Readings

Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.

Orison Swett Marden

 

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices, but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.

Albert Einstein

 

Adversity draws men together and produces beauty and harmony in life's relationships, just as the cold of winter produces ice-flowers on the window-panes, which vanish with the warmth.

Soren Kierkegaard

Harmony is one phase of the law whose spiritual expression is love.

James Allen

Good morning, good morning, good morning! I am so happy to see you here! Today I want to talk about who we are when we meet with adversity and who our adversaries really are. I want to do that in light of the book by Ernest Holmes brother that I read recently, Ernest Holmes, His Life and Times. Fenwicke Holmes wrote that three themes pervaded Holmes' teachings throughout his life:

1. Treatment, which is the form of prayer that Holmes developed that says that prayer occurs within our thinking, that there is one mind that is common to all humankind and that by changing your thinking you could change your life.

2. Being "open at the top." We will discuss what that means today, and in the beginning let us think of it as the amazing idea that we can remain open to what life is teaching us.

3. Ernest Holmes had the "conviction of "immortality" as being just as important as our awareness of there being One Life.

These three principles add up to a way to meet all of life with joy and deep love.

Just about everybody loves angels. Often we hear things like "angels walk amongst us." A while back it seemed like there were so many angel statues in one spiritual book store I went to that I couldn't find the books. The Hindus have angels called Devas, which are the Spirit of something such as a great tree, a sacred place, or simply the Spirit that protects a particular village, family, even an individual. How do we recognize an angel? And what do angels have to do with conflict? We all like to avoid conflict, and in doing so, sometimes what we are doing is failing to recognize an angel. We all love without question those angels that bring us cookies and milk, we like the angels who bring us a glass of good wine, and we pray for the angel who supervises our work to give us a day off from it, but when an angel shows up who doesn't agree with us, who doesn't "get" who we are, who questions our assumptions and our motivations, are we able to love them? Are we able to see an angel in such adversity? So how do these principles apply to adversity?

This week I had one of those weeks where there were some of these "difficult" angels. Not everybody makes it easy for us to see the Divine in them. Adversity is often born of innocent mistakes. It only takes one moment of profound humanness to initiate a chain of misunderstanding and therein, the angel of adversity is born!

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. This amicable conflict with difficulty helps us to an intimate acquaintance with our object, and compels us to consider it in all its relations. It will not suffer us to be superficial.

Edmund Burke

In the Bible, Jacob was the younger of two brothers, twins, born to Isaac and Rebekah. His name was later changed to Israel, from which the name of the Jewish nation comes. Jacob, in a moment of profound humanness, tricked his brother and father, Isaac into giving him the blessing as the first-born son. Being the first born carried with it certain privileges which he desired. Because of this trick, it was Jacob who married Rachel. It was because of his love for Rachel that he coveted the privilege of being declared the first born. Jacob worked for Rachel's father for some twenty years. Then Jacob gets the news that his brother, Esau, is coming to visit, and Jacob finally has to come to terms with the deception he had worked on his father and his brother.

You can think of this "issue" as the angel that Jacob sought out and wrestled with. Jacob sought a clean slate, he was afraid that his brother Esau would seek to repay him for what he had done, and he may also have been seeking a way to find his way back into a loving relationship of his family. In so doing he met with the Angel of the Lord, they became engaged in a struggle, and Jacob said to the Angel, "I will not release you until you bless me."

There are many ideas we can take from this biblical story. One is that it sometimes takes us a very long time to discover the opportunity to make amends for our mistakes. Sometimes we spend this time in feelings of unworthiness, low self-esteem or a failure to appreciate the divinity that is within us.

So let's take this story and weave it together with Ernest Holmes' three principles:

1. Treatment, we can always change our mind. This is what Jacob was seeking to do. He had one idea of how he had to do things when he was very young, and another idea when he was older. He sought to change what he had done in whatever way he could, and what he had thought and so he sought the Angel.

Like everything metaphysical the harmony between thought and reality is to be found in the grammar of the language. says Ludwig Wittgenstein. It is important to remember that what we say and do tells the universe what we profoundly believe and it gives back to us what we have modeled.

2. Being open at the top. This is the idea that just because we thought something once, that we don't have to continue thinking that thing forever. New ideas can come. We are open to development at all times. This is living life as an inquiry into its essence, its true nature. Generally, for most of our lives we don't know what that is, and yet, when we struggle with the angel, whether that angel be Life itself or a particular circumstance, when we allow ourselves to experience the adversity that sometimes comes, when we ask it for its blessing, a transformation occurs in us. We are changed, we grow, we are blessed and this blessing ripples out from us blessing all of life in its many connections.

3. Eternality. We are eternal, all of life is eternal, in other words, we have the time to work this all out. There is no shortage of opportunity to change our lives and this is just as important as the idea that we can be aware that there is One Life. These two things work together and give us freedom to go about self-realization. Each and everything we do is connected to all of Life for all of time. Eventually, it will all come out in the wash, so to speak, so we need not worry. It is up to us to express our self in in so doing to celebrate the One Life of which we are a part. It is up to us to enjoy it. This does not require that we agree. It is merely required that there be One Life and that it is an Eternal Life.

Jacob did not always do the right thing, yet he seemed to be in touch with God -- and surrounded by visions, dreams and even angels. The lesson we can learn from this is that while we will blow it in life many times -- meaning we will not always be perfect -- that God is there to listen to us and help us if we call out. God's ear is there for us.

Jacob wrestled with the angel and would not give up until the blessing of self-realization was his. This is what we must do, and it does not require that each part of the Divine agree with each other part. We have different roles to play in Life or it would be dull indeed. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe said: "One can be very happy without demanding that others agree with them." Isn't that an amazing truth!

People are going to want to fill you in on things that you already know. Get used to it.

Remember, When you run into someone who is disagreeable to others, you may be sure he is uncomfortable with himself; the amount of pain we inflict upon others is directly proportional to the amount we feel within us.

The only harmony that is required is one that Marcus Aurelius pointed to: "He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe." This is in agreement with the wisdom of the ages. We are not looking for dull sameness here, you don't get harmony when everybody sings the same note.

One man gets nothing but discord out of a piano; another gets harmony. No one claims the piano is at fault. Life is about the same. The discord is there, and the harmony is there. Study to play it correctly, and it will give forth the beauty; play it falsely, and it will give forth the ugliness. Life is not at fault. Thoreau shares with us about friends and friendship,

"To say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy. Most contemplate only what would be the accidental and trifling advantages of Friendship, as that the Friend can assist in time of need by his substance, or his influence, or his counsel. Even the utmost goodwill and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody."

Grace has been defined as the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul. This is the angel in the midst of adversity. Like Jacob wrestling with the angel, we must find a way to let go of the past, of the judgments and the disappointments and let the angel of adversity bless us. It is the moment when out of the discord harmony is found.

Gandhi said "Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." Out of adversity and discord, think of the struggles of a fledgling orchestra and its work together, and that public performance when they all move together in grace, playing their separate parts, in complete beauty and harmony. If they did not stay open at the top and allow the inquiry of what harmony is to stand out before them, it would not have ever graced the stage for our enjoyment. Such is life, such is the angel of adversity.

AFFIRMATION

I keep the telephone of my mind open to peace, harmony, health, love, and abundance. Then, whenever doubt, anxiety, or fear try to call me, they will keep getting a busy signal and soon they'll forget my number.

Edith Armstrong