The Watchword of the Universe is Progress
by Kazarian
Abraham solemnly climbed the slopes of Moriah. He gathered wood and bound his son upon a sacrificial altar. Slowly raising his sharpened blade above his son's body, Abraham was dedicated to following through with God's greatest test: sacrificing that which was dearest to him. In the story from the book of Genesis, it is a son. For others it may be a husband or wife, or perhaps a particular food. For others it may be a concept or idea. Whatever those things are that we put before God, must be sacrificed. In ancient Canaan, God recognized Abraham's conviction and stayed his hand from taking his son's life. Abraham didn't know that God was going to stop him. In his mind he was faithfully executing God's will (bad pun) with resolute determinism which God recognized. But many of the things that God calls us to let go of will need to be severed permanently. How difficult it is to not know the difference; to faithfully relinquish all to God and experience the Dark Night of the Soul.
Stumbling in the Dark
“The
dark night of the soul” is a common turn of phrase, but it is often
mistakenly associated with depression and "dark times." According to
Gerard May in his book of the same name, The Dark Night of the Soul
originally referred not to darkness but rather to obscurity and the
lack of vision. The Dark Night then becomes a faith-walk; blindly
trusting God to lead us through life moment to moment. When we lose our
attachments and truly allow God to provide, we live in Divine
Providence. The word providence stems from the word provision meaning,
literally, foresight. Providence then becomes less about happenstance
and more about a projected vision; a plan.
The URANTIA Book
says of divine providence, "For ages the inhabitants of Urantia[/Earth]
have misunderstood the providence of God. There is a providence of
divine outworking on your world, but it is not the childish, arbitrary,
and material ministry many mortals have conceived it to be. The
providence of God consists in the interlocking activities of the
celestial beings and the divine spirits who, in accordance with cosmic
law, unceasingly labor for the honor of God and for the spiritual
advancement of his universe children. Can you not advance in your
concept of God's dealing with man to that level where you recognize
that the watchword of the universe is progress?"
Uprooting for Growth
God,
being the omniscient guy that He is, knows the end from the beginning.
We, and the celestial beings mentioned in paragraph above,
unfortunately do not carry the same level of divine foresight and must
improvise; literally, we must act without foresight. The way God
relates to us doesn't stop changing just because of our lack of vision.
To the contrary, it seems that the more we grow and progress, the more
ways God can reach us. Why then are so many people unyieldingly rooted
in antiquated religions that are sometimes thousands of years old? Even
the most recently formed spiritual organizations must continue to
advance.
"When I was a child, I spoke as
a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I
became a man, I put away childish things." This passage from chapter 13
of Corinthians 1 is often quoted in reference to coming of age and the
maturation process, but allegorically, Paul of Tarsus was advising us
to move on. The passage can be easily modified, "When I was of one
particular faith, I spoke as one of that faith, I understood as one of
that faith, I thought as one of that faith: but when I came closer to
God, I put away the things of that particular faith." As creatures of
faith, we must be willing to continually sacrifice our "Isaacs" to make
way for new and exciting levels of God-consciousness. Even now, God is
reaching out to us in the twenty-first century and has left the
twentieth century in the past. We must leave these older ways of
relating to God, ways that have caused a great deal of division and
suffering, in the past as well and actively pursue how God is relating
to us in the present with a sharp eye on how God will be relating to us
in the future.