I speak of faith often but faith and trust are synonymous; you can't have faith without trust. I am at the point where my faith has led me to unforeseen and spectacular heights that now require extreme amounts of trust to act on. The wonderful thing is once you start practicing faith daily, your capacity to believe in greatness and miracles exponentially increases. When it comes time to say yes to the life you aspire to live, it becomes so much easier to trust in yourself, in your dreams, and in a higher power with faith in your pocket.
This is where one on my favorite words enters the arena: Grace. There are umpteen different takes on Grace, but one stands out to me. Doreen Virtue explains this phenomenon as acceptance and trust in faith. I like to think of Grace as faith in action. The very meaning of faith in my life is taking trusted action which allows Grace to penetrate my experience.
I have been called to put more of my faith in action than ever before. I speak of faith and live in faith every day, but practicing faith in new territory is another story. As I am being tested in my faith, my ability to trust the unfolding of my journey is growing in leaps knowing that God is indeed working behind the scenes. This is Grace, and it is what keeps me going.
I am undergoing major life changes as I answer God's call for my spiritual life purpose. I recently decided to leave my current full time job in order to focus more time on my calling (which is exactly what God is guiding me to follow).
The blessing of being a designer is my ability to work as a freelance artist (giving me the flexibility to pursue my new career); because it is not a steady paycheck, I have no guarantee of income after my transition—hence the downside of this blessing.
After the first few moments of uncertainty and fear crept in, I chose to allow the situation to unfold with Grace. Well, the next day or so didn't unfold so gracefully as I battled my Ego who wanted concrete evidence that I would have an income. Consequently, I hit up every freelance contact this side of the Mississippi (and beyond).
It wasn't until a few days later while listening to a daily meditation on overwhelm that Doreen explained Grace; I began to see how this plot twist is really an answer to my prayers. My exercises in faith and trust now make crystal clear sense.
Certainty is irrelevant if you have faith in your pocket.
-Karilyn Owens
God answered my prayers with something I wouldn't have chosen for myself (for I still crave certainty), but this unfolding of events is leading me to boost my levels of trust. The me today understands how this twist is a gigantic blessing. You see, I have prayed (even pleaded at times) for more time to devote to my spiritual calling. I am currently writing a book, taking online certifications and starting my own business.
It dawned on me why my situation is working out as it is; I am being gifted time. As I let that feeling sink in, I realized how much freedom I will now have to act on my spiritual endeavors.
Instead of focusing on securing freelance work, God is asking me to courageously step into my calling by assuring I am ready to help others NOW. Grace tells me freelance work will arrive as needed; my old contacts began reaching out far before I ensued on my frantic mission. I now see how my situation is divinely timed. God is boosting my confidence in my calling for this is what I am meant to embark on.
But back to stepping into this calling of mine. My perfectionistic mindset tells me I am not ready. Ego says I don't have the necessary qualifications or certifications. Yet what God is telling me loud and clear is that I have fulfilled my prerequisites for my life purpose as a light worker and teacher. I have been in school all my life with keen attention paid to the past year (and specifically the last six months).
My dear healer, Alex Hermosillo, says life is the best kind of school (and I vehemently agree with him). We experience our karmic lessons as we "pass" (or fail) each lesson we are meant to learn in order to fulfill our divine purpose. Karma, the intentions behind our actions according to Sharon Salzburg, is put in place to reduce our man-made suffering (known as dharma in the Buddhist Tradition).
If we plant positive seeds based of intention, we experience positive results through our actions. But we learn the most helpful lessons by receiving negative consequences when planting fear-based seeds.
My first 30 years provided much suffering through my experiences and fear-based intentions. I have discovered that healers and spiritual teachers such as myself will go through this phase of suffering in order to prepare and rise to our purpose in this lifetime.
I gained the wisdom to nearly clean my slate of suffering and embody my true essence of unconditional love. That I have fulfilled my prerequisites is an indication that I have passed my Karmic lessons in order to emerge as my true, awakened self—a whole heart, a light worker, spiritual teacher and intuitive healer.
I learned epic lessons that surpass any classroom material. And when I believe in myself and accept God's Grace playing in my life as a finely conducted orchestra, I see how He has sneakily cleared my schedule so that I may get to work. Sure, I will be expanding my knowledge and capabilities (I am a forever student while on Earth), but I am ready to take action by serving others now. I already do.
So, I am taking action even but for baby steps. School will always be a way to gain knowledge and tools, but I am going to focus on the best classroom of all: life experience.
I am going to put faith into action by continuing to pursue my purpose, one small step at a time. Faith tells me I am divinely supported on my journey (as long as I am serving the purpose God put me on this planet to fulfill). This takes trust, but as the events in my first 30 years have unraveled Divinely, I know they will continue to do so. That is Grace.