Remembering and Forgetting our Spiritual Lessons

July 17, 2013

In the morning I remember, by the afternoon I’ve forgotten, in the evening I remember again.  How many times I can remember and forget the same spiritual lesson?  It helps to have a good sense of humor about it.  Spiritual lessons are generally simple yet profound. We “get it” in an Aha! moment of recognition and breathe a sigh of relief in the awareness.  Suddenly we feel unstuck, clarity or an opening to new possibility.

When we learn a new spiritual lesson, it often feels like we are remembering something we’ve long forgotten because we are.  We are tapping into a universal truth that puts our earthly interpretation of life experiences in a healthier perspective. But it is easy to forget what we know when we get pulled into the prevailing energies operating around us, from demands at work or home, to our own impatience or fears of what might happen.

A coworker at my technology job is spiraling into worry, fear, and what-if scenarios during a phone call and it tosses the rest of my day out of alignment. Instead of feeling proactive and peaceful as I go through my work day I feel off-center and behind. Not even aware of what hit me.  A client calls with an “I need it now” demand and I forget to put it in perspective with the rest of my responsibilities. Only to find myself stressed out and behind trying to keep up with my prior commitments and complete the new request. I started the day out remembering and forgot. It takes a disruptive activity to remind me again such as a phone call from a friend or stepping outside to get lunch.

One of my spiritual lessons is “what is meant to be will be” or the Divine Plan is at work regardless of how it appears to me. It doesn’t mean I like it. I may feel sad, disappointed, disheartened or betrayed by God, confused, even angry. It is hardest to accept when what occurs feels like a loss. The unexpected death of a loved one, failure at something I’ve been working extremely diligently to accomplish, or struggling with something that seemed easy many times in the past. When we try every avenue only to have each lead to a dead-end, the Divine is sending us a message.  Our path is elsewhere.

Another personal spiritual lesson that I frequently forget and remember is regarding manifesting what I desire.  When I ask for something, if I can let go of how it arrives, (the timing and what form it takes) I’m more likely to notice when the prayer is answered. Demanding a certain form causes us to miss out on so many opportunities.  It’s in a sense trying to control the choices of others and the Divine. When we set an intention with control energy, such as “please help my current job give me a more flexible schedule, better pay, a boss who I feel is a mentor,” we are failing to allow flexibility in how it arrives. The job that offers these things may not be our current job but a new job that is more aligned with the request. When that other job shows up, we ignore the offer because we are stuck wanting our current job to change and match our desire.

The primary energies I’ve noticed get in the way of remembering my spiritual truths when I need them most are the fears and expectations of others.  Taking 10 minutes to get grounded and set my energy with a short meditation in the morning improves my odds of staying centered in the midst of all the energies that flow through my life in a day.  Meditation tools can be applied liberally here to re-center after we get thrown off, but that’s presuming we remember when it happens!

  • Jass says:

    I try to forward everything that feels unwelcome to me to the divine creator and ask to have it filtered, transformed, and sent back (if absolutely necessary) to me in a friendlier format for further review!
    This gives me a little more time think if I am the problem or “they are the problem”. It is usually them!!!!!!

  • Sandy Paul says:

    Yes, we do have to relearn the truths that keep us growing spiritually. A big one that I relearned recently- and it’s so elementary, but I needed a new life experience to reinforce it – is that God knows what I need and my part is to trust him to bring it about in the best timing. He’s near to all who call on him from a sincere heart and hears every cry, no matter how simple sounding to me it is like, “God help me!” Often I can’t even express what I need, but that doesn’t matter because God knows me far better than I know myself. He also knows that I need other people and most of the time my need is met through someone else. It’s like getting a hand up when I’m in steep terrain and need help from a fellow hiker..

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