“When I leave you today I will sit in a car and I will ‘surrender to the car’ and the car will move me. The car will take care of everything. I won’t have to walk. Similarly, when we surrender our mind, consciousness, intellect, ego, body, everything to God, there is nothing else for us to do. We still must work and do our daily duties, but we do them as inspired by God. Our ego life is dead. We exist only as the energy of God. The saints agree that the spiritual journey isn’t possible without surrender to God. If we want to travel over land, we can walk. We have legs. But what if we want to fly? We need an airplane. Spiritually speaking, if we want to fly we need the wings of God. The saints call this grace. The Lord’s grace becomes our plane and we fly.”
Bapuji. July 31, 1977, Toronto, Canada. Photo by Umesh Erik Baldwin
Very Early On in my spiritual journey I was gifted with the opportunity to experience direct inspiration from Swami Kripalu…not only his words but his entire being and life gave me the example of what it means to open to grace. He was resolute in his spiritual practices yet his message was always the same. Surrender to the Lord of Love is the way to fly in our spiritual journey. I always felt so profoundly relieved and reassured to know that letting go of control was truly the best thing I could do for my own growth and peace of mind, body and soul. There are blessings and breakthroughs that come when we let go that are simply not available when we work and strive to control our daily lives, our work, our relationship and our wish to be happy and successful, fulfilled and abundant.
Many many years later while in meditation I received an answered prayer that has been life changing. I had sensed that I was to receive a new name…usually something that happens at birth, yet here I was in my mid thirties and somehow I knew there was a new name for me. So I meditated for ten years, asking in prayer, please God what is my new name.
One day I laid down for an afternoon nap..repeating my prayer request as I fell asleep. As I awoke I heard ” You are God’s Grace, by Grace your life unfolds, now go and live it!!!”
There is no way on earth that I can explain how profound this was for me. I have always had an anxious heart and felt overwhelmed by the need to change myself and the world. Now I was not only being invited but commanded to surrender and allow grace to fill me and guide me in helping others to receive this gift from God.
It has now been almost twenty five years since that magnificent message came to me. I cautiously and then courageously claimed the name Grace and yet STILL have to remind myself daily to let go and let God. The oldest impulses to strive, work hard, struggle and “work” for my own well being and the well being of the world are not so easily discharged. Yet slow and surely I find myself able to soften into surrender and to take the first class upgrade and fly GRACE airlines.
If you would like to fly with me, be in touch…there is nothing quite like flying in God’s Grace. Life can become sweet and peaceful, we can learn to trust that all is well even when there is extreme turbulence AND the sunrises and sunsets aboard FLIGHT God”s Grace are beyond spectacular. There is a mystery and magic to letting go…I would be honored to help you receive these treasures.
So much love,
Grace