Yielding to Grace

Photo: A view at Canglang Pavilion, Suzhou, China

Hi there. This is Lee van Laer, and you're listening to the podcast Idiots and Fools: discussions about the Gurdjieff work, life, and everything else.

This is Lee, and I'm in my hotel room in Suzhou here in China in a somewhat impromptu edition of Idiots and Fools.

I've been thinking for the past week or so about the grace that flows into life and how people almost never talk about this because they are unaware of its existence.

And that's a bit strange to me, because there's no question that grace and glory flow into life and being at every instant, into every object, into every event, circumstance and condition; and that we are, as creatures, born to receive that grace, born to sense it, born to know the truth of grace itself.

I can't say why human beings have lost the ability to sense that grace. But I can assure you that it is there and it is very real indeed. And that there can never be any doubt that God is eternally present within creation and that God's love is the greatest force, that which gives birth to everything.

Within you as you listen to this there is a part buried beneath the action of your intelligence, buried under the things you tell yourself, that can be open to that grace and that love—and that if it is, it will perpetually flow into being without ceasing. And it will confer a great quietness and peace upon your soul.

This is what is meant by the word glory. Glory has a wish to flow into being, a glory which celebrates life and celebrates truth and celebrates goodness and justice and mercy and all of the good qualities that human beings are capable of expressing through the gift of grace.
Our hearts are very hardened, and we resist this force unconsciously, and sometimes even consciously. Yet it does not resist us, and would always have us as its partner, would we but yield to grace.

Every time I come into contact with this great love and this great mystery, which is often, I cannot explain it. Yet I sense its limitless generosity, and I realize how freely it is given.

It calls to us in the wilderness, hoping that we will return to it, hoping that we will open our hearts to sense it.

Within you now, you have the capacity to become open to this grace and this goodness,
to this truth and this glory. But first, in order to do so, you must yield to grace; and in this sense, you must let go of everything that you have.
No one wants to do this because we would rather have what we know than accept the
mystery of love within our hearts. And even if it comes, we are poor receptacles for it, ones that leak and get confused, and even angry. Yet it doesn't have to be that way, because when love flows in, it will seal the container.

Nothing will leak out anymore.

And as the saying goes, the cup will run over with glory.

Every day I spend some time quietly sensing grace as it flows in, and over many years I have learned to pay closer and closer attention to it. I have learned that it lies at the root of creation,
and I try to yield and be there with it at the beginning of every day, so that it can have its good actions within me, actions I am unable to undertake myself.

I can't do anything myself. But when the will of the Lord is done, ah, then grace lives within being and it is real and it opens the door to goodness and the peace of the Lord which passes all understanding.

When I am touched by this, it is always the moment that I vouchsafe my life unto the Lord, knowing that I am inadequate, accepting what is sent, and giving thanks.

I remind myself with each breath that it is possible to yield to the heart of grace and receive the love that is sent.

Lord have mercy.