• http://www.amazon.com/The-Thomases-Road-Realization-ebook/dp/B009BATQUA/

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Have Thine Own Way!



I was told about the intrigue and beauty of Al Kahf (surah 18, of the Quran) and so had been going through it. I have to say, I simply loved the depth and the meaning of the stories in it. One I want to mention here is of Moses and the Mysterious Man.

Moses wanted to gain more wisdom and so went in search of this Man who was called Khidr, which meant green, for his knowledge was “ever fresh and in contact with the life as it is actually lived”. Moses was to take a fish on this voyage which was supposed to disappear at the spot where he would meet this man. But when the fish does jump off into the sea, neither Moses nor the attendant remember to make note of it. As they pass on, the journey becomes more laborious, the stages become heavier and heavier and fatiguing; until they remember to turn back and look for the man again.

This story signifies that when we exhaust our old knowledge and require new knowledge we have a “feeling of uneasiness, heaviness and difficulty especially if we have passed the new knowledge by, without making it our own” The heaviness and discomfort felt is, in fact, an effort of the soul to search for the new knowledge,  a knowledge we have to acquire, to make our journey of life easier once again, after being armed with the new knowledge.

The readers would be curious as to what was the new knowledge Khidr gave to Moses. Moses was told by Khidr not to question whatever he does but he could not refrain from questioning three times over, as he found Khidr causing a loss, being cruel and returning good for evil; all with no apparent reasons. Finally when Khidr explains, his reasons are found to be surprisingly very sound.

The lessons were-
“Often in life, when directed by higher impulses, a person does things that seem wrong or foolish by worldly standards. Only a similar mind can see why the deed was done, that it was from higher wisdom, in accordance with the universal plan; and so such a person may have to bear the blame and questions of the common crowd.”

“There are paradoxes in life-apparent loss may be real gain; apparent cruelty may be real mercy; returning good for evil may really be justice and not generosity. Gods wisdom transcends all human calculation”

Hence, wisdom is to trust in God's goodness, without questioning

This Sunday’s sermon reminded me of the above story and the lessons from ‘Green’. In the sermon was a mention of the famous writer Eugene who was considered a ‘good for nothing’, but his miseries made him express himself in written word, and eventually his writings brought him fame. I wondered as to how Eugene must have thought. He had indeed lead a miserable life, suffered from depressions; and I felt that “maybe he never wanted fame, all he wanted was a happy life; then why?”

From Khidr's  lessons I feel that sometimes, things have to be as they have to be. Just like Moses, we may not understand why God does some things in our life. For instance, I never understood why God made a 'blindly trusting person' like me, become a religious skeptic; why he led me through treacherous roads, why he closed all options of talking my doubts out with someone of a like mind; so I would be forced to take up the pen, talk to myself and write and clear my doubts.

But this sermon was what I heard, coincidentally, on my birthday, the day when I woke up and opened my mail to see that my book (that dealt with clearing contradictions in various religions) was published in Amazon, a birthday gift from my brother. The sermon about Eugene made me think that maybe somebody would be helped by my book someday and that would make all my slogging and troubles worthwhile. My mind may disagree and say that I had actually wanted a normal doubt free happy life, but my heart says that maybe my soul always preferred something lasting, maybe it always wanted to leave behind something helpful. Our joys and miseries are momentary but what we learn and leave behind, are eternal.

I never wanted this! Why Lord! Can't you hear what I am asking from you? What the hell is this that you give me! These are lines that I, and I am sure all of us often say to God in prayer; and then like this sermon, something may make our minds finally reverberate to the words of this hymn that followed the sermon.....
Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
Mould me and make me after thy will,
while I am waiting, yielded and still

Should the clay fight with the potter and say “.. Hey not like that!... Lightly not so rough!..”
It is the potter who has the final picture of the pot in mind, not the clay…In other words,
it would make life easier when we yield to the uncalled slaps of life and say…Uh Okay, I can't see the final picture Lord, You can......Have Thine Own Way …!

30 comments:

Jovy Thomas said...

Wonderful post dear... Love it

M P Nicholson said...

Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
Mould me and make me after thy will,
while I am waiting, yielded and still - well explained Jerly nice..like the way u have transcribed these thoughts.

Jerly said...

:) thank u Jovy and Nick. HAPPY u liked

ralph said...

He knows whats the best for us... and we can't see nor comprehend it with our human eyes and mind. nice one, jerly. Yahweh bless.

