How can I help?
“How can I help?” Is what I wish my husband would ask around mealtimes. The thing is, I need to ask that question of myself. Not about dinner, but about other kinds of food. Food that feeds something greater. Greater in myself and greater than myself.
Connected to this question around how can I help, is the thought that God doesn’t have hands and feet, but I do. At least for now. It’s all so cliché. Yet the truth and consequence of this is sinking in. If I am to be of any help whatsoever, I’d best get on with it!
HOW?
The question now becomes, How? How can I help someone or something so that it comes from the right place in me and goes to feed an objective good rather than my ego? How do I even make this discernment?
I believe I’ve taken one step in this direction with the practice of listening for what is being asked. When I open myself to this, it seems to resonate in the feeling center. It also calls for a commitment. What I am finding, is that the next step is Decision.
CAN
Decision is where the “can” comes in. There’s a connection between the wish to do something and the body that is going to do it. A link between these two must be forged. With Mr. Bennett’s Decision Exercise, this is done with visualization and bodily sensation.
For instance, I felt called to sign up to provide lunch last week for our town’s community ministries. At first, I wasn’t sure how I would do this. Then I visualized making sandwiches, sensing my hands spreading mustard and mayo, layering meat, cheese, and lettuce.
I
However, for this action to come from the right place, my “me” must be connected to my “I” or “real” will, as Mr. Bennett frames it. It is from this deeper, or higher, place in myself that an irrevocable decision is made.
Because I took these steps, I found myself present while making the sandwiches. And again, the next day, while filling the lunch bags and then delivering the meals.
HELP
Perhaps in this way I can truly be of help. Both in this physical world with an action and in the unseen world, with the energy of consciousness.