Your Heart’s Desire, Part IV, Paragraph 4

     

Welcome Back.  I honor your persistence.  I realize there were a lot of questions and exercises last week.  I hope they were helpful in giving you insights into Your Heart’s Desire.  This week will be a bit lighter.  I hope you have found a buddy to work with.  Remember, you are always free to email me with any questions or concerns that you do not want made public (josephanthony@thewonderchildblog.com).  Please keep in mind also, that your experiences with Your Heart’s Desire are beneficial to others, so I encourage you to post comments also. 

Cheers,

Joseph

Paragraph Four, by Emmet Fox

“God is Infinite Mind, and that Mind is ever seeking for more and for new expression.  “For such the Father seeketh to worship Him.” Now, because you are a human being, you are intended to be a new point of expression for God—a focal point in Infinite Mind, in fact, somewhat as an electric lamp may be regarded as a focal point for the manifestation of the electric current in the circuit.  A focal point for the Divine Self expression—that is what you are intended to be; and if you are willing to become that, then you will be fulfilling your destiny, and you will experience absolutely perfect and unalloyed happiness and harmony, and eternal and unrestricted development.  A few people have attained this, but they are comparatively few.  The great majority have lives full of problems of one kind or another that they have yet to work out.  If one has perfect bodily health—and how few have even this, really perfect health—then he probably has financial difficulties; or it may be family troubles, an unhappy home life.  If health, finance, and home relations are satisfactory, there can still be a sense of frustration in other directions.  In any case, in the absence of all-round fullness and harmony of expression, there is frustration; and frustration means trouble.”

Commentary, Questions, and Exercises by Joseph Anthony

This paragraph heralds both comforting encouragement and uncomfortable warnings.  The encouragement comes from knowing God is always creating.  God always has His hands in the paints—the colors are always flying across fresh canvas; clay is always being thrown on the wheel in never before seen patterns; new houses are always being erected; new songs are always being sung.  And WE are focal points of that creativity.  We express God’s Light and handiwork when we are fulfilling our Heart’s Desire, our destiny.  We are meant to be Lights. 

“Hide not your light under a bushel…Let your light shine before man.  We are the Light of the world.”

Imagine that for a moment.  Really let that sink in.  Revel in it.  It really is astounding, humbling, and exhilarating—YOU are a “focal point for the Divine Self expression.”  YOU. 

We could spend the rest of our lives pondering that one sentence it is so rich with meaning and implications.  For now let us just say: This means, when we follow our Heart’s Desire, that we are part of the Divine Economy, the Divine Ecology, the Divine Way.  Of course, we can keep our head in the clouds provided we keep our feet on the ground.  Being a part of Divine Self expression doesn’t mean everything we do is inspired, holy, helpful, moral, good, true, kind, charitable, and so on.  What it does mean is that once we are “willing to become a focal point for Divine Self Expression,” we will be less likely, (as imperfectly as we still will be), to engage in immoral, untrue, wicked, mean, or selfish behaviors.  We will still have plenty of room to grow—in fact, once we hit on our Heart’s Desire, we will grow, as Fox says, “eternally and unrestrictedly.”  We will grow forever, and we will grow forever—boundlessly. Imagine THAT for a few moments.  To be ever-blossoming, ever-discovering, ever-creating is very nearly beyond the scopes of our imaginations.  But try anyway.  It’s fun to think about.

But there are warnings— uncomfortable warnings– in this paragraph.  Fox says only a few people ever attain the degree of development in which their Heart’s Desire is such a part of who they have become, that they live in perfect harmony and happiness.  Most people, he says, settle for mediocre lives where everything is viewed as a problem—a dramatic problem, I might add.  When we are off course, when we are not following God’s Will—our Heart’s Desire, then somewhere deep inside we know we’re missing the mark, we make every problem or annoyance in our lives bigger and more significant than it really is.  We dramatize everything because we know, somewhere deep inside that we are acting—we’re in a drama—a tragi-comedy, with countless, intricately woven plots that ultimately unfold into nothing, or at very least regrets to be wallowed in.  Somewhere inside we know this.  We sense it deeply because there is always that low level of frustration in everything we do.  Everything we touch gradually turns into grey dust.  Everything we do is tinged with a peculiar, indefinable failure.  So we sleep restlessly.  Our dreams are scattered.  A vague uneasiness plagues our lives, with brief intervals of prosperity, health, happiness, and even joy.  But somewhere inside, something’s missing—even in the good times.  And that something is our Heart’s Desire.  Until we hitch our wagon to the Star that is ours and ours alone, we will forever feel—way back in our heads and hearts, a certain, relentless emptiness.

