Give form to Love

Give form to Love.

This is what’s on my mind as we celebrate the holidays with family and friends.

Love, be it in the form of the Master Teacher Jesus, Buddha, or a host of other enlightened beings, IS the reason for the season. The kind of love that is unconditional, reciprocal, the kind that SEES you on the other side of your shadow…

That’s the kind of love we all crave, isn’t it? The experience of being discovered, seen, explored, and celebrated?

God gave form to Love through Jesus, an extension of Universal Love, and oh for more of THAT kind of Love to show up in form here on the planet!

Mother Teresa’s Take on Love

I’m remembering a story a woman told me concerning her fear of being thrown into hell for being alesbian.  Her heart was ablaze for Jesus, and showing up in form as a missionary to those in need. She had the privilege of working with Mother Teresa for a short time, and one day she saw her coming down the hall and worked up the courage to ask her a question.

She wanted to know if being a lesbian would be her ticket to hell. Would God judge her?

Mother Teresa took her hands, looked directly into her eyes and said, “I think that if you were to die today and went to meet the Lord, the question God would ask you is…

‘Did you love?’”

That hits me in my soul.

“Did you love? Did you really love?”

I understand it can be challenging to be an extension of love when you’re swimming in darkness, loneliness, fear, regret, addictions, etc.

Challenging, perhaps.

Impossible, no.

Now, I can only speak for myself here, but the holiday season and beyond, embodying love is my aim. Calling myself to a greater form of unconditional love, a deeper substance of love.

Love for myself, and love for others.

There is something to be said about the journey of spiritual growth. Years ago, when my shadow/ego pretty much ruled and reigned, I could love, but it was more of a selfish love. It was more of a surfacy, “look at me” kind of love, or “what can I get out of this?” kind of love.

I didn’t intentionally mean to love so shallow. It’s just the depth of who I knew myself and God to be at the time.

But my gosh, I’m so grateful for the journey, that spiritual journey where you spend time cultivating a sacred space with God. Where you connect and grow a deep, intimate relationship with the unseen, the unknown, and the mystery.

That’s where grace and love begin to flood the marrow of my bones, in that secret place that far too many times I choose not to visit, out of laziness or busyness.

“Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.” 
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Spiritual floors

Carolyn Myss gives this wonderful example or perspective of the spiritual journey.  Think of a seven-story building, or let’s say resort. The upper floors have this fantastic view of the ocean in all its splendor, but the bottom floors the view is not really great.  In fact, all you may see are other buildings.

Now, when you’re not on that spiritual journey, AWAKENING to the mystery and magic of God’s Kingdom, it’s like you’re living on the first floor.  It may be alright, but it’s nothing grand. You go about your life in a sleepy sort of state, accepting your reality that this is all there is.

BUT, when you embrace and embark on a spiritual growth journey, you begin moving up those floors, and well, the view gets better! Not only that, the rooms offer more amenities and are brighter.  You’re like, “Oh, wow! I love this view!  If I’d have known about this, I’d have moved up here sooner!”

Think about yourself on that top floor, standing on the balcony feeling the breeze, smelling the ocean, and seeing the majestic sea.  How do you feel? What’s going through your mind? (Wow! This is the life! This is gorgeous! I am so blessed!” You’d probably feel like taking the elevator down to those first floors and tell them about the great view, huh?

Friends, if you’re on the lower floors, know that the journey toward spiritual awakening is calling you.  It’s calling you to listen to those whispers that come from your soul, like when you’re just about asleep and you hear, “Is this all there is?  What is real? What is truth? Why am I here?”

Heed the nudge of the mysterious and get interested in waking up! Get interested in saying, “Yeah, I want to go deeper spiritually. I want to know God and myself better. I want to love myself more. I want to love others more, from a sacred space where I’m connected to God, Spirit, Universe, etc.”

Don’t we all want to know ourselves more experientially as part of this mysterious cosmos? This Oneness?

I heard Adyashanti say once, “You never know when the Universe will push you off the cliff.”

Ha. There we are free-falling to what we think is our death, but God/Universe has another plan. A brilliant plan, actually.

That push is a new beginning for you, to let go of what is not serving you (I mean, if you’re pushed off a cliff, you’re probably gonna let go of anything you were carrying).

And things like your identity (You’re not broken, a screw up, a greedy or prideful slug, addict, abandoned, alone, etc.) 

Rather, when you can view yourself, others, and life from that top floor (awakened), you take on a new identity in form.

         Love in form.

         Love in action.

Love, even when chaos abounds around you.

Even when the tough times come, mistakes occur, the lover leaves you, you leave your lover, the kids act up, the money’s not there, etc., you can see things from a new perspective.  A new clarity.

You begin to remember more often who the heck you REALLY are.

A sacred, luminous powerhouse simply wearing this earthly suit, perhaps bound by gravity in the flesh, but your spirit- that magical, spacious conduit- is free and soaring like a strong, brave eagle.

The heart of Jesus

Just as Jesus Christ was a person and Spirit, willing to be whatever it meant to be one with God, so can we embrace that same heart. That same eagerness to align with Love Itself.

Does this mean you won’t feel negative feelings some? Nah. You will at times. You’ll experience painful things, but you don’t have to get stuck there. You can know that no matter what happens or doesn’t happen, everything is unimaginably alright in the grand scheme of things.

The spiritual progression

As you progress in floors, life begins to take on and play out a different agenda, marked with more patience, compassion, and love.

Why?

Because from the upper spiritual floors, you see things differently. You’re able to hold off on projecting your shadow onto others, and accepting others where they are on their spiritual journey. You’re more apt to look for the silver lining or golden wisdom nuggets (aka lessons!)

You can more consistently show up as Love in form, loving others as they are with all of their secrets, defects, wounds, messiness, shallowness, etc.

Seeing them with the eyes of God, understanding that no matter how they’re manifesting their inner pain, they too are filled with potential. They too have a hungry heart for the mystical, magical Kingdom of God. They’re just camped out on the lower floors at the moment.

So, dear ones, show up this holiday season, and thereafter, as a wild and divine embodiment of Love. Approach people and circumstances with a cosmic lens that magnifies your opportunities to learn and grow, rather than pointing fingers at the shadows of others.

Love, in this moment, your most awesome self, breathing in the gift of unmerited grace, showing up to your family and friends PRESENT. (Truly, be here now.)

May we say yes to this sacred dance with Love, because this is the healing balm that we all yearn for. This is the deep, inner calm that we crave. The stillness. The acceptance. The Love that just IS without conditions.

This is how I see Masters like Jesus and Buddha walking the planet, totally tapped into their authentic nature, Love.

This is my aim, and a call to humanity to step into and embody that kind of Love.

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1 Corinthians 13:4-10 (MSG)

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.