Sometimes life’s obstacles are an invitation to return to our inner center, where our eternal Friend awaits.
I hit my head quite hard against a concrete beam. Blood was flowing down my forehead. That was something to think about.
It is a fact, proven by experience, that the Lord works in mysterious ways.
A few days after the incident, interesting thoughts and some poetic lines from an old song[1] entered my mind.
Stuck on you
I’ve got this feeling down deep in my soul
That I just can’t lose
Guess I’m on my way
The word ‘stuck’ has different meanings. In a negative context it points to problems as in ‘being stuck’: being blocked and seeing no way out. The songwriter used the term ‘stuck’ in a very positive sense: it expresses an inescapable, unbreakable love connection. This pull of love works deep in his soul; that is why he is on his way.
When a human being doesn’t know that they carry deep inside a spiritual treasure, they are stuck in both ways.
To understand ‘being stuck’ as seeing no way out, the following quotation of Jan van Rijckenborgh might help:
There is not a single possessor of the spirit who can feel at home in dialectical nature. He can find no rest, no home, no peace and no happiness anywhere on the face of the earth. He dwells in the land of Nod; that is, the land of roaming, of never-ending flight, of continual dissociation from dialectical nature; and he suffers the curse, so that in principle and fundamentally he can find nothing of himself, nothing of his own being in the present. Continually persecuted, constantly under threat, repeatedly wounded, forever surrounded by boundless hatred, which attacks him whenever the opportunity arises. (…) That is why, since the beginning, he has been the one who flees; he is fleeing from himself. What an immeasurable woe![2]
This quotation paints a dark picture. However, there is a deeper meaning to it. Because we are running from ourselves, our consciousness is not able to perceive the spiritual light which permeates everything. Running from ourselves means looking in the wrong direction. Not knowing oneself results in a subjective darkness.
The human beings with their inner, undiscovered spiritual treasure, are stuck in the negative sense: they are desperate, wounded and on the run. But where to go? They have no home. Or, so it seems! The meaning of their misery is that they have to learn that they are ‘stuck on you’. This being stuck is a very positive thing: it is having an unbreakable connection with one’s spiritual origin. Being rooted in it, being bound to it, being stuck on it. Our misery is a love story. Our song is a love song.
Needed a friend
And the way I feel now
I guess I’ll be with you ’til the end
Guess I’m on my way
Mighty glad you stayed
Our inner friend, our eternal friend, is always within us. We just have to get to know him. We have to stop running from ourselves and turn back to our center, where our spiritual origin, our Spirit-spark, our deepest and eternal Self is found. Not knowing this means continuously banging our head against stone.
I’m stuck on you
Been a fool too long
I guess it’s time for me to come on home
Guess I’m on my way
Learning to know ourselves, acquiring self-knowledge, acknowledging that we are stuck on Him, rooted in Him, means getting to know a new universe. Is it not one of the strangest and most mysterious things that we don’t know ourselves? Getting to know one’s deepest and true Self is embarking on an inner journey. When our spiritual center becomes important to us, when it receives our attention, it kindles sparks of light in our consciousness. It is this light that makes us understand ourselves and the world around us. This light makes us realise the cause of outer blockades. When our outer path is blocked, the inner path to our true Self is obstructed. Removing these inner obstacles clears the path for more light, a deepening of our self-knowledge.
Are you stuck in both ways?
Do you need friends to help you discover your inner, eternal friend?
Do you want to go home?
You know where to find us.
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[1] Lionel Richie – Stuck on You Lyrics & Meaning
[2] The Egyptian Arch Gnosis 3 | The Golden Rosycross, chapter XXXII “Cain and Abel”
