AN INSIDE JOB

Dear All Of Us,

A main stay and stream 

of many a detective stoy

is the discovery that

"It's an inside job."

The answer to the mystery 

isn't out there somewhere.

Rather, the answer is right there 

within the mystery.

It's "an inside job."




Augustine, the sinner become saint,

the great theologian of the early church,

was also a great detective in his own way and time.

After a lot of evil doing on his part, 

he "cracked the case," 

the mystery of love and joy.

He had spent half a lifetime wrong focused -

fouled himself and cohorts of other wrong seekers.

He flung his body and mind wide and far.

He bedded and embraced all sorts 

of people, pleasures, persuasions, 

concepts and contrivances

seeking satisfaction and exhilaration,

seeking love and joy.

His torrid living ended 

in a "cold case" -

no resolution.

He was deadened, cloyed.




Like all great detectives  

Augustine finally realized that 

he was looking

in the wrong places, 

in the wrong directions,

for the right thing.

Refocused, redirected,

he discovered that 

in the case of love and joy

it's always 

          "an inside job."

What he pursued wasn't outside him,

it had been within him all along.



He summed up the case 

of love and joy this way:

     
      "Late have I loved you,
       O Beauty ever ancient,
       ever new,
       late have I loved you!
       You were within me,
       but I was outside,
       and it was there 
       I searched for you.
       In my unloveliness
       I plunged into 
       the lovely things 
       that you created.
       You were with me, 
       but I was not with you."



Like Augustine, 

we too are like detectives.

We are always trying 

to "crack the case,"

to solve the mystery.

What works the good?

Where lies love and joy?




How has it been with us?

How is it with us right now?

Where are we focused?




I'll try to answer my own question.

I so regret those years longing and looking 

from the edge of my body outward, 

looking and longing out there as far as my money, 

my pride, position, passion could propel me to dead ends.

Slowly I realized  this perfect love and joy we all seek isn't out there at all.

It's "an inside job," one that grows from the inside outward.

 It does so with care and sharing for

"...the lovely things that you created."

It has meant being centered.

It has meant living from the inside out.

It has meant accepting that "Beauty ever ancient, ever new"

the Beauty that is my core and center.

It has meant embracing The Being 

that embraces me into being.

It has meant embracing all "the lovely things you have created," 

one with their Creator




Long ago the Zen Buddhist realized the centrality 

of just that - the Center.

For them satori refers to the experience of kensho,

"seeing into one's true nature,"

They named it enlightenment.

An inside job.



The Pharisees quizzed Jesus 

about when that perfect love and joy,

that kingdom of God,

would come.

He told them it is 

"not coming with things 

that can be observed, 

nor will they say, 

'Look, here it is!' or

'There it is!'

For, in fact, 

the kingdom of God 

is within you." (1)

It's not out there somewhere.

It's "an inside job."




Paul chased around 

looking for the answer

to life out there 

in observance of the law.

He got rerouted, righted:

"And it is no longer I who live,

but Christ who lives in me." (2)

"An inside job."



                         God is centered in us

                         and God sure wants 

                         our company right there

                         because with God it's 

  
                            AN INSIDE JOB



                that works out ever so beautifully.




Thanks for this chance to

       Soul Sleuth.


  In God's Dear Love,

       John Frank

             *****


   (1) Luke 17:21

   (2) Galatians 2:20

         *****


A FEW PRAYER PROMTS


In bare, naked honesty

- how much am I 

  soul centered?

- what are the ways and times

  I soul center?

- in deciding/choosing

  do I start at soul center
 
  and work outward from there? 

- what are the main draws

  that tempt me to skip that 

  and first seek love and joy 

  in someone/something "out there"?

- how willing am I to let God

  "love the socks off me"

  in the chamber of my deepest innerness?

- how convinced am I that

  one with the Creator at my center 

  I can then move outward with the Creator

  and most fully experience

  "the lovely things you have created"?

- where and in what is my day to day life centered?

                       *****



 Welcome to those joining us for the first time this week.

Great to be together and share, to crack the case from the inside out!

                                     *****



                              Postings go online 

                              Thursday evenings

                              east coast USA time. 


                            See you all next week!!




********************************************************* 

       

       






,