Giving Up and Giving In

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Jesus was "built" exactly like you and me, except his life had grown into pure, total, absolute wisdom. That is, he was both "true man and true God (Love)," as the Church was later to say. He was part human. So, he was able to surrender completely to the guiding will of Love (God) in his life. Every moment, he actually lived out the prayer that he taught: "Thy will be done."

Like every enlightened person, he had stripped himself of all personal, selfish desire, grasping, clinging, and attachment. He had trained himself to want only what Love (God) wanted. He had set down all the "baggage" of selfish personal desire-- a factor that enslaves most people to the very end of their lives. And, as he himself said, he had recognized his oneness with the much greater Supermind of the Father.
(Jn. 10:30)

But he still had a human body and a human nature. From all appearances, he knew that this body, and the whole body-world, was a mere illusion. But he did allow himself (that human part of himself) to express doubt. He did not fall for this lower-nature trick, and was never misled completely by its many illusions.

But he knew that he would forever after be an example to human beings. So, at his darkest hour, he was thinking of us: He allowed the fear-nature and the doubt-nature to express themselves, indicating and implying that it is okay for an imperfect human being to doubt God. It is natural and normal, and is by no means an "unforgivable" sin. It was to express this lower, but human, nature that he said, from the Cross, "My God, why have you forsaken me?"

People live in enormous pressure-cooker, screaming-point tensions, and it is "permission" to give in to the stresses. But he also proved that we should not, need not, give in to the doubts, fears, and pressures of our lives. We have permission to fall on the road, to collapse beneath our burdens, but we do not have permission simply to lie there. As Jesus' life and ministry proved, after we collapse and fall, we must get up again, and once again start walking the path.

Jesus never gave up on his "heavenly Father." But he said these words in order to show us that it was okay, just fine, to give up. In fact, faith is not complete until we completely give up and give in. Faith is truly an act of grace, and so, we are not fully responsible for its actions in our hearts. But even when this faith appears to give out, or up, this is not the end. The higher path continues to call us back to Love-- the same Love for even cruel strangers that Jesus expressed in his prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

We have God's (Love's) permission to collapse and fall, but we are also called back by that same Love, to a faith renewed, powerful, and guiding.

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