Meditate | The Lord is One

“To know and think as faith teaches cannot have any reality; doing what faith teaches---this alone exists. A spiritual church first becomes a church when it acts as bidden by charity, charity being the true teaching of faith. To put it another way, this is when a person in the church first becomes a church. Consider: what is a commandment? It does not order us to know a precept but to live by what it says. This is when we first have the Lord’s kingdom inside us, because the Lord’s kingdom consists solely in mutual love and the happiness it brings” (Secrets of Heaven 916 [2]).

We are approaching tax season, and I have been thinking about my accountant. She has been very generous with her time. She has tutored me in basic bookkeeping for our business, answered many questions and given me direction without putting me down or making me feel burdensome. I want to give her something to show my appreciation.  Somehow this experience of wanting to do her good for the goodness she has shown me brought the reality of the Lord’s kingdom existing as one person closer.  I am not sure if I can adequately put this into words. It felt as though what would hurt her would immediately hurt me. This feeling began edging out a flagging understanding of the golden rule (do good to others because you would like good done to you some day) and replacing it with something more akin to--do good to others because you really are one. I wear a wedding band with the quote, “THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE” inscribed on the inside. This is slowly becoming more and more real to me. The Lord is the charity my accountant has shown me. The Lord is also the feeling of love and appreciation I have for my accountant. I want to spend more time in this oneness.