Infinite Mercy

The Lord is perfect, He is infinite, He is merciful, and thus our God is the perfection of infinite mercy. What does this awesome conclusion mean to each of us in our daily lives? Let us consider that forgiveness is the natural expression of mercy and in His boundless compassion our precious Father has forgiven His little ones every possible misdeed. So perfect is infinite mercy that forgiveness is imbued within every misstep, every error, every transgression whether they are committed by His treasures as the result of commission or omission. If we can accept the premise of infinite mercy there is no act that has or can ever be committed for which the perpetrator is not bathed in mercy, in forgiveness even as the offense being committed.

Infinite mercy does not work only some of the time nor does it have any limits. It has neither size nor shape, there are no borders, no qualifications and no restrictions; it operates always and the same for everyone. To accept the implications of infinite mercy is a tall order and a hard mountain to climb. We see so much evil in the world it is difficult to accept the acts are imbued with forgiveness for the doers. Yet if God is perfect, infinite and merciful, there is nowhere else to go with this.

If we can come to grips with infinite mercy we must first realize we have always been forgiven every offense, large and small from the moment we committed them. Next that those whose acts we judge as being offensive have likewise been forgiven every offense, large and small from the moment they committed them.

Having been created in the image and likeness of our God we embody infinite mercy and as a result it is part of those building blocks that form our soul. We have the capacity to be unconditionally forgiving because this is what we are made of. When we act differently we create obstacles in our life that cause us unnecessary pain and stress. It may be easier to forgive a historic scoundrel than to forgive someone that has betrayed our trust. The villains of long past may be easier to forgive than those that deceive us for their own gain, for those who take advantage and despitefully use us. Yet to do otherwise is an attempt to deform infinite mercy which cannot be done.

So many of the difficulties we face are the result of our having placed limits on forgiveness. Our effort to qualify forgiveness is an act of selfishness that results in bitterness and pain.

May our God so strengthen us that we may go out and moment by moment be forgiving especially of those offenses new and old alike that are directed against us. Let us forgive our self and then others as the embodiment of infinite mercy that we are.

Infinite Mercy

The Lord is perfect, He is infinite, He is merciful, and thus our God is the perfection of infinite mercy. What does this awesome conclusion mean to each of us in our daily lives? Let us consider that forgiveness is the natural expression of mercy and in His boundless compassion our precious Father has forgiven His little ones every possible misdeed. So perfect is infinite mercy that forgiveness is imbued within every misstep, every error, every transgression whether they are committed by His treasures as the result of commission or omission. If we can accept the premise of infinite mercy there is no act that has or can ever be committed for which the perpetrator is not bathed in mercy, in forgiveness even as the offense being committed.

Infinite mercy does not work only some of the time nor does it have any limits. It has neither size nor shape, there are no borders, no qualifications and no restrictions; it operates always and the same for everyone. To accept the implications of infinite mercy is a tall order and a hard mountain to climb. We see so much evil in the world it is difficult to accept the acts are imbued with forgiveness for the doers. Yet if God is perfect, infinite and merciful, there is nowhere else to go with this.

If we can come to grips with infinite mercy we must first realize we have always been forgiven every offense, large and small from the moment we committed them. Next that those whose acts we judge as being offensive have likewise been forgiven every offense, large and small from the moment they committed them.

Having been created in the image and likeness of our God we embody infinite mercy and as a result it is part of those building blocks that form our soul. We have the capacity to be unconditionally forgiving because this is what we are made of. When we act differently we create obstacles in our life that cause us unnecessary pain and stress. It may be easier to forgive a historic scoundrel than to forgive someone that has betrayed our trust. The villains of long past may be easier to forgive than those that deceive us for their own gain, for those who take advantage and despitefully use us. Yet to do otherwise is an attempt to deform infinite mercy which cannot be done.

So many of the difficulties we face are the result of our having placed limits on forgiveness. Our effort to qualify forgiveness is an act of selfishness that results in bitterness and pain.

May our God so strengthen us that we may go out and moment by moment be forgiving especially of those offenses new and old alike that are directed against us. Let us forgive our self and then others as the embodiment of infinite mercy that we are.

