Category: miracles

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Praise and Miracles

Do you receive praise for the things you do? Does it feel important to you? Do you offer praise to others?

I have a story to share with you. It’s part a book, Little Buddha Book Six, which is the most recent in a series I’ve written. The story comes about because one of the characters, Natalie, wants to see if she can write an engaging story that will appeal to a reader, to offer an important message and at the same time, limit the story’s length to less than three hundred words. Quite a challenge.

She used a picture to inspire her story of a stone roadway with homes on the left and right sides and poles with electrical wires connecting them.

One house has an exterior house light lite which casts a reddish glow on the stones.

Natalie’s story about a young boy goes like this…

I woke up on my mat next to my brothers and sisters and waited. My mother came in shouting, “Get up, get up, there is much work to be done.”

I stood, went to the stairs, climbed into the loft, reached for the broom, and began sweeping. I knew there would be an inspection, so I was careful.

I heard a noise and watched a mouse cross the floor. It tried to jump into a hole in the wall, but because it had eaten well, it could not fit. It leapt again, knocking a chunk of wall onto the floor, then ran in the opposite direction.

I went over to look inside the hole. I saw two disconnected wires and wondered about them. I twisted them together and finished sweeping the floor.

Later that night my father came home, “It’s a miracle,” he said, as he came through the door. “The light is on outside. How did this happen?”

My brothers, sisters and I stood in a line as we did each night, awaiting his approval.

“It was I father. I am your miracle.”

“This cannot be. You are just a boy.”

Hungry for a kind word from him, I said, “I twisted two wires together and the light came on. Are you pleased with me?”

He looked sternly at me and spoke, “Is it not enough that you know what you did, must you receive praise for it? A man knows what is important inside himself and does not need others to tell him. This is what my father taught me and what his father taught him.”

I felt downcast and pondered his words. I decided something in that moment. This would not be what I taught my son. I would teach him that he is a miracle.                  …end story

Even though I wrote the story, the ending completely surprised me, as if it had been supplied by someone else. I could feel the depth of the young boy’s reaction to the lack of praise he received, and the way his father’s words were spoken.

What I love about his reaction is that he promises he will live a different life and teach his son a different lesson. I can almost hear him speaking to his future son, telling him that he is precious to him and to the world, and that he is in fact, a miracle.

Imagine what kind of life that would create for his son, and also for his daughters. Imagine being regarded in such a positive manner, supported, encouraged, believed in.

I want to more than just imagine this in my life. I want to live it. I want to recognize the beauty and miracles that surround me every day.

Imagine what a difference this could make in the world if we treated each other as the miracles we are.

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Beyond Miracles

Do you think that miracles can apply to you? Do you believe that you can experience them personally in your present life?

I wonder how many of us seriously consider this. Sometimes miracles are thought to be grand scale things that only a few ever encounter. But what if this isn’t true? What if everyone can experience miracles?

In my last post I shared that I serve as a channel. Sometimes directly from divine source and other times, well, I’m not always exactly sure. I know there is depth and worth to what I receive, and I guess it doesn’t always matter if I know the source.

I do recognize there is something sacred happening. It is at once fascinating and difficult to believe. I wonder to myself, why me?

It is then that I receive the distinct awareness that it isn’t just me. It’s there and available for everyone. We’ve been culturally trained to ‘stay in our lane’ and believe in our limits. We’re taught that life is narrow, or at least the ‘safe’ life is. We receive constant reminders to reinforce this belief.

But what if we were meant to be spectacular beings of energy and light and do profoundly great things with our lives?

Well, that’s something I can believe in.

My last post told the story of a woman who was healed from a condition she’d suffered from for many years. She moved within a crowd, neared Yeshiwa (Jesus) and touched his cloak. Yeshiwa silently called to her to step forward, which she did, despite her fears. He told her that her act of faith had healed her. He did not say, “I have healed you”. Yeshiwa was very clear that ‘her faith’ had healed her.

What a hugely significant distinction this is. It tells us outright that she exercised her own power, and this act of willing faith was the source of her healing. Amazing!

Do you believe you have this same choice to make? Do you believe that claiming your own healing is possible?

I think we both know what our cultural training would say. An unequivocal, ‘NO’. It would tell us this was not and is not possible. It defies too much logic. It isn’t scientific enough to be believed.

