SadhanaOriental Meditation and Christian Prayer
Contemplation in action
ーIn relation with othersー
[14] Receiving things delivered to us trying not to avoid them
We live our lives towards our goals in our own way. At the same time, we are significantly influenced by things coming from our surrounding environment. Some of them make us happy and others make us want to reject (avoid) them. Things delivered to us contain very important things for us to assess how we relate with God.
Let’s consider how we behave when a thing is delivered to us.
Many things make us happy.
They would be a birthday gift, warm reply to our letter or email, flowers and fruit of plant we grow in the garden, monthly salary for workers, and pension notice for recipients. They would also be sunshine, visit of a small bird, or clear sky on a picnic day.
In our life, we have plentiful blessings. In receiving these, we should thank God from our heart because they are delivered to us by grace of God, who creates and supports all of these.
By the way, it is not as easy as it seems to receive small kindness of our neighbors.
“Your bags look heavy. Let me carry one for you.” “No, thanks. I am still young.”
“You can use mine.” “No thanks. Mine will do.”
Actually, it is better to accept these offers. Those who offer help often see the better way to handle a situation. Let’s think about it from the opposite side.
You might have the following experience when you were the one who offered help. For example, a person (Mr. A) is in trouble. I am walking with Mr. A side by side. The wind blows up the dust. I barely managed to prevent the dust from getting in my eyes, but Mr. A got too much dust in his eyes. He is trying to find a handkerchief, but he cannot find it. I ask him to use mine, and he says, “No, I am okay. I can handle this.” He keeps looking for a handkerchief while also rubbing his eyes and blinking. It is by far the better to gently press a clean cloth on his eyes and get rid of dust with tears. But Mr. A keeps others away from him, and even rejects my offer to use my handkerchief. Mr. A cannot get rid of his physical discomfort, and I feel disappointed. I wanted him to accept my offer with broad mind.
As you can see, it is good to humbly receive these offers. Now, let’s direct our heart to God. Assume that God is in my position, and I am in Mr. A’s position, which happens often. In such a situation, we may say to God, “No, I am okay, I can handle this myself.”
When we cannot be humble, we often lose our opportunity to develop ourselves into a better-rounded being by grace of God. Also in our actual life, it is disappointing that some awkwardness remains.
By the way, when we keep receiving kindness of others wisely and humbly, we will be able to accept our life in general with gratitude. First, we are happy and thankful for kindness of others. Then, we can also feel kind attention of God behind many of these kind intentions. Those who are accustomed to accepting generosity of others wisely are also good at accepting the good graces of God.
In our life, we also have many things that are contrary to what is described above. There are many things that seem cumbersome, uncomfortable, or disagreeable.
Let’s not immediately escape from these things, but first, examine each one of them. If it is too heavy and unreasonable, we can look for a way to avoid it.
Consider whether we can accept a thing that we should accept based on the Christian principle of love. If we think that we can manage to accept it, then let’s accept it with broad mind and keep loving people by bearing the burden. If we are asked to go grocery shopping, give a ride to a train station, or drop a mail in a mail box, we should try our best to accept such requests as the practice of love of our neighbors.
We have difficulty with some people we relate with. If it is too difficult, we may have to avoid the person. But if we can continue the relationship by small patience, we can accept the person with a generous spirit. By trying to overcome mutual difference with patience, we can develop into a broader and better-rounded being. When we interact with a person who has something different from us, we encounter a different “world” that we do not have. And we can enjoy the new world. We are enriched by accepting a person who is different from us.
Let’s think that, when things are delivered to us, the Father as an educator comes to us. God sometimes invites us to work on things that seem obviously fun, and other times on things that are uncomfortable, harsh, and difficult. We cannot become a deeper and broader being if we are only invited to fun things. God provides us with things that we do not like, and asks us to accept them and work on them in a proper manner so that we can grow further. Our Father fosters us in a loving manner like this.
Let’s develop the habit to think that things delivered to us are delivered from our Father who is an educator. And accept good things with gratitude. And let’s accept things that we do not like and that seem difficult by thinking that God tries to make us grow so that we can gain more deepness and broadness. In the latter case, God comes closer to us and stays with us.