You
all have heard it said how many times now, “There is a reason for everything.”
Well. I don’t think there is a reason for anything. Nothing has to be what it
is. Everything could be something else. Nobody has to do what he or she does,
except to the extent that we all operate out of complexes and insecurities and
stuckness we developed in our childhood and youth—but there is no controlling
power forcing us to do one thing and keeping us from doing another.
And
if there is an earthquake, or a tsunami, or a tornado, or a war, or a drunk
driver, or … It does not follow that the hand of any god was involved,
directing the action, producing results and outcomes according to the
omniscient plan of the god in question. And yet, and yet… I am very much
confident that there is a will beyond our will at play in our lives, a purpose
beyond our purpose calling us be aware of its presence and trust ourselves to
the drift of its current. We have our agendas, but there are unconscious
purposes we do not begin to grasp. Inner space is as vast as outer space.
And
nothing has to be what it is. That malignancy? That heart attack? That fall
that left your child paralyzed for life? NOT the design and plan of an almighty
god! Stop thinking of the things that happen as being sent to us because we
sinned and deserve to be punished—or because we are stupid and need to be
taught a lesson—or because we shine and are being rewarded with goodness and
grace. Stop thinking that things happen for a reason. Stop trying to answer the
question, “Why did this happen to me?” Stop asking “Why?” And start asking,
“What purpose could use even this to
transform and make whole?” Start asking, “How can this possibly become a means of healing and grace in my life or in
anybody’s?” And put yourself in the service of a purpose beyond our power to
conceive—much less make sense of—much less understand—much less explain.
Transcendence
is the first step to transformation. We transcend the madness of mindless
destruction, chaos and evil when we trust ourselves to a purpose that can use even this to connect people with the
ground of wholeness—the source of life and being. Of course, the power to do
this lies beyond “because I say so,” but courses through the heart of your
experience with life. You know the truth of the experience of a purpose beyond
your own purpose at work in your life. I am not making this up or telling you
something you have no knowledge of. What I’m saying here connects you with what
you know to be true because you have experienced it, you have felt it, you have
touched—and been touched by it.
You
are not here, now, by your own hand. You had nothing to do with arranging the
turning points in your life, where you might have gone some other way to some
other outcome and been somewhere else now—if it had not been for an unexplainable
event, or act, or word at just the moment you needed such to turn things one
way and not another, and now here you are. Not by your own doing. There is more
than you at work in your life. And I’m saying be aware of it. Know what you
know. Trust it. Align yourself with its thrust and direction. Be confident in
the flow of its current, and look to it to carry you through all of the winds
and waves of time to lands you cannot imagine and adventures beyond belief.
In
other words, do not quit. Do not despair. Do not give up. You are not alone
with your life. Open yourself to purposes beyond your power to conceive and say,
“Okay. I’m with you. Show me what you got.” And see where it goes. What,
exactly, do you have to lose?
