Grit.
The essence of spiritual growth is learning to work directly with your inner energy rather than trying to affect it indirectly by controlling outer circumstances. When the outer world does not meet your preferences, your inner energy gets disturbed, and you either try to suppress it (which creates blockages) or reactively express it (which can cause its own problems). Instead, by relaxing in the face of the disturbed energy, welcoming it, and allowing it to rise and purify, the energy can be transmuted into spiritual growth.
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Grit. noun. Firmness of mind or spirit: unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger.
Kellie and I are in the Netherlands for a couple weeks to visit our daughters and their families, and of course the Dutch are famous for being a bicycle-society. Riding on two wheels feels closer to the earth somehow and closer to the community. Two days ago we rode a gentle 12 km on rolling hills of brilliant green (and the occasional vineyard) and discovered an ancient castle called Schaloen with a legit moat! We shared an apple strudel and coffee and pedaled back.
Yesterday’s ride was a different story! Yesterday’s ride started at the Valkenburg train station for what we imagined would be another easy 12 km into Maastricht. The first hill out of town was, I kid you not, two kilometers of steep incline. I rode maybe 100 meters and pushed the rest. Kellie did better. Exhausted, each of us with a backpack, we finally crested the top and settled in to ride… just as the wind started to kick up. I’m not talking a stiff breeze; I’m talking a knock-you-off-the-bike-path gale. Then the cold rain started to fall, hard. I wish I had a photo of the two of us—it would have looked something like the picture above, just on bikes. An hour later, we finally pulled up to our daughter’s house soaked to the bone and numb… but also kind of jazzed at what we had accomplished.
Some things in life just call for sheer grit.
Sometimes we wind up in circumstances we would not willingly choose, but we have to push through. In our fairly comfortable outer lives, monsoon cycling is pretty rare; more often it’s a difficult relationship or a sickness or financial pressures or some kind of angst or threat that pushes us far past our comfort zone and causes us to dig deep for spiritual resources. As the old adage goes, What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. There is some deep truth here, but the growth potential lies in how we respond to the disruption.
I’ve been pondering the epigraph above and noticing how often I do indeed try to suppress my disruptive energy or, alternately, let it fly. True to form, neither of those generate great results. But the invitation to relax into disruption and welcome my disturbed circumstances is counterintuitive to say the least! This is not my natural instinct… but I’m learning. Sometimes challenges actually cause our courage, ingenuity, and determination to rise; sometimes they bring out the best in us and show us a level of resiliency and resourcefulness we didn’t even know we had!
Another, more contemplative maxim: What you resist, persists. And it’s true. Trying to brace ourselves against disturbing circumstances just obstructs us with brittle impact. Raging against unwanted circumstances simply amplifies the emotional dissonance. But relaxing, trusting, welcoming: That changes the story completely.
Funny how this works: Once we remember that we are held in the loving hand of God, that we always have what we truly need, and that God makes the most impossible of circumstance come together for good, then—and only then—can we legitimately relax into the storm. We can let it blow and howl around us… and know that we are fully sustained. We can welcome circumstances to do their worst… and know that all will be well. And that, mystically speaking, all is already well.
growing your soul
Without doubt, the simplest spiritual practice to unclench and surrender into the present moment is The Welcome Practice. Take a refresher on this today.
serving our world
The only way to be a redemptive presence in the midst of storms is to access this relaxing, trusting, welcoming energy. All known as the Holy Spirit.
takeaway
Use Your Grit.