Day 149b: Giving hugs from Heaven … (September 25, 2019)
Actually, if “Satan” is ever found to be knocking on your door, Jesus himself – along with all of human history’s other great & noble Wise Ones – would have you answer that door yourself; with boldness in your hands, and compassion in your heart …
“Why is everyone still trying to find out whether Heaven and Hell exist? I mean, why do we need more evidence? For they both clearly already exist right here on this very Earth. Hell is in every war zone and every prison and every ghetto and every slaughterhouse, while just a few yards away Heaven is ever waiting patiently – in every defense of a downtrodden and every liberation of an oppressed and every kindness given to an enemy and every sacrifice of service offered to a stranger. Yes, both Hell & Heaven already exist indeed, and yet all we are doing to diminish the former is sigh & shrug & like & share, while all we do – in vain, no less – to enter the latter is hope and pray and pause and wonder. And what does this vapid cowardice make us; those who only think and feel and yearn instead of reaching out to act and do and truly care? Are we even one jot or tittle better than the gatekeepers of the damned? … Yes, others need grace, no doubt, and yet the grace they need is not what we are told to think. For the grace that works – the grace that fulfills the Will of any all-loving God – is not a wish or a prayer or a hope or a dream. It isn’t devoutly attending church services or piously dumping coins & bills into tithing plates, and it certainly isn’t condemning or in any way judging others for beliefs that happen to differ from our own. No, the grace that works – the grace that truly moves internal mountains – is the kindness of an unknown, the forgiveness of a scoundrel, and the boldly just energy of the social activist. It is the joy of giving and the honor of receiving. It is the dance of caring and the interconnection of community. It is the humbling of self and the uplifting of others. All these things are what make life more then worth living, and all of them do not rain down from the heavens, but rather well up from within. So let us live accordingly – let us spread blessings with our hands and pour out kindness with our mouths. Let us love without seeking to be loved and serve without seeking to be served. Let us walk and share and live as pure agents of the Divine, and thereby enter the Heaven that waits for us all here on Earth … Amen – Let it today be so!” ~ inspired by Kamand Kojouri & Israel Morrow
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