An Unknown Possibility

Calvary Cross

Sergeac, France

Matthew 6:25-34 King James Version (KJV)

25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

As the divine influence flows downward into ever more finely divided particles of love, it spreads its nature equally throughout all the corners of the universe.

There is a quietness and an assuredness to this influence. When it manifests under its own power and without any interference from me – that is, when it acts entirely according to its own nature within me— there is an active stillness which arises. This is the peace of God that passes all understanding.

I alone am never capable of such stillness. I can only submit to it when it arrives; and in this state, I become a servant awaiting the direction and the word of the Lord. While I wait for that direction and that word, I begin to understand that it will never be a direction of my own or a direction I might think up by myself, and that the word will never be the word I would speak or even the word I would think of. 100% of the quality of the peace of God comes from beyond mankind, and can never be anything of mankind as we are. It may, in fact, be part of a new mankind, but even that mankind is unknown to us as we are, and will never be us as we are or what we are.

The mere existence of this peace becomes a promise that something much greater is possible for us; yet we need to throw out what we are and what we think of in order to encounter that possibility, which exists entirely within the unknown — again, from where we are and as we are.

This force that descends and brings the stillness of Love into Being carries the promise of that unknown possibility. 

As I sense it with me, I equally sense that none of what I am as I am now will be to serve it properly. It is already whole; and the peace of God is simply an invitation for me to join that wholeness and serve it without reserving myself.

This question of reserving myself is quite important, because I see as my life goes on that I continually reserve for myself and of myself, holding myself apart from life and apart from truth so that I can keep what I want according to my subjective whims. I don’t see how myopic this is; I don’t understand how the very idea of keeping myself apart from life is a falsehood I have invented. I want to keep the old bottle and put new wine in it.

 There's an opportunity, within the peace of the Lord, to sing wordless praises to God. Even the song itself is silent; yet it fills the heavens with its own Being, with its own silent joy, which manifests itself strictly through the awareness of Being.

As always, I find myself unable to explain — even to myself – what the true peace consists of. 

There is a living mystery available in this Being, and I believe it will always remain a mystery, even though we call it Grace and we call it Peace. 

How can it be, for example, that the word and the world are both made whole through the invisible and indescribable? 

How can it be that this stillness is so active and has so much energy?

May your heart be close to God, 
and God close to your heart.

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.