40 Days of Letting Go, Letting God
From Release to Embrace
Rule 21
“When a true lover of God goes into a tavern, the tavern becomes his chamber of prayer, but when a winebibber goes into the same chamber, it becomes his tavern. In everything we do, it is our hearts that make the difference, not our outer appearance. Sufis do not judge other people on how they look or who they are. When a Sufi stares at someone, he keeps both eyes closed, instead opens a third eye — the eye that sees the inner realm.”*
*
Today we affirm: I am God’s beloved (I am one with the Divine Presence) and
powerful beyond measure.
When a true lover of God goes into a tavern, the tavern becomes his chamber of prayer, but when a winebibber goes into the same chamber, it becomes his tavern. … In everything we do, it is our hearts that make the difference, not our outer appearance. Rule 21
Our beliefs that we have observed through the day determine what kind of tavern we find ourselves in.
Today, I spent time in observing my outdated beliefs. Every time I return to the land where I was born, I find myself in a tavern that is filled with a sense of threat, a feeling of gloom, anger, desperation, seasoned with a bout of self-sacrifice. I cannot see anything uplifting, not because it does not exist but because this is how I am conditioned.
I am prone to see ‘what does not work’ because this way I am prepared for the worst. It is some kind of valve or safety-measure inside of me: “just to be on the safe side’. The belief that this place is unsafe and doomed is an outdated belief. Not only that, is is probably time to see things through the eye of the Lover; in my case, either though the lens of joyous excitement or through the lens of compassion.
What did you discover by contemplation on this rule and Lent reading?
in Loving and with many Blessings,
Rev Kudlik
Please note that though I may use ‘him’ or ‘his’ pronouns to talk about God/the Divine, it is only because the English language does not have a gender neutral pronoun. ‘They’ sounds odd to me to use and ‘it’ sounds lifeless.