Hello friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in docks.
Welcome back as we continue this series,
God Is.
And today on Day 18.
One that could be tricky for some,
But I hope that you'll sit with this and allow it to slowly seep into the soil of your heart.
God is the one in whom we belong.
Yes friend,
All of us.
With that I just invite you to take a nice deep breath in.
And out.
And just settle fully into this moment.
As we ask the Spirit to open our ears to hear.
Our minds to conceive.
And our hearts to receive the seed of life.
Of the words that the Spirit has for us today into good soil.
And that that soil might sprout that seed to bring fruit.
Both for us and for the whole world.
I think you know where I'm going.
That question.
That's at the heart of every human being.
Do I belong?
Where do I belong?
How do I belong?
Is there a place for me?
To belong.
And while we may not say it like that.
You also find that at the heart of other questions like,
Am I successful?
Am I impressive?
Am I good enough?
Am I important?
And we pitch the question that way.
And that makes us try and answer it.
Indirectly through things like achievement and relationships and work and recognition.
And religion.
And being needed and things like that.
We build these identities and then we hope that those identities will give us somewhere to stand,
Something that we can feel like we belong to.
Here's what I want you to try and understand today.
What if belonging comes first and we've misunderstood the order of things?
I think a lot of us imagine and think of the spiritual life as a journey towards God.
We think we belong on the outside.
So if we do… the right things and if we believe.
The right things and we become.
Better people.
Then eventually,
If we succeed at that,
We can make our way inside.
But I'm suggesting to you today that that's backwards.
What if the truth is that we already live in God?
Remember in Acts 7 saying where Paul says in God we live and move and have our being in God.
God.
And as you hold this in your mind,
You might see suddenly how everything we've been exploring begins to come together.
God is grace.
Grace means love comes first.
God is already saying yes.
And the Divine Yes isn't waiting for us to be or do anything at all.
God is home.
And home means belonging.
Rather than earning.
God is love and love creates communion.
God is relationship in and of itself and now God is the one in whom We belong.
Now,
It doesn't mean that everything we do is good or that choices don't matter.
They do.
Love matters.
Justice matters.
How we treat people matters.
But what we're saying here is that our behavior doesn't create our belonging.
It grows out of our belonging.
And that's a very different way of living.
Imagine for a moment a child.
And this child believes they have to constantly perform to remain part of the family.
Every good mark.
Earns them another day of belonging.
Every mistake puts their place at risk.
Every failure means they might be sent away.
And unfortunately there are some children who live like this.
Perhaps it happened for you.
And that's just exhausting.
And maybe because of that.
.
.
Or maybe because we don't understand.
The nature of God.
We carry the same image.
About God,
That God's some defined parent.
Keeping a ledger,
Big cosmic scoreboard,
Spiritual performance reviews,
Good behavior gets us closer,
Bad behavior pushes God away.
But what if the gospel is announcing something more radical than that,
That you belong before you perform?
Before you succeed.
You're loved and held before you even understand.
You exist before you've achieved anything.
Your life is already participating in the divine gift of love.
Which means that salvation Salvation's awakening to the fact that we have never existed anywhere else.
And this is where I think Christianity becomes real.
Wonderful.
Bit in a slightly strange way because we don't We just belong to God.
We belong in God.
And that's a really important difference,
To belong to someone.
Can sound like ownership,
But to belong in someone,
That's different.
That's about participation,
Life within life,
Love within love,
Existence within existence.
In God we live and move and have our being.
Win the invitation.
Of the spiritual life is how do I become awake to the God in whom I already live?
Then that changes the practices and the reason why we engage in those practices,
Things like worship and prayer and meditation and reflection,
Even service.
It also changes failure.
And it changes how,
Or it should change how we see other people.
Because if I live in God.
.
.
And you live in God.
Then maybe the person that I'm tempted to dismiss or forget or ignore is not outside the sacred,
But inside the sacred.
With all of us.
And this means that there is nowhere.
Nowhere that's outside the reach of divine love.
I think this is what it means to say that God is love,
That love isn't some place out there waiting for us to discover it.
Love is the atmosphere of our existence.
It's the ground beneath our feet.
It's the mystery in which we live.
So today friend,
Let me just say it simply,
There's nothing you need to achieve,
Nothing you need to prove.
All you need to do is offer your attention.
Notice,
Breathe and remember.
You belong.
And you don't need to earn it.
Or perform well enough to get it,
Or to become a person that you think you should be,
Or anything like that.
You belong,
My friend,
Because love is where you came from.
Love is what holds you.
Love is what envelops you now.
And love is where?
Ultimately.
You are going.
And in that love.
He's weird.
Yay.
Belong.
And in that love is where you are.
And may grace,
Peace,
And love.
Just overflow.
In your life,
In your heart.
Today and always.
You belong,
Friend.
I'm so glad that you are here.
I'm so glad that you're listening to these audios with me and with everybody else across the world who's listening to them together with you.
You belong.
You belong here.
With us.
And with God.
Much love,
My friend.
Peace be with you until tomorrow.
Bye for now.
