John Lewis and amazing grace.
I am so grateful to a friend for introducing me to John Lewis’ book, Across That Bridge, published in 2012.
The Honorable Congressman, and indeed he embodied that word of Honor, in his speech, actions and mien; saw the spiritual picture of our lives.
As he wrote:
“I believe that we are all sparks of the Divine, and if that spark is nurtured it can become a burning flame, an eternal force of light. I believe that the true destiny of humankind is to recollect that it is light and to learn how to abide in infinite awareness of the divine in all matters of human affairs.” Thus, the true mission of our work in government and through community action is to help free humanity to follow this high calling.”
He goes on to say “…Let me be clear. This work is not mandatory. We can choose to block our own perception of the light and live in darkness. In fact, we can become so dark that even our eternal spark becomes very, very dim, so faint that we are hardly aware of its existence. Yet, more often than not, no matter how tarnished or weak the flame, when the forces of darkness seem like they are about to consume us all, we will ourselves to survive, and we begin to stand in the center of our own inner light and invite its power to clear away the darkness that has clouded the soul.”
The forces of darkness that are sweeping their way through our nation, and other nations on our beleagured planet, would have us succumb to despair and inertia. I was in a 12 step meeting decades ago, in Berkeley California, that meeting chose to end its time with the Lord’s Prayer, now most of the meetings I attended ended with the Serenity Prayer, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courgage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference” this was my main mantra and I enjoyed adding my voice to the group reciting the prayer to open and close the meetings.
But this night I was in an unfamiliar meeting a friend had invited me to, and I really believe that I was there to hear this inserted into the words of the Lord’s prayer, “deliver us from EGO” when I heard my friend inserting “ego” in place of “evil” I was stunned. Here it was all summed up in that plea, for what is “evil” anyway but the abandonment of seeing the Divine in myself and all beings and in everything around me?
I was never comfortable with the term “evil,” it invoked a scary Joker in my Batman comics from childhood, and certainly beyond comic books there was the reality of Hitler, Stalin, and all perpetrators of violence, bullies and believers in bigotry, promoters of fear, in the home, at work, in politics, in courtrooms, oh the list is endless, but me! Evil? No way.
But I could own that my ego got me into trouble again and again, not the healthy ego that we all need to make our way in the world, setting boundaries and limits, being our own champions, forging ahead when we feel like giving up, not that ego; but the ego of arrogance, of hubris, of not giving a crap about anyone but myself, the narcissistic ego, the bloated ego that believes it is above everyone and everything, because underneath the bloated ego is a frightened empty soul cowering in the corner and feeling like crap about itself.
My ego in my younger years was not malignant nor deeply narcissistic, LOL, at least I hope it wasn’t , but it was like most 20 and 30 year olds, rather self-absorbed and self-referential. Oh but life is a great teacher and if we allow it, life’s lessons mold us and we begin to grow and change, and we are indeed “delivered from ego,” to let go of the need to be right no matter the cost, to stop sitting in judgment of others, to become more selfless in a healthy way in our interactions in the world, and to find the Light within our souls, and in doing so see the Light in all those around us, and in our sacred Mama Earth herself.
John Lewis suffered, as we all know, brutality after brutality, hideous assaults on his body, but they never, ever, broke his soul, nor his faith, nor his determination to bend the arc of justice in a way that turned the tides of segregation and insitutionalized racism in this nation; and he didn’t succumb to violence nor to hatred.
I am learning so much from you Dear Honorable John Lewis. I am wrestling mightily with my knee-jerk hatred of so many politicians, in this nation and in other nations; I know my hatred is easy to grab for, it is part of my outrage, my rage, my feeling helpless against the tide of those who have forgotten their inner divinity and that of their sisters and brothers. So when I grab for hatred I am joining them. It only destroys my soul, diminishes my light, dims my vision of a peaceful world.
John Lewis thank you for being the shining light you were and still are and for showing me the way to finding the higher ground, not out of arrogance, but the higher ground my Soul knows is its birthright. For helping me, throwing me a lifeline to pull me out of this self-created swamp of reactivity, fear, anger judgment and hatred. For teaching me that violence in my thoughts is as destructive to myself and the world as violence acted out. Thank you for shining your light on us, and on me.
For I was blind and now I see.
