to bring about a successful buffalo hunt or a bountiful harvest of corn, native people would make great personal sacrifices to align themselves with the Great Spirit.
Maybe this is a clue. We align ourselves with God and the universe through behaving in ways we imagine God and the universe would behave towards us, or towards others. This way we remove the barricades between us and universal supply.
This way we allow the world to come to us, while we are busy living the best possible version of our own goodness.
And why wouldn’t we ask God for stuff anyway? I think the point of the above quote is not that there’s something wrong with us for asking. Instead it’s that by asking the almighty powerful for what we know not how to affect, we negate our own role as co-creators. We literally siphon off our own co-creative power, our spiritual strength. Though with love, humility and surrender we begin to think and behave more universally.
It’s a simple shift in perspective that turns our prayers from “please give me” to “please show me how to conduct my life”. Though that very subtle change can make all the difference.
Have a great Sunday!
🙏