God’s forgiveness is pre-emptive
Note: Kristin is in the midst of a nine-month “retreat in real life” following the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. She shares her path in The Everyday Mystic blog.
In the third preparatory week of the Exercises of St Ignatius, your focus is on God’s deep desire to forgive you. I call this God’s pre-emptive forgiveness, because God is ready to forgive you even before your actions! To let the depth of this promise sink into your soul is liberating and comforting.
One of the passages that we read is the story of the prodigal son, who squanders his inheritance and comes home to his father, who throws a party for him! Here is what I heard from Source about coming home to the Divine:
“A thousand times a day, in thousands of ways, you turn away from Us. You worry about earthly things, you speak harshly, you judge yourself and others, you question the universe’s great abundance, you lose patience. We feast when you come back to sensing Our presence. We celebrate every time you come home to Us. We rejoice every time you turn your face back toward Us! We throw a party!”
In Isaiah 55, we are assured that God will abundantly pardon and have mercy on us. It was during this time that I began to realize a breakthrough concept: There is nothing you or I can do to earn, deserve or lose God’s love for us. God’s love and God’s forgiveness is constant, like the air we breath. We live in it, are enveloped in it, luxuriate in it.
So, we can lean back and relax, right into God’s arms, knowing that we are preemptively forgiven and forever loved.
Awesome. Just saw your blog pop up at the most recent post from UUpdates on my blogroll. I will have to look at the rest to see what the blog description means. But the quote and commentary are perfect.
Thanks for stopping by!
Kristin
So much wisdom in so few words. Thanks!
Mariel,
Thanks! Many blessings to you.
Kristin
During an eight day silent retreat I attended after my daughter was killed by a drunk driver, I was given the assignment to lean back into God’s arms and relax. Because of the anger that I was experiencing I was not able to do that simple exercise. After being able to forgive the drunk driver during those eight long, painful days, I experienced God’s love and power of forgiveness. Now I can relax and lean back into God’s lap where I experience his peace. God is good. Thanks for bringing that memory back to me.
Pat,
Thank you for sharing from your heart. Abundant blessings to you.
Kristin
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