lily with medusa

lily with medusa

My favorite passage in all of scripture is Jesus telling his followers that God loves them more than anything, that God will always be there to protect, provide, and care for them.

Consider the lilies of the field, he says. They do not want for fine clothes, yet they are clothed in all of God’s splendor. Consider the birds of the air, he says. They do not want for shelter or food, yet how much more does God love you that has already provided for all of your needs before you even ask?

When we put this into the context of the rest of Jesus’ teachings, we recognize that God put in place spiritual and physical laws that govern the universe – and that, when followed, yield great abundance, peace, and joy for those who live within them.

One of those laws often talked about these days is the Law of Attraction. If you’ve read—or heard about—the book or movie The Secret then you are aware of the discussion.

This universal law works this way: believe it and you will receive it. The trouble I’ve seen with the way the law is discussed these days is that this spiritual law is being promoted as a means of acquiring material wealth with little discussion about the spiritual nature of the law itself.

Since it is grounded in the spirit, the results will be—and must be—spiritual in nature. Yet much of the talk does not bring enough attention to this important component of the Law of Attraction and its context within all of the Spiritual Laws. It makes sense that this law, like all others, has a purpose within the greater universe of our existence.

Jesus was talking about this law when he said that we do not need to worry about how God will provide for us. Instead, we just need to know—to believe, to have faith—that everything will be provided for us.

This reminds me of a story. A close friend of mine received some unexpected money. It was directly deposited in her bank account at a time when she could use it. What was her initial response? Did she praise and thank God? Was she filled with joy? Did it bring her peace, a sense of the abundance that God provides?

Her immediate response was to contact the bank to launch an investigation into how the money arrived. Who sent it? Why? Was it all a big mistake? When would it be taken away?

This is how she lives her life. Always hoping for something good to happen, and then wondering what went wrong when the good is brought to her. I do not think she is a very happy person. I do believe she experiences happiness, but I’m not sure that she holds happiness in her heart. It seems she is always looking for how she will be punished in this life, all the while praying to God to take the worry away.

I wonder what her life would be like if she trusted in God’s love for her. I wonder if she really believed that God will always be there to take care of her as God always has been there. Does her life always look exactly the way she thinks it is supposed to look? Probably not. In fact, I would venture that no one’s life looks the way they think it is supposed to look. Still, when we trust in God, believe in the abundance and live in the present moment, we are never disappointed. In fact, the opposite happens, God takes care of everything in ways we can never dream or imagine.

Even more, there is wondrous joy in the experience, but it takes letting go as much as it takes the work of believing. That is the beauty of God’s plan for us. God loves us so much that the world was created to protect and provide for us automatically. There is more energy, more food, and more resources on this planet than we could possibly use for thousands of years.

Yet, we still worry and fret. We start wars over the precious resources. We stop imagining and creating with what God has provided and fight over what we think it is supposed to look like. Instead of looking at the bounty of creation and celebrating that we are given everything we need, we get greedy and want more and more. We not only want what God has provided for us, we want what God has provided for everyone so we can hoard it and control it.

In your life, you probably experience this sometimes, either as the person wanting more than you need, or as the person being denied what God has given because someone else has taken control of it.

Except God still provides in ways we can never fully understand. Like my friend, who received money deposited into her bank account when she wasn’t expecting it. At a time when “there’s just not enough money to go around for everyone” and “the economy is so bad.” Imagine that. Pennies from heaven. Hallelujah! Praise God! Thank you for every blessing on earth that we have received, are receiving, and are about to receive.

I’ll take the clothes off the back of a lily any day.