Thanksgiving & turning setbacks into steps forward

Throughout the year it is easy to be grateful when things are going well and it is difficult to be grateful when those momentary set backs occur. At Thanksgiving, I encourage people to look back over the last year and remember a couple of instances when things looked bad at the time but turned out well in the end. This constructive spiritual practice helps us internalize the concept that The Universe can bring all things together for good.

This practice can run into a hard stop during those terrible times when the very foundation of our life is in the dumpster. If this occurs around the Thanksgiving Season, it can be difficult to embrace this spiritual practice. St. John of the Cross called these periods the Dark Night of the Soul because our conscious connection with our Creator feels absent during these periods of despair.

During these times of desolation it is almost impossible to follow a spiritual path. I thought I would write about this during the Thanksgiving holiday even thought it applies at any time things appear to be unraveling right before our very eyes. The bible gives us an example of how to trust spiritual truth even when experiencing what feels at the time like a horrible reversal.

Let’s explore the metaphysical story of Jesus turning washing water into fine wine. It is sometimes referred to as his first miracle. Metaphysical stories contain seeds of profound truth in tales easy to recall and cite. In this story, Jesus is a guest at a week long wedding feast and celebration. On the first day of the feast, the host runs out of wine for the assembled guests.

Jesus’ mom informs Jesus of the situation and implores him to take action. Jesus retorts that it is “not his time”. His mother ignores him and orders the servants to do whatever Jesus asks. Jesus then capitulates and instructs the servants to fill the six nearby ceremonial stone jars with water from the well. These jars were used to supply water for ritual purifications and would be considered inappropriate for any routine household purposes. After the servants fill the six jars to the brim, Jesus, tells them to draw some out and take it to the head steward. The steward, who has no idea where the liquid came from, takes a sip and proclaims the wine good. He even admonishes the host (in a complementary way). In serving such excellent wine after the feast is well underway, he has broken the tradition of serving the best wine first to sober guests and wine of inferior quality later to inebriated guests.

We can imply from this story that Jesus’ mother was involved in hosting the feast because she was the first to learn of the shortage of wine and by her ordering the servants to attend to Jesus’ commands. From the perspective of Jesus’ mother and her extended family, as hosts, running out of wine on the first day of a feast would be a serious breach of etiquette. According to the social norms at the time, the lack of adequate wine would appear to be an unsolvable disaster.
(We would infer from the story that they did not have resources to simply go and buy more wine for the celebration).

Jesus’ reply to his mother’s news about the wine shortfall was that it was not his time represents a common initial response we have when we are new to the spiritual path. His mother in this instance represents social expectations and she is pulling on him as if he was able to solve an insolvable problem when seen from the consciousness that created the problem. When we are presented with a difficult situation in our life and we are called to apply spiritual law rather than traditional problem solving techniques, we often think it is not our time to take spiritual actions. We are afraid that we do not have the spiritual mastery to resolve the situation at a higher vibration of consciousness.

Jesus’ mom transcends his insecurity by ordering the servants to do what ever he tells them to do. She does not argue with him or try and convince him to solve the problem. In this instance she is not acting merely as his mom, the host of the marriage feast, she is also representing that Divine Mother that is lovingly and unceasingly calling us to our highest good.

Like our good friends and mentors on the spiritual path who help remind us that spiritual law is always ready for our application, she simply points out that the servants will do whatever he asks. In the story the servants are seen as representative of spiritual law- which always respond to our application. Just like we should not allow our considerations deter us from applying truth principles, so to the servants who follow without question the commands of Jesus are, in this story, representative of spiritual law which have no ability to resist our application.

In the end, the water is transformed into wine. From the perspective of the head steward, (who represents our evolved self), the problem of the shortage of wine never existed and the outcome was even better than had existed before the alleged problem even occurred. (In the story, the blessing of the so called problem is represented by the converted wine being even sweeter than the initial wine served which would be commonly understood to be the host’s best wine.) Looking at it from an over arching vantage point, the water into wine tale illustrates that no problem can be solved at the level of consciousness that created it. Transformation must occur and when it does, the blessing is even better than the highest and best outcome that could have occurred by resolving the matter on the level at which the problem is initially presented.

For the part of us that is represented by the Jesus character, the story suggests that even when we think we are not ready to overcome any perceived difficulty, spiritual law is always available and when we exhibit the necessary faith, the blessing is available for us.

We will all face moments of spiritual crisis where doubt and confusion about principle feel overwhelming. No matter how bad things look in the midst of the problem, it is vital to keep a long range perspective and not forget that we can turn it into a blessing. We build our awareness of this principle by each Thanksgiving finding a moment in the past year that at the time looked like a set back and notice that as our year unfolded, it turns out that it was a blessing.