This was my morning meditation:

Yes
Yes, I deal with guilt every day.
What counts is my heart’s desire,
only that my heart’s motives be pure,
and that I strive for that…day after day.

The devil must know guilt is my most vulnerable
place. Some days he is most successful in
destroying my creative energy and vitality
–just in that very way.

Yes to the fact that Jesus understands it all.
He has never willed me to carry guilt.
Yes to realizing that carrying guilt is a greater
sin than the failures that caused it…
that it negates all Christ paid to set us free.

Yes to surrendering this area of my life to God,
and not picking it up…
over and over again. Ann Kiemel

The challenging part sometimes is in not picking it up over and over again. How easy it is to turn something over and over. Much, much more challenging to accept something and let it be.

The really fascinating thing is that I randomly opened my Light Upon Light book, Inspirations of Rumi to the following:

Never Lose Hope of God

Never Lose hope of God, however terrible and confusing the circumstances you find yourself in. Hope is the head of the road to confidence. If you do not walk along that road, at least guard with all your powers its entryway. Do not go on saying, “I have done twisted things”; choose the truthful way and no twistedness will remain. Truth is like Moses’ rod, and all twisted thoughts and actions are like the tricks of Pharoah’s magicians: when Truth arrives, it swallows up all those games. If you have done evil, it is to yourself that you have done it; nothing in that evil could ever touch or darken the Eternal Face of God. Just commit yourself unwaveringly to truth and, slowly, all your twistedness will be burned away.

Hope is the source and spring of all the alchemies of transformation, the greatest treasure of the heart and mind, the philosopher’s stone that transmutes agony and tragedy into new life. Never abandon hope, or you abandon your closest and most helpful guide, the Friend who will be at the door of Paradise smiling as he lets you in.– Rumi

I find it fascinating because the two messages fit so well together and were received by happen chance. Once again proving that God sends us the messages that we need to receive when we need to receive them. And what a beautiful message. I embrace the picture of the Friend who will meet me at the door of Paradise smiling. A very freeing picture indeed!