Of course, the hope is in that very emptiness, for as the Zen monk might say, the real usefulness of a cup is in the empty space it provides for the tea.  If you identify with anything just described in the above paragraph, then there’s hope.  Most people won’t let themselves feel that despair.  They drug it out with TV, computers, food, sex, romance; big, deep problems and dramas; spending, anger, and the ever-present, internal drug-hits of fear, and the adrenaline-laced drug hits of fantasy superiority or inferiority.  They even drug it out with doing things they rationalize and justify are worthy and good, but which in the final analysis are really self-serving actions.  So if you feel a bit depressed about what you just read, then rejoice.  You’re on the right road.  Feel that feeling, share it with your buddy, and then learn to listen for God’s Voice.  God is whispering RIGHT NOW, RIGHT THIS VERY INSTANT AS YOU ARE READING THESE VERY WORDS.  God is calling you NOW.  God wants YOU—and He wants you NOW.  He has a new art project, a new building project, a new symphony He’d like played on new instruments, there’s a new story He’d like to tell, a never-before heard song He’d like to sing—YOU and YOUR HEART’S DESIRE! 

One last comment: notice God keeps us in freedom.  We are free to choose to follow our Heart’s Desire.  Fox says, “if we are willing” to become that focal point—THEN we’re fulfilling our destiny.  It takes willingness on our part to learn to listen, to take the actions, to do the work of becoming happy and harmonious in our own lives.  And this, dear reader, we do together, for there are no separate destinies.  All of our true Heart’s Desires blend together into one, joyous and inspiring work of art—a mural of infinite and intricate beauty.

Questions

1). Do you believe, or are you willing to at least try to believe, that you are meant to be a focal point of Divine Self expression?

 

2). How does it make you feel when Fox says we will “experience absolutely perfect and unalloyed happiness and harmony, and have eternal and unrestricted development” when we fully live our Heart’s Desire?”

 

3). When you read “comparatively few” attain this, do you think: “Oh, great, then why bother?” Or do you think, “OK.  I’m going to be one of those few?”  Or do you fall someplace in between? If you pick the “why bother” category, are you willing to believe that it will all work out for the good if you really find Your Heart’s Desire?  If you pick the assertive: “Let’s go, I’m going to be one of the few,” are you willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill Your Heart’s Desire?

Exercises

1). Reflect on the phrase, “Divine Self expression.” Write about what it means to you and how it makes you feel. 

2). Close your eyes, breathe deeply, inhaling for a count of 4, filling your belly and then chest, hold the breath for a count of 4 or so, and then release on the same count.  Do that a few times while repeating the following affirmations:

“I willingly chose to follow my Heart’s Desire.”

“ I am a focal point for Divine Self expression.”

Write these on 3X5 cards and carry them with you.  Post them on your mirror or in your car.  Make them mantras and prayers—songs to be sung.

3). Go back and look at the wishes you wrote last week—the outlandish ones you never want to share with anyone.  Have they changed?  Are there new ones?  Keep practicing being open to God’s whisperings.  Soon there will be very practical suggestions on how to really listen, but for now, keep writing about your wonderfully lavish and extravagant dreams. 


4). Find and download the song: “This Little Light of Mine.”  A version with children singing is best.  Sing it often throughout the day.  Experiment with humming or singing it in public and try to get others to sing with you.  If you are really feeling adventurous, sing it in front of the mirror, dance to it, run to it, paint, cook, or play with it.  Sing it—feel it—You ARE a Light!

 

Great Work, friends.  Next week we come to Part Five, Paragraph 5.  Have a great week of learning and growing.  Oh, and I’m sure you have probably already noticed that I am increasingly focusing the other entries here at the Wonder Child Blog—towards YOU and YOUR HEART’S DESIRE.  I want you to feel supported and encouraged.  That’s the goal.  So stop by other days.  There will be supplemental material to help you follow your dreams. 

Copyright Joseph Anthony of the Wonder Child Blog

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *