This week a local pundit connected the dots between BP's Gulf Disaster and Pogo, who once observed: We have met the enemy and he is us. BP's management is driven by its stockholders' focus on the bottom line and the need to be number one in the industry, with disastrous results, and this isn't the first time, either. But we, as stakeholders in the health and viability of our land and our planet, are also responsible. It is common wisdom that the drug wars along the border with Mexico would dry up if there were no market for drugs in this country. The same logic applies to the drilling in the Gulf of Mexico or fighting wars to secure a pipeline--supply and demand.
The concept of stakeholders is founded upon the belief that people are key to the sustainability of a community, be it a large city, a community library or a church. When we, as individuals, come together as a community of believers, we have the power and the responsibility to make a difference. And by the grace of God we can transform our lives and our world.
God does not take sides--His Grace "sends rain on the just and on the unjust." Our goal in prayer is not to ask for more stuff, but to open ourselves to the Grace of God, to all good. Pray not for victory, but for peace. Charles Fillmore wrote in Keep a True Lent that
"The Grace of God extends to all people everywhere and the Grace of God is greater than the laws of man."
Joel Goldsmith asked the same question which we all struggle with. If God's will is absolute good for all of His children and there is no lack in the Kingdom of Heaven, then why is there so much apparent lack and misery in the world? His answer in Contemplative Prayer is that
"only through our conscious awareness and acceptance of God's grace, through consciously living in the realization of God's presence could those things that do not belong in our experience be eliminated and be replaced by those things that are ours by divine right."
If we affirm daily that Thy Grace is sufficient unto me as my grandmother did throughout her life, but then turn and say, in effect: Oh, by the way while I have your attention, I need..., then we have just contradicted our affirmation. Call it habit or instinct, it is self-defeating.
Saul of Taurus, who became Paul the Apostle, is a perfect example of the activity of grace. This was a man who pursued and persecuted early Christians. Yet once Jesus opened his eyes to the truth, Paul was not only forgiven but set upon the mission of spreading the Word. He was transformed by grace. In Ephesians 2:8 he wrote
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God."
It is by the activity of Grace that we are healed and it is by our own conscious choice that we open our- selves to the gift of God's grace. Goldsmith describes three elements essential to grace:
- Love--of God, of oneself and for others
- Forgiveness--"under this life of grace, there is forgiveness without any consideration for whether one has deserved, earned or been worthy of it."
- Gratitude--"The moment we begin to be grateful just for the fact that God is in His heaven, our lives begin to change."
Rev. Claudia Naylor
