Interfaith Celebration Gathering

 

 

Connecting with God

 

Sometimes we get so busy interacting with the outside world that we forget to look inside ourselves. We forget to identify and process what we are feeling. We do our work, we rest, and we assess others, but we do not look inside ourselves.

 

But it is inside ourselves that we connect with God. Inside ourselves lies our inner beauty. God put it there, and it is up to us to discover it. But sadly, many of us have been told things during our lives that keep us from looking within ourselves.

 

We have been warned about having false pride, we have been told that “pride goeth before a fall”, and we have been told not to “toot our own horn”. From all of these messages many of us have gotten the idea that it is not okay to discover and cherish our own inner beauty.

 

Some of us go from not looking inside ourselves to building a false front that we present to others, a false front that is often far removed from our authentic self. Thus, when we entertain the idea of looking within ourselves, we shy away from it because we are scared of what we may find. We may even fear that the ‘house of cards’ false front might tumble down leaving us with a self we do not know. We fear that if people really knew who we are, they would not like us.

 

But if we ever hope to fully know God, we have to set aside the persona we have created and delve inside ourselves to see who we truly are.  As we do this, we need to hold onto the idea that God created us, and God loves us – all of us – not just the good parts of us, but all of us. But how can God love the bad parts of us that we find inside ourselves when we journey within?

 

We may find ourselves saying “I have no bad parts,” but that is just our false front talking. We all have bad parts, thoughts and ideas we feel shame about, memories of negative things we have done and said to others.

 

God’s love is unconditional. Unconditional love is love that is not based on who we are, what we have done, what we own, what we wear, or how we have acted. Unconditional love is the love that surrounds us, comforts us, and assures us that who we are is not only acceptable but precious.

 

With God’s help, we need no longer be afraid to look within ourselves and see what hides inside us. With God’s unconditional love surrounding us, there is nothing we can find within ourselves that cannot be blessed and changed. But we must get past what we consider to be our ‘bad’ parts before we can see our inner beauty.

 

Once we connect with our inner beauty, we will be able to connect more fully with God.

 

May the God of love add a blessing to these humble words.

AMEN

© 2011 Rev. S. Suzanne Fisher