Verse 27b: “The secret is this: Christ in you the hope of a glory to come.”
Images we hold consciously and unconsciously matter. We have a wonderful gift in our mind with its capacity to envision, imagine, and shape forms. Our intellect gives rise to logic and reason but also has the expansiveness to imagine—to see beyond what appears like reality. Albert Einstein said, “Logic will take us from A to Z, but imagination will take us everywhere.”
I am reminded of the Scripture where St. Paul says, “All things are possible in Christ who strengthens me.” Christ Within is the point of connection to all that is. The Self, the psychological structure through which God flows into our being, holds it all. Imagination that flows from Christ Within is the hope of a glory to come.
Glory is the emanation of God associated with our intellect, according to the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Glory gives rise to imagination that holds images that best house the desires of our soul. Pictures that evoke thoughts and feelings, body sensations and intuitions that activate actions, inner and outer, congruent with our psyche/soul arise from our intellect serving our heart. Our heart’s longings and passions are the fuel for our images to manifest in the world. Images disconnected from our heart and soul lack viability.
We have heard a lot over the last few decades about using our imagination to attract what we want. The law of attraction says to only focus on what you want to attract. We’re not supposed to think about or envision anything else. All our niggling doubts and fears are supposed to be pushed away, defended against with thoughts of what we say we want. Our ego latches onto this plan as a way to make things happen. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Our ego’s view is limited to what our self-consciousness can hold in any given moment. Thus, our images are limited.
The niggling doubts, fears, and disintegrated bits of self hold energy of our psyche/soul too. They do not disappear just because our ego ignores them. They continue to work, consciously or unconsciously, to produce images by way body symptoms, fantasies, nightmares, moods, or dis-eases. These things are psyche’s attempt to get us to relate to that bit of our self. The ego may not know how to integrate it into the whole of our self, but God Within can. “Christ in (us)” holds all aspects of our self together.
We can go it alone with our limited ego view, or we can choose the secret, “Christ in you,” in responding to what arises in us. When we acknowledge God Within, we open to the larger totality of who we are. Our imagination can lead us to consciously know God Within as the source from which our life force flows.
By dialoguing with whatever arises in us, we cultivate a relationship with all our feelings and fantasies. We can then see how the spiritual flows into and forms the mental, emotional, and physical bodies. We know the needed actions on each plane, and hold the images of our heart. We feel the glory of living in sync with God Within.
Inner Reflection
Where are you struggling as if you have to do it all by yourself? Ask God Within to help you see what your intellect—logic, reason, and imagination—are saying about the situation. Write down the doubts, fears, longings, and heart’s desires that you feel. What are the images they offer? Be courageous as you follow the thread of energy in each to find the point of connection to God Within. Ask, and listen. Receive, and act. Set sacred intention to call on “Christ in you” in all that you imagine.