All is Well

There have been important issues on my mind recently, and to be honest they have upset me. The impeachment proceedings have raised a dust storm of emotions. The other issue on my mind is the climate crisis, due to the impassioned talk by 16-year-old Greta Thunberg at the United Nations recently.

My emotional reaction to these events has disturbed my peace of soul. This has caused me to look again at the role of emotion in spirituality. When praying about these matters I notice that emotions come. It is right and proper that they arise. These are important issues in the life of our nation and our world.

Then the emotions subside, as they always do. One cannot live in a heightened state of stress. That is a recipe for physical and emotional disease. Yet it seems that we do not act to resolve such issues without the motivating power of emotion. But upon further reflection I see a way to act in a socially responsible way without raising our mainsail to a hurricane of emotion.

Max Ehrmann says in his Desiderata, “Whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.” Julian of Norwich said, “All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.” These are expressions of the spiritual virtues of faith and hope. History – whether it involves the government of the United States or the fate of life on this planet – is unfolding as it should. In other words, God is in control.

Furthermore our responses to such events are part of the harmonious pattern of the cosmos. We are one with the universe, and the universe is one with God. We could not be separate from it even if we wanted to. It is all good, as God declared in Genesis at the creation of the world. In fact God declared our human presence in the world to be “very good.” This is still the divine verdict, in spite of human wrongdoing.

We are an expression of the divine in creation. That is what it means to be made in the image of God. When we live out of that self-realization, then we act from the peace of God which is our true nature. Then we are ministers of peace and reconciliation in the world. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God,” Jesus said.

When we act from our true spiritual nature, we become instruments of peace in the world. The peace within our souls is expressed as actions and words of peace. This in turn influences the world to move toward peace. That is how God works in the world.

When the impeachment circus or the crisis of climate change – or a thousand other problems, big and small - push us to react in fear, anger or distress, all we need to do is notice the Presence of the One who is behind and beneath it all.

The yin and yang of life is part of a deeper unity. Good and evil are resolved in the One who is in control of all things. All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well. As the great hymn says, “It is well, it is well, with my soul.”