{"id":18719,"date":"2020-04-07T09:35:17","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T13:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=18719"},"modified":"2020-04-07T09:35:17","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T13:35:17","slug":"your-name-is-written-in-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=18719","title":{"rendered":"Your Name Is Written in Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Reality Initiating Us:<br>\nPart Two&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lesson\nTwo: Your Name Is Written in Heaven&nbsp;<\/strong><br>\nTuesday, \u202fApril 7, 2020\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PtUTa5Nc-e0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-mtrcyk-bdudkgkj-r\/\">Click here to watch a special video or listen to the audio<\/a>&nbsp;of Richard Rohr introducing Holy Week and this week&#8217;s Daily Meditation theme on &#8220;Reality Initiating Us,&#8221; addressing our current global crisis as a collective initiation experience which we are all undergoing.&nbsp;<\/em>You are not important,&nbsp;and&nbsp;yet&nbsp;Jesus says,&nbsp;\u201cRejoice because your name&nbsp;is written in heaven\u201d&nbsp;(Luke 10:20).&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;<br>We need a still point in this twirling world of images and feelings,&nbsp;especially in a time such as ours.&nbsp;If we are tethered at some center point, it is amazing how far out we can fly and not get lost.&nbsp;The&nbsp;True&nbsp;Self, &#8220;our name in heaven,&#8221; is our participation in the great \u201cI&nbsp;Am.\u201d It is what Peter daringly calls the \u201cability to share the divine nature\u201d (2 Peter 1:4). This&nbsp;True&nbsp;Self is characterized by contentment, an abiding low-level peace and happiness. Every&nbsp;now and then it&nbsp;even&nbsp;becomes pure joy.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> If there is no list of names in eternity, no confidence that we are known and chosen by God, we are burdened with making a name for ourselves every day. We must be self-made, every person out for themselves in a dog-eat-dog world, vying with one another for zero-sum dignity and importance. Instead of comparison, envy, competition, and scarcity, authentic spirituality is an experience of abundance and mutual flourishing. We are tempted to count only our material and ego gifts which decrease with usage, whereas spiritual gifts actually increase with each use, in ourselves and in those around us.<br> &nbsp;<br> If we have no foundational significance, we must constantly attempt to self-signify and self-validate. Everyone is then a competitor and rival. We cannot help but be pushed around by our neediness and judgments, and we will push others around too. If we have no unshakable experience of divine approval, we will be lost in fragile momentary experiences of \u201cvictory\u201d that cannot be sustained or really enjoyed.&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;<br> We must find our North Star&nbsp;outside our own little comparative systems or we will be lost in rivalry and daily defeat. It is a whole different way of looking at what we mean by&nbsp;\u201cGod saving us.&#8221;&nbsp;God first of all saves us from ourselves, our emotional neediness and hurt, and our obsessive mind games. Then&nbsp;<em>the truth of being<\/em>&nbsp;is obvious and all around us.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our importance\nis given and bestowed in this universe as part of the unbreakable covenant\nbetween us and our Creator. We are declared important \u201cfrom the beginning\u201d (Ephesians\n1:4, 9), and when we really know it, we have no need to prove it. We are\nreminded who we really are in God when Jesus tells us that our \u201cname is written\nin heaven.\u201d Surely God holds medical workers and first responders close to\nGod\u2019s heart right now, as they put their lives on the line to support us all.\nThe courage they are showing is the kind of courage that comes from knowing the\nvalue of life. I pray we might all operate from that place as we struggle\nthrough the coming days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reality Initiating Us: Part Two&nbsp; Lesson Two: Your Name Is Written in Heaven&nbsp; Tuesday, \u202fApril 7, 2020\u202f&nbsp; Click here to watch a special video or listen to the audio&nbsp;of Richard Rohr introducing Holy Week and this week&#8217;s Daily Meditation theme on &#8220;Reality Initiating Us,&#8221; addressing our current global crisis as a collective initiation experience which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18719"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18720,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18719\/revisions\/18720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}