There is nothing that takes place in life, including all of the ugliness in it, that isn’t part of our preparation for discovering within ourselves, the eternal ability to transcend what has been disturbed. And the way in which the eternal process of transcending what is disturbed is through an act of Love. It is the act of Love alone that enlarges our life because it is the merging of who and what we have been with, that which we have yet to discover about ourselves, even though it is latent within us. Wherever we are, whatever is occurring, is an opportunity for us to take the steps required to experience the unshakable faith that, no matter what is given to us, it is for the sake and perfection of the Love we would know.
First Step: Learn To See The Good Of Being Acted Upon
Here comes a lesson: Somebody is unpleasant or unkind toward us. And what do we do with that moment? We reciprocate in kind, don’t we? The moment stirs in us, a latent unkindness, a latent judge. We identify with and act from the latent judge. The lesson doesn’t release us from that latent unconscious nature; it actually solidifies it in us. Impatience breeds impatience. Rudeness breeds rudeness. And whatever the negative state is, come all of the subsequent ways in which we justify what we are. Therefore, we have to see the good of being acted on. We need to realize that the lesson has come to us, that moment of resistance, that moment that we don’t want and we must realize that there is something in it for us. Perfect Love teaches us through itself through these lessons that life brings – that we can have faith; that there is goodness in them if we will surrender to them. We learn the goodness in the lesson by surrendering to it, not resisting it.
Second Step: Agree To See What Is Revealed By These Acts Upon Us
When we agree to see what is revealed by these acts, we decide in favor of what we intuit is true. There’s nothing that any of us can do about the world other than to do our own part in acting out what we know is true – to discover a greater relationship with that which won’t betray us. Seeing the good of being acted upon means we have to see the good of what the moment is sounding out within us; the reality of that moment is inseparable from the way we resonate with what it “plays” in us; in this “music”, sometimes there’s dissonance, at times harmony, or flat or sharp notes sound themselves out in us; but we learn to see the good of each and every note because through them, we discover more about the truth of ourselves.
Third Step: Surrender To Both – The Revealing Force And To The Force Revealed.
If we bring ourselves awake in that moment and allow the light of awareness to act upon what has been revealed, that light will do what we have yet been unable to do for ourselves, which is to consent to being recreated in an image greater than we can imagine. When this light touches what has been formerly in the dark, there is indeed integration, an act of Love. The evidence of the act of Love is that what emerges from it, is a new consciousness that places us in a new relationship with the world, both outside and inside. In order to realize the oneness we are seeking, we must let Love be perfected in us. God perfects our Love by showing us through His movement, within and without, that which is yet to have been perfected by the light that reveals it. Then we stand upon a ground that always existed in us, only that we never knew it was a part of ourselves that dwells in timeless reality. (Excerpted from “Seven Steps to Oneness” by Guy Finley)