Fhermission said...

If you were to chose would you want to be a pottery or a driftwood?

God be with you Jerly.

vinay said...

In spite of being an atheist I always love to read such things about religions.
Good one. :)

Jerly said...

Thanks Ralph, Fher and Vinay.

Fher I am sure u know what I think..

deeps said...

Was just rushing through your posts… and found all of them to be topics of debate… there is a mix of religion, philosophy, creativity and sentiments…

Never heard of this quest from Moses, but it s a story like you said..what matters is the lessons..
Hey you got a book published??!!! Ohh wow! So not just a blog scribbler…

Thanks for stopping by.. appreciate that :P

Jerly said...

I like the way u have described the contents of my blog! Thanks for going thru! and thanks for the appreciation. I am grateful :)

Saru Singhal said...

Well, it is something very interesting and deep. I guess, life teaches us lesson but the irony is most of us don't learn from our own experience, we prefer to search for answers. A profound read like the earlier one. I checked your book, looks like a good read. Will try to get the copy. :)

Debra said...

Always, always, the spiritual is in stark contrast to the natural ways of the world. And yes, paradox is the spiritual path; in fact, everything is opposite of what we’ve learned from the world. Loss is gain, death is life, poverty is wealth, ‘foolishness’ is wisdom…

I remember that hymn so well. Have thine own way, Lord… He is really molding us after his will, while we are waiting, yielded and still.

Jerly said...

Thanks Saru! That would be great! I am honoured by ur comment

Thanks Debra for sharing your thought on this. 'Spiritual in stark contrast with reality'. That's the cause of the confused existence we lead. Life is outside of any book indeed

Rick Watson said...

Beautiful.

deeps said...

do you have written any other book?

Jerly said...

no. just one as of yet.

Devilish Angel said...

Good one...

deeps said...

i just went thru some portion...
you are a student of theology or philosophy??!!

Jerly said...

Both :)what did u think after reading? Theology or philosophy or both?

Subhrashis Adhikari said...

Wise Khidr
...great lessons there

deeps said...

i guess theology n philosophy go hand in hand coz one cant fully perceive the nuances one without being substantiated by another.
i havent gone thru the book fully, but with whatever lil i read, i guess both these subjects are there for sure...

Rahul Bhatia said...

Jerly the best thing I like about your posts is they provide the food for thought:)

Motifs said...

I am glad you asked me to read this. First of all congratulations on your book.
When I read this, I realized that my view of how much I "trust" God has been clouded. I think many of us, certainly including myself, are scared and insecure about the future. At any given moment, anything can happen to completely change our lives. To me, this is horrifying, and thought of things not going according to my plan really scares me. But God has His own plans for us. We need to trust God that everything He is doing in our lives is for the best. This means that we have to completely trust God with our lives and the direction we're going, rather than asking Him to help us fulfill our own plans and take the path that WE want to take. We need to give up our lives to Him, rather than clinging onto our lives and living in fear, which shows a lack of trust.
So instead of being worried and stressed out all the time, we need to live confidently knowing that God has our back, and is leading us down the right path.
Our lives are an embodiment of what our hearts feel. If we truly trust Him, let our lives show it.
I loved it Jerly.....it is making me believe again.

Jerly said...

Thank u Life 101, Devlish Angel, Sub, Rahul and ALpana for visiting and leaving me ur love.

@Rahul- Thats what this space intends; the Thinking Space should leave u chewing on a thought :)

@Alpana(Motifs)-Thanks for accepting my invitation to read this and it makes me happy that u found the answers u were looking for. The way u have explained it here is beautiful. It always makes me happy to have ur unique reflections on my posts. I am grateful. Much Love to u

deeps said...

i hope there is another post on the way...

Unknown said...

Awesome

Martha Jane Orlando said...

An absolutely amazing reflection, Jerly! I don't know how I missed this when you first posted it. It really does mirror my Thanksgiving blog and it is so true.
Blessings, my friend!

Unknown said...

Hi Jerly thank you for making me read this post.. you know how it will strengthen my will and spirits.. :) :)

Jerly said...

GGLADD My pleasure as always

Hemant said...

A motivating article indeed....where's the link to your book on Amazon!!

Jerly said...

Hemant ! https://www.amazon.com/Thomases-Road-Realization-Jerly-Biju-ebook/dp/B009BATQUA

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...