Room for God

It seems that one of the greatest difficulties that we experience in life is to let go - to let go of preconceived ideas, opinions, thoughts and reactions to events in the mundane world. We cling to our feelings of personal responsibility, the idea that we must put everything right.

Thomas A. Kempis, the revered 15th century monk and religious writer, tells us "Fly the turmoil of the world as you can, for the treating of worldly affairs can be a great hindrance, although it is done with sincere intention." We need to let go, to detach ourselves from the circumstances about us, not to worry, fret, agonise and torment ourselves inevitably into a state of misery. We need to relinquish our concept of a shortage of time, of pressure, and the need for haste. There will be time for all things!

Do we hold on to disappointments, hardships, frustration, emotions, slights, grudges, harsh words - other people's failure to fulfill their obligations? Do we in fact fill our minds with these perceptions so that there is no room for the thoughts of God - the Good, the True and the Beautiful?

These negative mental habits enter our behaviour from a part of our mind below conscious thinking.

We might consider this sub-conscious mind like the memory of a computer where bits of information are stored in particular locations, like bits of information stored in pigeon holes, and when we want to solve a computer problem we call for the desired information from this store of memory. This whole process has limitations, because we can retrieve from the individual pigeon holes of memory only that which is stored there. Also, the computer memory may be full, so that it has no further capacity to store. Then we need to remove some information and rewrite new information into the memory.

Our minds are just like that - we store away bits of information and when problems arise we call them forth as required. But we must realise that we can call forth only that which is stored there. Therefore, it is essential that the information placed in our memory is of the right-positive-type.
Saint Paul tells us: "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of good report, think of these things." If our minds are cluttered with the wrong sort of thoughts, negative thoughts, we must make room for the True thoughts of God.

How can God operate in our lives if we have not made room for Him, if we are engrossed and plagued with that which is not good? Then even God cannot help us, for He has made us free agents and has give us choices. He says "Here is your mind, use it, fill it with what you will, but remember that the thoughts with which you fill your mind are creative and will shape and give form to the life that you are manifesting."

Fortunately for us, changes can be made if the life that we are expressing is not satisfactory. The Master revealed this possibility in the promise "I have come that ye may have life and have it more abundantly" and further "Abide in Me, and let My words abide in you" - words of love, sweetness, compassion, truth and beauty.

But, however we think and express life, even if it is an extremely negative form and in spite of all our omissions and commissions - things we have omitted to do and things that we should not have done - God's Love and power are always available to us, 24 hours a day. Nothing can separate us from the Love of God. We are never alone.

However, this omnipresent companionship of God does not relieve us of having to make positive changes in our lives,for a central aspect of God is Law - the Law of sowing and reaping. For example, perhaps we have to work with someone whose personality, behaviour, or point of view are very different from our own. Perhaps they make us feel insecure of unsure? We may find ourselves clinging to feelings of frustration. What is to be done? How can we handle it? Some people may seek to leave that environment and move to another. Yet, strangely, the situation often re-occurs and they are left with the vague feeling that they have taken the problem with them. So we came to the realization that we need to deal with the problem where it arises rather that trying to avoid it.

For a start we should become aware of the power we give to others over our emotions. It is as though they were in charge of them, not ourselves. Why do we care so much for other people's opinions, and become so easily aroused? Is it because we are not sufficiently attuned to the Infinite within us? Did not the Master teach us "What is that (worldly circumstances) to thee, follow thou Me."

Thomas A. Kempis puts it this way: "We might enjoy much peace if we would not busy ourselves with the words and deeds of others, and with things which appertain nothing to our charge."
In our consciousness we need to separate people from their actions and to detach ourselves from the latter, thinking of ourselves "This has nothing to do with me, they are just working out their destiny." We are told to love our enemies because resentment allows people to occupy our minds and gives them power over us,, while love sets us free. In Human relationships, the more good we see in other people, the better they and we become, while the more negation we see in others, the worse they and we become.

We need to see opportunity in adversity and, should adversity come, to think "This is a good time to make room for God" and then just to think of God and of all the attributes of God - the Good, the True and the Beautiful.

This is the way that our inner strength is developed, by not concerning ourselves with the why or the how, but just relaxing and inwardly remembering that we are "making room for God" - just letting go and letting God! Soon the Presence will be felt. although we will not have words to describe it.
When we are consciously aware that the Spirit of God is within us, we "see through" the personality that others are expressing, and the God in us meets the God in them. Then new thoughts will arise about the relationship. This is God giving us direction, enabling us to feel more peaceful, better able to cope with private feelings and reactions.

When we thus open ourselves to direction from God as what to say and what to do, we enter a Universal Consciousness that is entirely supportive of us, and we can affirm this new Consciousness, whenever we feel the need, thus - "This is a good time to make room for God"
Frank Whittney, the modern American poet, expresses these ideas with beautiful simplicity in his poem, "The Other Fellow"

Through our eyes the other fellow
Oft appears as someone strange,
Someone that we cannot fathom,
Someone we should like to change.
Something of ourself we vision
When we look at other men:
Oft their faults are ours for mending
By our quite superior ken.
Know then when we judge adversely,
When our thoughts condemning road,
That reform had best be started
In ourself and right at home!