In every life, one must experience being the crucified and being the one who executes the crucifixion. This is part of Earth School. It teaches us compassion. It teaches us forgiveness. It teaches us humility. So many awakenings come from both sides of this issue.
I don’t know about you, but the occasions where I have been the perpetrator of another person’s pain are infinitely more excruciating than any pain that I have experienced resulting from another human’s misjudgment. The remorse that you relive when you are alone is searing. I still give myself a talking-to when I find that I have inadvertently wounded the spirit of another. But we evolve, don’t we? Through beginning to understand spiritual principles, I have absorbed these truths into my being.
- At a soul level, no one ever means to hurt you. If there is a difference of a point of view or a conflict, I accept that the individual has taken on the role of teacher in my spiritual education.
- For myself, I back off, take a remote view and analyze situations where I have hurt another person. I don’t believe that I ever had a conscious intent to cause pain. Still, the fact that I did cause pain cannot negated. Yet I believe that when we account for our lives in our “review,” we are given the ultimate grace. We must learn to provide that grace for ourselves.
If we are to grow as spiritual beings and have a human experience, we must evolve from our judgments of ourselves and others. There comes a time when we can no longer carry around our pain and decide to let go of that energy barrier that blocks our hope for better lives.
I think about this guy who loved the game of golf, but now he was retired and could play any time he wanted. His wife (secretly happy to have him out of her way for a while) gifted him a new golfing outfit. He was so snazzy. So one day, he puts on his outfit, and off he goes. About 10 hours later, he comes home and looks like he rolled in the mud. He has been sweating, he has dirt on his face, his shirttail is out, and his pants are dirty. The wife gets bug-eyed and says, “You look terrible; what in the world is the matter? What happened?” He plops down on the kitchen chair, elbows on the table, and his face is in his hands. He replies, “Everything was going great until the 9th hole when Harry falls down dead of a heart attack. The rest of the way, it was, hit the ball, drag Harry. Hit the ball, drag Harry. It was awful!”
Isn’t that what we do to ourselves? We carry a burden that we should have put down long ago. We rehearse our bad repeatedly, not being able to forgive ourselves when God forgave us from the beginning. Then, we hoard and rehearse our wounds over and over until our bodies can no longer absorb the hate, and we contaminate our physical vehicles until they no longer work. How many “Dead Harrys” do we have to tote around until the burden becomes too heavy? Rev. Pat
