Deep in his slumber, one night a man had a very real, yet surreal dream. He dreamt that he was walking along the beach with God. As he looked up at the sky, he saw all the scenes of his life flash by along with two sets of footprints: one set for himself, and another for God.
After all the scenes had flashed before him, he looked back at those footprints and noticed something quite disturbing: At the most difficult times in his life, he saw only one set of footprints.
This deeply troubled the man, so he turned and said to God: “You said that if I had faith in you, then you would always walk with me through thick and thin. In looking back, I see that during the most painful times there is only one set of footprints. Why did you leave me when I needed you the most?”
“I love you my son, and would never leave you. It was during those times when you suffered the most that I carried you!”
Too often when we make ourselves the center of our lives, the drama around us intensifies. It appears to us, in such moments, that the Divine has abandoned us. The truth is that that it is the gentle coaxing of Divine energy that carries us through such times. When we get too engrossed in our egos we abandon the Divine, yet the grace of Divine energy never leaves us and is always there for us to access and return to its fold.
“He who does not reflect his life back to God in gratitude does not know himself.” -Albert Schweitzer
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