Verse 27b: “The secret is this: Christ in you the hope of a glory to come.”
The Scripture offers a different secret than the popular book that promotes the law of attraction as the secret for manifesting your desires. The secret according to the Scriptures: Christ in you.
The two secrets affect me differently in my body. I feel calm, confident, and relaxed that all is in order when I feel Christ in me as the secret. When I imagine the secret is the law of attraction, I feel anxious and worried about whether I will get it right. What about you? What do you feel as you ponder each secret?
We often blame ourselves for circumstances and interactions over which we have no control. We have difficulty accepting our vulnerability and powerlessness over the instinctive and archetypal energies at play in our inner and outer worlds. The law of attraction as the secret gives us an illusory sense of control. The question—what did I do that this happened—invites self-judgment, a sense of omnipotence, and splitting into opposing energies (i.e., light and dark, good and bad, right and wrong). It implies that we are the originator of whatever goes on in our lives.
We do make choices that affect our lives and the world around us. We can collect evidence showing our circumstances are a result of our thoughts, beliefs, and actions. Natural laws are at work. When we see one law at work, we tend to think we see the whole. We inadvertently forget there are other realities and a larger Mystery at work.
The larger Mystery in our psyche is the Self, the organizing principle and totality of our psyche/soul. It is the psychological structure through which we encounter “Christ in (us).” The secret lies in our conscious relationship to Christ (or God) Within. When we consciously look to God Within, we connect to the part of our being that is a ray of the Divine Mystery. We experience the point of Oneness where there is no split between our conscious self and God Within. Spiritual traditions have various names for this state: salvation, nirvana, enlightenment, and philosopher’s stone.
We have all experienced unconscious oneness with an aspect of our selves. This is what happens when an unbidden emotion takes over, and we act out in ways we regret. Our fantasies play out scenarios that indulge our animal nature without regard for our humanness. Anger and fear are the two greatest instigators. Our conscious self gets temporarily lost as it is consumed by the experience of the feeling or emotion. When we come back to our senses, we realize that our response was not the whole truth of our being. We see the big picture of our inner and outer worlds; we feel the presence of God Within.
God Within holds all that goes on inside of us—fears, doubts, angers, longings, joys, ecstasies, satisfactions, etc. Our ego is limited in its view of what’s happening when any strong emotion takes over. When our ego recognizes its source as God Within, we have access to the larger Self and the big picture of our life. We can build a conscious relationship to God Within where we are nurtured and sustained. This is the secret for healthy, whole living.
The psalmist says, “We are beautifully and wondrously made.” The author of Genesis says that we are created in the image of God. We have within our nature the originator of our experiences; it’s just not our ego! In relating to all that’s within as an expression of the larger Self, we build a relationship to the pure, clear point of connection to God Within that is the totality of psyche/soul. We see through the animal like and adaptive responses that separate us from our true nature, God Within. We find the secret, “Christ in you, the hope of a glory to come.”
Inner Reflection
How does your body-mind react when you consider the secret, “Christ in you”? What practices support you in reaching to know the source within you? What interferes with this connection? Experiment with the secret with the following exercise.
Identify a concern, problem, or desire. Imagine yourself kneeling before God Within. Verbally offer all that you think, know, understand, feel, and want around the issue. When you’ve finished, fold your hands in a prayerful position and listen. Sit and listen for five minutes. Then, go about your day.
Be open to what insights, messages, and encounters you have that speak to your concern. Be courageous and claim, “Christ in you, the hope of a glory to come.”