Awakening to Wholeness is a series of prompts, reflections, and teachings about how holding the tension of opposites can help us to heal division and experience wholeness. If you feel moved to share your own reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites”.
What is my purpose in life? How am I to know what to do in order to make the world a better place? What do I really, most deeply desire?
Too often, in theistic circles, we pit questions about our personal will against questions about the Divine Will. We think, if this is what I want, then surely what God wants for me is way over there, opposing my own will. Our questions become more complicated: how do I know what God wants for me? How do I know if I am following the will of God?
To resolve the seeming tensions, we might consider a third “place” along the continuum of will. Here, we sink down and in, away from opposition. If we trust the teaching that God is Love, we will likely come across a loving space in which own deepest desires align with the Love of God. From the perspective of this loving space, we might see that Divine Will and Divine Love are One.
How do I know if I am following God’s will? If the path or the action leads to Love, we can be clear minded and full hearted about the appropriate response. God’s will, always and everywhere, is to Love. It begins with, goes through, and ends in Love, always. In learning to listen for the language of Love, we can learn the pathways of discovering God’s will. Truly! These are a blessed two-for-one!
Contemplative Questions
We offer the following questions as prompts to help you reflect on the presence of opposites in your spiritual practice and your life.
- Do you tend to imagine that God’s will is separate from, even opposed to, your own will? How does this thinking affect you? How does it affect your prayer life or relationship with God?
- In your prayer life, have you ever struggled to trust the teaching that God is Love? How do you practice listening for the language of Love?
- How has God’s Love illuminated God’s will in your own life?
You must be logged in to post a comment.