"God Alone Suffices"
As much as I hate to admit it, Jesus Christ didn’t come to teach theology. Oh, he waxed theological in his arguments with the Pharisees and Sadducees, but intellectual instruction wasn't the center of his faith. In many ways, he was more similar to an Asian guru than a traditional rabbi. He demonstrated an unflappable mastery over the challenges of life. Jesus taught a message of empowerment that helped people lead a better life in the here-and-now. So, people flocked to him for practical reasons, not just to hear a lecture. They brought the sick, and he healed them. They brought their doubts, and he showed them how to have faith. They were poor in spirit and just plain poor, and he taught them God provides for those who step out in faith. Jesus taught an abundant life message, not just a survival strategy.
You and I can have the same kind of power, mastery and dominion that Jesus promised his disciples, but the path to wholeness and abundance is not through luck or happenstance. Your abundant life comes to you not from winning a spiritual lottery, but through exercising your mental and spiritual faculties. True, it is a free gift of God, which the very definition of “grace”, but the blessings of Divine Order must be freely received. Here is the tantalizing paradox of God’s grace: We cannot earn the good which God has prepared for us, yet without conscious effort we cannot receive it, either. Even a free gift must be accepted, unwrapped, and put to use.
God is like the sunshine, constantly pouring its warmth upon the Earth. To bask in this sunny day, we must come forth from our caves of error-belief, cast off all vestiges of self-denigration and feelings of unworthiness, and simply accept the good, warm, life-sustaining light of God. As St. Teresa of Avila said long ago:
Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing affright you.
All things pass.
God is unchanging.
Patience obtains all.
Whoever has God needs nothing else.
God alone suffices.
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