Just One Thing

During quarantine in this pandemic, I have had much wonderful time to read, contemplate, and write. What I have read has scaled from New Thought to occult psychology to Protestant discipline to Catholic tradition. I have prayed for my friends, and I have edified my relationship with Jesus by absorbing only what might agree with him. I know that this is not the time to loosen up and enjoy my spare time by throwing any sort of guidance out the window, this is the time of preparation for accommodating what is unnerving and uncomfortable.

In praying for an afflicted friend, I realized something that I have been taught now for years, but which I never fully grasped. It is not up to me to give rigid requests in order to ease an unfortunate or undesirable circumstance. It is not up to me to specifically ask for an outcome, to which I can't possibly know all of the options. 

Jesus said in his most agonizing hour, "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do", and I understand now that people act out of fear more often than not, and we make decisions where we feel the most supported, even when they hurt ourselves and others. This shows up most clearly in bullying, mob mentality, and hoarding. What I once thought was an example of human selfishness and stupidity I now understand to be an underlying sorrow that looks for relief through connection with others, no matter how destructive.

In learning the model of forgiveness, I realized that to pray for someone in a Christian way, and to practice visualization for manifestation in a New Thought way, are in a way, the same thing.  And where we go wrong is the unilateral decision that the outcome looks a certain way. But in fact, the only thing we are to request or to conjure up, is to have a circumstance healed.

Heal what is hurting my friend, heal my bodily infirmities, heal my irresponsible spending habits, heal my mental disintegration. When I ask for specific details, I am at risk of missing the entire point. Effective petitioning has nothing to do with a detailed blueprint, it has to do with an openness to accept whatever outcome might be produced through the request of reparation. 

Biblically speaking, to forgive a sin is to heal it. What I have come to miraculously understand is that to forgive a person is to forget what is in them which causes them to hurt others, and that instead of seeking punishment on a person, to ask God to cleanse their festering wounds. In other words, to forgive a person is to let them be freed of the shackles that they have bound themselves in. When the offender can be healed, the entire environment can be healed, and this is why we ask God to restore a person's soul, instead of asking Him to destroy their body. 

Whether healing our minds, collecting our worldly treasures, building our influence, or being released from toxic relationships, it all comes down to one thing: asking for our trauma to be released. Only God is All-knowing, and only God knows the proper solution to our problems. When we ask the right questions, we are led to the solution that is best for the dilemma at hand, and there are no loose ends when the request is simply to heal us and others.

Magical Doorway by Estalaveda