It might say, you’re misunderstanding the story. It might suggest that no healing is ever possible, except through direct divine intervention.

One of the most beautiful things about our lives is that WE get to choose what to believe. We can, of course, relinquish our choices to others and give them our power. In many ways, this is exactly what our culture teaches us to do.

If you are someone who seeks another way, please know that YOU have the free will to make your own choices. You can experience the life you claim.

I’d like to share some mechanics of faith with you. Imagine for a moment that there is far more than meets the eye here on this earth. Imagine that everything already exists. There is a pathway for every experience already laid out. Not chosen, just laid out and available for the choosing. Another grand distinction.

You do not have to create the path; you merely choose it. And in the choosing, your language changes to a more powerful word. You claim it. You claim it over and over again, until it becomes your personal experience of the world. You exercise your faith in what you claim.

This is what the woman in the story did. At first, she was fearful, both about what others would think about her or what they might do to her. She was hesitant, not knowing if Yeshiwa would allow her to touch his cloak and afraid of what he might do in response. She had a big decision to make. She chose to act on faith, that all would be well, that she would be healed, released from her physical pain. She ignored others and acknowledged her own power. She acted with faith, and she was healed.

And once healed, she told others, so that they might experience their own power of being healed by faith.

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Miracles

Do you believe in miracles?

If asked to define a miracle, what would your answer be? It might be harder than you think or maybe everything in life is some sort of miracle to you.

One miracle I experience occasionally is that I serve as a channel. It could be as a conduit for a message to someone living from someone who has passed. It might be an insight about life worth offering to someone in need. Or it could be receiving divine words in the form of a story, offered to enlighten and guide us, if we are open to receiving.

I’d like to share one of these stories with you. It’s one I received from Yeshiwa (Jesus’s name in Aramaic, his native language).

Although it’s told in the bible, the version I received is much deeper and richer emotionally and spiritually.

Before I share the story, I’d like to say that I have no vested interest in you believing that I channeled this story directly from Yeshiwa. I am entirely comfortable with you deciding for yourself and not taking my word for it. What is important to me is that I act courageously and offer this to you, because I feel its truth to my core. I also realize that I cannot offer any proof, so all that matters to me is that you lean into this story and see whether it feels true to you.

The story is about a woman in desperate need of healing, and it is told from Yeshiwa’s perspective.

“I walk among you. The same and not. I know what power I hold. I feel it as my blood and know when it has been touched, even among a crowd. Some touch me, some touch my heart. This is a faith touch, and it can change anything, can change everything.

A woman nears me. I know her heart and I know what holds her body and grips it in a way that will not let go. Not by its own choice. It is subject to me and the power of love. She walks in my shadow, tortured by her awareness that all but me will revile her for her thoughts, because she wants to touch my garment. Others would not allow this, not understand this. They believe I become the same unclean they believe she is. This is not my way, and it is not my father’s way. It is not her way and so I call her to me, not with words but with my heart. Her timidity is exceeded by her pain, and she reaches out to touch my cloak. The moment she does her whole world changes, and she will never be the same. She has chosen a new way and seen me for who I am. She sees the face of god. She sees her own in its reflection. Her heart becomes still. I ask the crowd who touched me. I do not ask because I do not know, for I do. I ask so that she may choose to step forward and realize the magnitude of the change to her life. It is not the healed physical body that is important- to her or to me. It is her spirit, which now can be at peace. It is her spirit which knows me and rests with me. She will speak often of this and change many lives. This is how faith works. It enters the heart and seeks other open hearts, moving freely. This is how all actions of faith happen.”

At the beginning, the woman in the story knows her faith can set her free. But for her, she feels her healing is dependent on a confirmation from Yeshiwa. Her faith is conditional. Not only that, but she also understands that the opinions of others stand in her way.

Through his heart, Yeshiwa calls her to him, and she responds. She overcomes the messages that life has sent her and touches his cloak, believing that as soon as she does, she will be well.

And her whole world changes.

She steps forward and says she is the one who touched his cloak. She realizes that this simple act of faith is what has changed her life. That Yeshiwa offered her the chance to demonstrate and declare that her healing has come from this act of faith.

And her life becomes a living act of faith, as she spreads this message wherever she goes.

I have more thoughts about this miracle and how it might apply to you and me and I encourage you to read my next post.