And This Is Dying

And This Is Dying

I am seated in a room with activity of all sorts going on around me. Suddenly the view begins to fade until it is all hidden in a mist. The fog is so thick that it seems to block out all sight and sound.  Now there is nothing, no sights or sounds, just the mist and me. Gradually the mist clears and it is like waking from a cloudy dream in to incredible clarity. I am astonished that every sight and every sound seems to be alive. All of the colors are magnificent, they touch me deeply and each sound is like an entire symphony. I realize I did not move an inch and I am exactly where I was before the scene seemed to fade in to the mist. My surroundings are so natural, so full of life that I do not question why I can no longer see the shadows that formerly occupied and may still reside in the same space as I am in now… And this is dying.

Kindness

Compassion is the first stage of love for our brothers and sisters without which we cannot truly make a constructive difference in their lives. Unless the lives of others are of primary concern to us we are helpless to make any meaningful contribution to them. To have a beneficial use compassion needs first to be enveloped in grace, and in its simplest form an attitude of kindness is grace-full. Kindness is the beginning of grace in our daily lives and all other expressions flow naturally from it. It is important to note we are addressing a kindness so full of grace, so compassionate, so loving that all of creation pours out in to our lives through it.   

To be practical our motivation, our thoughts and our actions must be expressions of kindness at its highest level. Simply said, tender loving kindness must become our ideal; that which will guide our thoughts and deeds. We are often faced with conditions that try our sense of reason, yet if we are firmly anchored in our ideal we will not stray far from its helpful expression. To be of assistance we must adopt some hard fast rules that do not change with the situation and one might be that kindness requires nothing in return; it needs no justification, reason nor explanation. Kindness as our motivation simply is our highest ideal expressed in our daily life.

Once our motivation rises from kindness we are then constrained to find a practical application in our relationship to the lives around us. There may be many questions such as is this act helpful, is it what is needed at this time, is it the best expression of kindness for another, and so on. To help answer all of these and other questions we must first be sure that we are motivated by kindness. With kindness as our chief concern we must weigh our anticipated actions against our motivation. Keeping this in mind we will eventually find the most practical application. However, in such a quest we are not charged with getting it right but with expressing unadulterated kindness in the world around us. There will always be questions but the answer to them all is tenderness, love and kindness. 

In a world bound up in materiality we have developed the habit of weighing process against results. However, to be true to our highest ideals it may be best to focus fully on the application and let the process take care of the result. Otherwise we risk losing our way by taking a detour through fear and doubt. No one has earned kindness because it must be freely given. If we choose to be an expression of kindness we cannot place requirements upon those lives into which we must pour out our full measure of grace. As purveyors of kindness we are concerned with just being kind, one to the other.

The Ideal

The road to “perdition” is traveled one small step at a time, and if we do not know exactly where we are along that path the next small step may well get us there. We often excuse our misbehavior believing it is a relatively small offense but it is the succession of small offenses that will take us where we do not wish to be. Few of us would leap into chaos but we arrive there by a progression of inches and not yards. 

When buffeted by the winds of change, how then do we keep our direction true?  What can we use to both guide our journey and keep our activity productive? The answer is an ideal, one so overarching that it will guide us day by day. Our ideal should be as a fixed star that always shows us the way but not so small at to become a goal. If we set our ideal and every day is lived in that direction it is not likely we will lose our way. If then our activities each express a portion of our ideal we will be living our ideal from one moment to the next. A good example of this might be a dedication to excellence. This does not mean we must be excellent but that we should pursue excellence in all that we do. Only in our pursuit do we truly experience our ideal in the most intimate way. 

We may fail to achieve our goals but in pursuit of our ideal there are no failures. We are either dedicated to our ideal or we are not; what we are doing is either a portion of our ideal or it is not and there is no middle ground. We will find if a dedication to excellence is our ideal, as a result of our constant pursuit, our activities will be imbued with excellence. 

A body racked with illness finds relief one step at a time. Where healing becomes our goal, that vessel into which we pour out our dedication to excellence, our life is spent in pursuit of healing. In such a life we not only express our ideal with regard to our self but we may also become a force for healing in our brothers and sisters. If we are paying attention to our life style we may begin traveling the road to health. Likewise, as a result of our behavior we may awaken that which is healing in all those lives we touch. In this way, with healing as our goal, by expressing one single ideal we may heal our self and the world around us. 

When we search for results we are easily discouraged because our ideal must be larger than results. Where our dedication is to the ideal itself, we cannot fail, we cannot be discouraged and our healing will come in pursuit of that which is divine in each of us. Every act becomes a success and eventually, one small step by one small step we become our ideal.