03/15/15 Rev. David McArthur
Beauty and the Beast 1 – Healing Relationship Pain
When we carry past relationship hurt within, our mind wants to protect us with words like “me”, “them”, and “righteous indignation”. Such words of separation cause pain and express fear. This can be healthy at one level, but we use such words to escape our assignment (which is to heal the inner). The outer will change. Jesus said, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? …You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Sometimes I hate that, but on this assignment I also heard wise words of responsibility, caring, healing, connecting.
A story with very helpful images on this path to wholeness is “Beauty and the Beast”. A merchant, lost in a deep dark wood in a storm, finds a wonderful sunlit castle. There all his needs are met—food, a bed, even breakfast. For his daughter, Beauty, he plucks a rose. Immediately an ugly, terrifying beast confronts him. “Your life is forfeit!” The horrified merchant strikes a deal. If Beauty came to live in the castle with the Beast, all would be provided her, but each evening she had to sit down and dine with the Beast. Pretty clear spiritual symbolism isn’t it? There is no lasting satisfaction in pursuing material goods. The brightly lit castle in the midst of the dark forest is obviously the Kingdom of Heaven, and we are aware that Divine Love provides all our needs. But we pluck the rose (spiritual understanding) for the feelings of the growing soul. Once you take it, life as you know it is over. To embrace and enter into spiritual understanding, you must sit down with your Beast.
It’s the ugly we see inside ourselves. Deal with that pain. That’s your journey, your assignment. Enter the heart (the castle grounds). Breathe the feeling of Ease (that everything is provided by God). Give permission to yourself to feel the pain. The head will enter into blame/control. But breathe Ease, and just hold the pain in your heart. Your brain does not have to protect you from something that’s not there. There’s no need to fix, blame, or judge. Breathe Ease and hold the pain in your heart. Invite the power of your spiritual heart to flow in and start the healing. I breathe Ease and Hold It in My Heart. I breathe Ease and Hold It in My Heart. I breathe Ease and Hold It in My Heart. It is important to fulfill our assignment to heal the past relationship pain, the hurt, we carry. Then we can move into that place we know as “Happily Ever After”!
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