Hauntings of Failure and Pain

What is something that haunts you?

We each have things that haunt us. Things we’ve done wrong and also the wrongs that have been done to us. If we aren’t careful, those are the things that cloud our minds and are huge obstacles to our being at one with God, to having a life connected to the love and peace The Divine offers.

How do we prevent that?

We can all explore our life’s experiences and find ourselves thinking, “If only I’d . . .”

Perhaps it is a time that we could have spoken up when someone was being bullied or we were witness to injustice.

Perhaps we could have “gone the extra mile” and be there for someone, done something to lessen someone else’s hardship or pain. We could have carried their burdens for them.

Or, as sad and difficult it is for us to each admit it, perhaps it is a time that we were the cause of someone else’s hurt.

On the flip side, we can sit around and ruminate on the wrongs done to us. “If only he’d . . .” or “She could have been/done/behaved this way to/for me.”

Neither of these scenarios is conducive to a life marked with joy and peace.

What if we try to remember something different?

What if we remember that we ALL can be haunted by our failures.

And . . . we ALL will be hurt at some point in our lives that it seems impossible that we will ever heal.

Yet in each of those situations, there is an avenue, a pathway to being free from guilt and shame. A pathway to peace.

The pathway is simply the word, “Thanks.”

Recognizing that we are all going to screw up while we are on our journey.

And recognizing that those around us, while they are on their journeys, they are going to “screw up” too, and sometimes we are the brunt of that.

When we offer the word “thanks” it opens up the pathway for God/The Divine Love to speak to us, to work in us so that we see things differently.

Instead of seeing only our failures, we will see how failures can be and will be used for good if we submit them to the power that is much bigger than anything we can control.

And instead of being submerged in our pain, we will have an opening to see that God works in even our deepest pain and brings beautiful things from wounds and scars. We just have to put our work into experiencing the healing.

Today . . . “Thanks.”

“Thanks, God, for my failures . . . help me use them for the good of others instead of pain.”

“Thanks, God, for my own pain . . . show me how it can be used as a vessel of love, hope, and peace.”