Good morning…
As I have invested hours upon hours creating a companion journal for our upcoming “Awake To Wholeness” Women’s Retreat, I ran across these very life-giving words: “Only those who have confronted their pride and come to humility fully experience harmony in relationship with God, with others, and with self,” says ninety-four year old Christian mystic Betty Skinner. “Such harmony then opens an infinite vastness for others to move about freely in. Remember that love always takes the initiative. Love affirms and honors the dignity of each human soul. Love feels no power or superiority in the humiliation and desecration of another fellow sufferer.”
Betty turns her sights to Christ’s example: “Jesus was unjustly condemned by the mob, but He didn’t defend Himself. He kept silent, and His silence enabled a far greater good. Stretched out on the cross, He turned toward the universe with utter forgiveness. ‘Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.'”
Betty says as she walks the slow, steady steps of spiritual transformation: “I had to learn this forgiveness, but there was no way I could until I shifted my focus from ‘the other’ to the Beloved.” (Crenshaw and Snapp’s The Hidden Life Awakened, 128)
As we shift our focus from “the other,” to the Beloved, may we learn the art of utter forgiveness.
If you keep growing in this way, it will show that what you know about our Lord Jesus Christ has made your lives useful and meaningful. But if you don’t grow, you are like someone who is nearsighted or blind, and you have forgotten that your past sins are forgiven (2 Peter 1:8-9, CEV).
…Sue…
P.S. To learn more about our “Awake To Wholeness” Women’s Retreat:
CLICK LINK FOR INFORMATION AND TICKETS: AWAKE TO WHOLENESS WOMEN’S RETREAT
