Awaken to Love Part 3 - GETTING TO NEW LIFE

(1) How God Works With Us – “Divine Providence”

We have previously emphasized that our freedom to choose is the basic fact of our spiritual life.

God has made us free because God is love and love always involves freedom. Love does not seek to control or coerce the beloved and that is who each of us is – the beloved, created that we might share in the love that is God.

God therefore works with our freedom, to choose for or against his love. It is these choices which gradually and fundamentally change us, with the potential to make us into a “new creation”, spiritually alive, bound to, and for, heaven.

The way God works with us is called “divine providence”.

Divine providence reveals the wisdom of an infinite Love that cherishes every one of us (regardless of religious affiliation or lack thereof!) and is passionate for our joy but which absolutely will not force, coerce or punish us to achieve its ultimate goal of eliciting our love in response.

Note that this is very different from the conventional view of how God works with us! That view is one that involves reward and punishment, a kind of divine “carrot and stick” approach towards human salvation. God, it is said, rewards us when we are good and punishes us when we are bad, both in this life here and then eternally in the next.

However, God does not reward or punish. Our good and bad behaviours bring with them their own consequences, heavenly or hellish; they are not “sent” by God.

Instead, God works in a way consistent with his nature as infinite love. Thus, whichever way we choose, God will make that choice lead towards the most positive result possible, i.e. towards knowing him. If we make a good choice it is affirmed in many ways and if we make a bad one then God works to contain its negative consequences while opening up new opportunities for changing direction. This is the way God works with both the most saintly and the most sinful of his creatures. God’s providence works the same with all people, leading them always towards the best possible heaven as their eternal state of being or to the least worst hell.

And God uses every single thing of our lives, down to the minutest detail, that can lead to our highest welfare. Everywhere and in everything, God’s loving wisdom is at work to achieve his ultimate purpose for us, that purpose being, as we’ve said before, “to make a heaven from the human race”.

And that means the whole human race! It was revealed to Swedenborg that all those who choose to be faithful to a love higher than their own selves, however they name it or know it, and live that love for the welfare of their neighbour, are coming into heaven in this life and in the life hereafter. God’s love is for all without exception and is at work with everyone and for everyone, again, without exception.

Therefore, here is a basic, spiritual truth of our lives: that we live at every moment bound up in the mighty embrace of an amazing, steadfast love that will only and forever seek the very best for us:

• when we hurt, God is always with us

• when we’re sorry, God always hears us

• when we’re afraid, God is there for us

We can always trust and be safe in this love!

Abundance at our picnics.

Why? Because it is God’s unshakeable will to love you and to help you know this love and accept it and be filled by it. In this love for you “there is no darkness at all” (see 1 John 1: 5), no threats of punishment, no violence, no hidden agendas, no “do-this-or-I-won’t-love-you”.

Even when you do make mistakes (note we say “when”, not “if”!), God will never give you up. Even when frightening or terrible things happen that are not your fault (accidents, illness, loss, the violence of others) God will be there for you, supporting you and planting the seeds for healing and a new beginning.

However, we cannot see this at the time! Swedenborg tells us that we cannot see God’s providence at work as it is happening. If we could, that would impinge on our freedom. Instead, we can see the divine providence only in hindsight.

We look back at even the most painful disappointment or loss and upon reflection we can see the good that has come out of it.

Of course, God doesn’t want us to suffer and, again, it is very important to keep in mind that God does not ever send pain or evil to us. But God does allow pain and evil to exist in our world and for us to experience it during the short time we are here. Otherwise, our freedom to choose would not be real and our dignity of being in God’s image would be a fake.

What we can do, in response to bad and terrible things, is learn to trust in God’s providence! The God who weeps when we weep (see John 11: 35!) never stops caring for us and fighting for us.

Being loved so much like this, in every way and in every little thing, means that we actually live our lives in the flow of a gentle and invisible current that’s always moving us in the direction of a greater peace and happiness. Whatever the upsets and times of hardship, God is ceaselessly at work, bringing us safely home. Our job is to trust in the process and to cooperate and say yes!

(2) How We Work With God – the Spiritual “3 R’s”

But how exactly do we cooperate with God in our salvation? How do we learn to say yes to God each day – especially when we so often want our own way instead?

We do this by practicing the basic “3 R’s” of a spiritual life:

• Repentance

• Reformation

• Regeneration

(A) Repentance

Repentance does NOT mean condemning and bewailing yourself as “bad” and a “sinner”, and then waiting for God to respond.

Instead, repentance means a regular process of compassionate, caring and honest self-examination that focuses always upon a particular issue or concern in your life.

It’s asking God to help you look into yourself to see where you are “missing the mark” (the original meaning of the word “sin”) in some aspect of your life.

Then we are called to “do the work of repentance”:

1. acknowledge and name what is wrong
2. apologize to God and others affected by it
3. explore prayerfully what thoughts or feelings motivate this wrong
4. seek God’s help in changing these thoughts and feelings
5. practice living a different way, to make the change real

(B) Reformation

When we repent in this way, we are moving into a state of “reformation” in this particular area of our lives. In other words, our thinking on the issue at hand is being “reformed”.

We are beginning to value, and commit to, what we think is right and good and true, even though we don’t “feel” it inside and don’t always live accordingly.

In effect, our understanding is being raised by the Lord to a higher truth. We are beginning to use this higher understanding to modify our behaviour and so (gradually!) change the direction of our lives.

The Memorial Garden overflows with colour.

The feeling of reformation is typically one of very conscious effort and struggle, of “head over heart” or “mind over matter”! Our experience of these times is usually one of inner turmoil and conflict. We “know” what is right and true but we don’t really or always want to act accordingly.

But when the Lord knows we are ready, he will call upon the love of goodness he has already placed deep inside us, together with the more intellectual knowledge we have of what is right, from parents, teachers, pastors and others. The Lord then uses this love and this knowledge to prompt our actions so that we find ourselves making the effort to “live according to our beliefs”.

In this struggle it is the Lord who is really doing the fighting on our behalf, trying to lead us forward. However, it always feels to us as if it is we who are making the effort all on our own. In this way, however, we are able and allowed to “own” the change that is happening as truly part of us. Only later, even much later – and as always with God’s providence – do we realize it was God at work in us all the time.

(C) Regeneration

With regular practice (i.e. with the Lord leading us all the way), the particular issue shifts in us and it becomes easier and easier to do what is right, with less and less inner conflict.

In other words, it simply becomes “me” to act in this new and better way. Any other way would now feel uncomfortable and wrong.

When this happens, we say that this particular part of me has become “regenerated”, i.e. “born anew”.

This is NOT the same as those who say they are “born again”, meaning all of themselves all at once being made new, usually in some big and highly charged moment of “conversion” or “coming to Christ”.

For Swedenborgians, regeneration means being re-made slowly and gradually, step by step, throughout your whole life. It’s a steady, life-long process whereby more and more parts of you are re-shaped and re-integrated into the way of Jesus, the way of compassionate love.

Some parts of your nature are already regenerated – you do the good and right thing just because “that’s who I am”. Other parts you may be trying consciously to change right now (“reforming”) while still other parts you may only be starting to recognize as being in need of change (“repenting”).

We are always a “work in progress”, engaged in a lifelong “labour of love”, cooperating with God to become as completely regenerated in his love as we can – a new creation!

Moreover there is a rhythm to this process of the “3 R’s” in our lives. We are not constantly at work, battling with our unregenerate nature. Part of the Lord’s Providence is to allow us extended periods of rest and peace. And his grace and love are always with us.

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