Grace trumps Karma

“If you send out goodness from yourself, or if you share that which is happy or good within you, it will all come back to you multiplied ten thousand times. In the kingdom of love there is no competition; there is no possessiveness or control. The more love you give away, the more love you will have.”

                               John O'Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

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Karma

the cycle of cause and effect

we reap what we sow

what goes around, comes around

I hope that karma is real

I fear that karma is real

when I hope karma is real, I’m usually thinking about someone else

hoping they will “get theirs

when I fear that karma is real, I am usually thinking about myself

worried that I will get what I deserve

it is a profound thing

this idea that what we send out returns to us

I have to admit that I doubt it is true

for we see the wicked prosper

we see liars and bullies flourish

some days I can almost taste karma

some days I hope for it

“God treat them as they deserve”

But that is dangerous territory

For if the Sacred treats other people as they deserve

God would have to treat me the way I deserve

and so I move, reluctantly (at times)

from karma to grace

it is not that do not believe

that as the days unfold

our actions, our words, do not follow us

it is not that I fail to believe

that ultimately history bends toward love and justice

(although at times that movement seems to happen soooo slowly)

It is just that I believe

profoundly in grace

in the Sacred offer of love

and new beginnings

in reconciliation and restoration

I know of course

That consequences are consequences

and even when grace is present

we sometimes pay the cost of our actions

and sometimes our words return to haunt is

but still, I believe

that we can change our trajectory

that we can chose a different destination

and that the Sacred offers and empowers this

and so, in this time

when I wish so intensely, that some would reap what they have sown

now and not later

I know

I know

that what I really wish for is grace

what is really want is transformation

an emergence from darkness into light

a recovery for hate and fear

what I really want is God’s surprise

not just an inevitable spiral into chaos and destruction

so here’s to grace

here’s to love

here’s to what God can do

with the worst of people

and the worst of situations

and

me