11-24-11 “He did deliver me from bondage” p. 127, Day 6

11-24-11    “He did deliver me from bondage”  p. 127, Day 6

I remember once I read that, the lady Prime Minister of England, Margaret Thatcher once said as she took office that she recognized in order to get to a less socialized state in her government and come to a place of peace that she knew she would first have to go through periods of conflict.  This thought was the first thing that popped into my mind when I read Colleen’s thoughts here.  I had never connected the idea of progress with it before.  That is a very empowering feeling.  I feel that it is true, that progress does not happen in a perfectly straight line.  There is also a book just out that, as far as I can gather, talks about this principle.  It’s called the Zigzag principle.  Leslie Householder is promoting it.  A friend of mine also described this principle once when she said that our path to our mission is like a zigzag.  Others looking at us judgmentally may see that we are all over the place and don’t know what we’re really doing, but we know as we follow God the Zigzag gets smaller and smaller, eventually leading us to our desired end.  I do see that it is obvious, and attained through a process of persistence and work.

The periods of war and peace in my life that come evidently to mind are within my marriage, and they interestingly enough seem at first thought to correspond to periods of war and peace within myself as evidence of my own feeling of closeness to God.  8 and a half years ago when Josh and I got married we both brought to the marriage the baggage of previous marriages.  I think prejudice and pride would be the best way to describe our baggage.  I was horribly defiant and he was terribly tyrannical.  We would fight and pull against the other until war broke out.  I remember once he left me after a fight (at the temple no less) four months after we were just married.  We have been through all sorts of desolation:  broken doors, computers, phones.  It has been an incredible blessing that no one has ever raised a fist in anger to another person.  Mom reminded me yesterday of a catsup bottle that once went flying across the kitchen in the most perfect flat centrifugal action.  It was like watching a slow motion scene in The Matrix.  The funny thing that I can see now is that I was at war with the wrong party.  I was at war with him because I didn’t know myself, and because I hadn’t come to truly know my God.  The progress this book has brought me in that process is completely priceless and amazing.  I am studying Gandhi right now, and he describes it as the process of self-actualization as a means to purify yourself to grow closer to God.  I love Gandhi.  There are some things he believed that I do not agree with, but some things that I find perfectly synonymous as he describes himself that I feel are also from the depths of my own soul.  He never thought so of himself, but I believe it is because of his humility that made him a Great Soul.