The Transformational Forge of Trial
by Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts
Readings
Job 23:9-12
When he is at work in the north, I do not see him;
when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.
But he knows the way that I take;
when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
My feet have closely followed his steps;
I have kept to his way without turning aside.
I have not departed from the commands of his lips;
I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.
John 16:33
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
Emanuel Swedenborg’s Divine Providence #21
The Lord’s divine providence works things out so that what is both evil and false promotes balance, comparison, and purification, which means that it promotes the union of what is good and true in others.
Read the written message below with music videos
The scriptures speak often of the process needed to find salvation, nirvana, transcendence or whatever word that specific tradition uses to speak of finding fullness in our Divinely-sourced intrinsic awareness. Buddhist scriptures sometimes refer to butter and the churning needed to make it as an analogy for what is required to reach Buddhahood, saying that we must do the work with the power of our connectedness to Intrinsic Awareness. And our reading today from Job speaks of being tested and coming forth as gold, implying that our trials are our forging in God’s fire. Despite scripture’s insistence, we sometimes get repelled at the idea of having to work to find the heaven that’s within us, or that we must undergo trials, saying that salvation is entirely in God’s hands and may have more to do with getting the God right than anything that we have to do to find it within ourselves. However, we have but to look within to see that yes, we haven’t entirely uncovered the heaven that Jesus says is within us, and to remember that all our strength in overcoming is from the Lord, known by many names, who has asked us to use it to forge heaven.
Looking back at our pasts, we can often see that the trials that have come and passed have engendered strength, perspective, and courage in us, among other things. Although we’re less likely to see this if we struggle with large aspects of some of those traumas within our minds, then those trials are still present with us and we have yet to overcome them. The reality of the trauma and heavy-handed emotions we carry should encourage us to seek healing and the power to overcome them, although regularly we identify so much with our thinking, feeling, and behaviour, such as our judgmental, belittling attitude towards “those who deserve it,” that we miss the traumatic pain and deluded division inherent within them. In fact, we tend to become so identified with how we talk and think about ourselves and others that we can have little awareness of what we’re doing even on an external level.
According to scriptures, finding salvation or nirvana connects directly with our ability to allow ourselves to be healed and find peace within. Indeed, what’s the point of “entering” heaven if it doesn’t feel like heaven? And most traditions’ scriptures are similar in saying that God doesn’t force internal blessedness onto anyone, as it’s something we already have within – we have but to accept and uncover it, in one way or another.
However, this involves wanting to uncover the heaven within, which often only comes when we are in the midst of difficult trials. To the extent that our external circumstances are “normal” or pleasant, we sometimes have little impetus to turn to the deeper source of peace within. It’s only when difficulties raise their head and our minds become burdened with struggle, anxiety, and pain, that we more likely feel the need to escape into our intrinsic abode of peace – the light and warmth of God always within our very awareness.
This is why Biblical scripture emphasizes so often finding haven in God, reiterating that we should actively turn to God for peace and joy, in trial and when not. When we turn to God meditatively or in prayer, we are tuning into the vastness of our spirit, sourced directly from the Divine. This process is known by many names, but meditative practices across traditions tend to share deep similarities of tuning into something greater, the source of wisdom and love, while we observe and disassociate with the rambling fears, impulses, and thoughts of our minds. In a way, we are taking Christ’s words about Heaven being within us very seriously, as we are investing time in getting to know our sourcedness in Spirit and letting go of our attachments to the outer world and our thinking mind.
As we know of the Biblical character Job, sometimes we lose everything before we’re able to find our “golden,” purified selves and true newness of life. Although seemingly brutal, our own struggles with the consequences of our actions, karma, and seemingly random catastrophes, can act very much like a forge. However, for a time we may choose to become embattled or might find ourselves with forms of PTSD until we actively accept the call to turn within and towards mindfulness. Despite the misdirection of the word itself, mindfulness tends to involve taking a step back from identifying with our minds, watching its workings as we actively work to come more into the present moment. In a way, it speaks to allowing our minds to work more functionally and normally, as our minds naturally become quieter when we don’t identify or fight with their thinking and feeling. This also involves letting go of our ego-centered mindsets, releasing self-hate, selfishness, judgmentalness, competitiveness, and all the trappings of creating a separate egoic identity from the universe itself.
That being said, who wants to wait until catastrophe to find heaven within? I know I don’t, even if to an extent I may have to. To do this we must become acutely aware of the suffering of the world around us, within our past and in the future. This awareness can help encourage us to take seriously the call to meditative spiritual practices, coming into our intrinsic state of being in connectedness with God instead of just doing and thinking. As we do this, we may notice that we slow down and our values start to shift away from the exacting expectations of the world around us, shifting to the will of the Spirit and the flow of peaceful life. Those changes in themselves may create more of the transformational forge in your life that will bring you to greater connection with the heavenliness within.
Further, our world itself is going through its own transformational forge on many fronts, with the unthinkably serious threats of vast climate change, pandemics, capitalism and capitalistic mindsets, bigotry, genocidal thinking, and hegemonic systems. In our lifetimes, we will continue to see an external forge like no other, calling on society and each of us to transform our modes of thinking or face further pain and destruction – much of which may be inescapable through existing means. As a Taoist might say, let’s “roll with the punches,” and allow the seriousness of these issues to transform us as well as our world, turning to the truer reality of beingness of Spirit within and striving with God’s power to uplift the heaven within all things.
We all know we face trials, and so let us accept that we can use these times for positive transformation of the Spirit. Our favorite mystic, Swedenborg, believed that all things worked for good and the ultimate purpose of the universe, writing, “The Lord’s divine providence works things out so that what is both evil and false promotes balance, comparison, and purification, which means that it promotes the union of what is good and true in others.” (Divine Providence 21) May we allow the evil and the trials in our lives to call us to turn inward, seeking strength from the Lord to find peace and the willpower to change ourselves and the world for the better.
Peace and care to you,
Cory