A Recipe for Salvation

Gebara – Out of the Depths Chapter 4

Women’s Experience of Salvation

Thought #3

Gebara asserts that salvation shows up in two ways.  One as the end-all “Congratulations – you’ve won a golden ticket to Heaven”, and the other as a series of Oasis occurring periodically along the walk of life.

While I don’t personally put much stock in the golden ticket idea, I LOVE the idea of Oases.  Gebara puts it like this: “Salvation is everything that nourishes love … a little oasis in the midst of daily trials.  These temporary redemptions – these that refuel eagerness for living - are not bound by moral judgments or narrow laws – they are always open to what lies beyond institutional prescriptions and established customs.  These ordinary acts call into question societies incapable of taking into consideration the common good over selfishness.”(pg 123)

So: 

Offering to babysit kids so a harried Mama can have some respite:  Salvation.

Picking up litter as you walk from your car to the supermarket:  Salvation.

Consoling a man whose lover just died:  Salvation.

Speaking kindly to yourself when you screw something up:  Salvation.

Recognizing and speaking to that little spark of God present in the homeless man:  Salvation.

Donating money to a charity that actually uses funds for their mission:  Salvation.

Speaking up against injustice instead of muttering “not my problem”:  Salvation.

Honoring yourself as a corporeal body literally filled to the brim with Divinity:  Salvation.

Look how easy it is! 

The best part is that performing these acts not only provides an oasis of salvation for the person receiving the love, it fills the salvation coffers of the one giving the love as well.  And what is especially awesome is that I can know that even when I feel so depleted that I simply cannot share another thing with another person … so despondent that I cannot find one ounce of love within myself to share, I am still graced by the beauty of Salvation when a stranger in a passing car tips his hat to me.

How cool is that.

Jesus, in A Course in Miracles, says that every single action by every single person who is or has ever been in existence is one of two things:  An Expression of Love or a Request for Love.

Love … not just for Hippies anymore.