It is good to remember that a part of
you has always loved God. There is a part of you that has always said yes.
There is a part of you that is Love itself, and that is what we must fall
into. It is already there. Once you move your identity to that level of
deep inner contentment, you will realize you are drawing upon a Life that is
much larger than your own and from a deeper abundance. Once you learn this, why
would you ever again settle for scarcity in your life? “I’m not enough! This is
not enough! I do not have enough!” I am afraid this is the way culture trains
you to think. It is a kind of learned helplessness. The Gospel message is just
the opposite—inherent power.
Thomas Merton said that the way we have structured
our lives, we spend our whole life climbing up the ladder of supposed success,
and when we get to the top of the ladder we realize it is leaning against the
wrong wall—and there is nothing at the top anyway. To get back to the place of
inherent abundance, you have to let go of all of the false agendas,
unreal goals, and passing self-images. It is all about letting go. The
spiritual life is more about unlearning than learning, because the deepest you already
knows and already enjoys (1 John 2:21).
Richard Rohr
