Mary J. Blige Jewel Of Elul: Spiritual Light

Editor's note: There is a great Jewish tradition to dedicate the 29 days in the month of Elul to study and prepare for the coming high holy days. The time is supposed to challenge us to use each day as an opportunity for growth and discovery. On each of the 29 days of Elul, performer Craig Taubman posts a "jewel," or story, from some of today's most celebrated visionaries. Past contributors include President Barack Obama, Desmond Tutu, Sarah Lefton, Eli Wiesel, Deepak Chopra, Ruth Messinger and Lady Gaga, among many others. Today's reflection comes from Mary J. Blige.

The seeking of spiritual light is gained through having faith and trust in God. Prayer provides the path, leading to inner strength and pushing us toward greater honesty with ourselves.

With honesty comes clarity, as we come to see the truth of our condition. We can then change what we can and accept what we can't.

Whatever it is that you have, you must make work for you. In this way, we keep moving toward the light. When we minimize our own talents, when we envy what others have, when we give in to despair, we choose darkness. When we do so, we should always remember this is a choice, it is not destiny.

The light is always there if we have the courage to seek it. And, with faith and trust in God, we need never seek it alone.

Mary J. Blige has six Grammy awards, seven multi-platinum records and 15 years of love from the public, critics and fellow artists.

Comments

[F7]

07:26 PM on 09/13/2011

To paraphrase . .

"The light is gained through having faith and trust in myself. I provide the path, leading to inner strength, pushing me toward greater honesty with myself.

With honesty comes clarity, as we come to see the truth of our condition. We can then change what we can and accept what we can't.

Whatever it is that you have, you must make work for you. In this way, we keep moving toward the light. When we minimize our own talents, when we envy what others have, when we give in to despair, we choose darkness. When we do so, we should always remember this is a choice, it is not destiny.

The light is always there if we have the courage to seek it. And, with faith and trust in our fellow man, we need never seek it alone."

Now it works.

[jsaiditfirst]

11:17 AM on 09/13/2011

Thank goodness i've now had the path to inner peace explained to me by someone whom, through their status.......... must know the way.

[methodman]

12:22 AM on 09/12/2011

To Believe that Doubt is useful ;is to lack reading skills. Which starting out like that and recognizing that is good. It is OK to feel stupid. It took me 15 years to have enough of a background to read and organize into influences the reading material I read. Engineering, Art, Computer Science, mythology and encyclopedias but it has improved my relationships to natural philosophy. Now as a disabled person I am changing sorts of things that most people are stuck not being able to handle and come to a normal term of life. To many adults are afraid at important times to feel stupid and that clumsyness is OK and an important part of Improvement.

[methodman]

12:14 AM on 09/12/2011

littrle Light is symbolic computation, because computation is the basis for power as you define your experiences and come in to terms with your surrounding life. Extra-ordinary things happen. Not miraculous. because I reject the religious ideas that work and effort don't lead to extra ordinary perception development. Not everyone is born perfect. And I reject the Christian Survival of the Fittest Baptist Cults. Spiritual Light is finding what extensions apply to your personality. They bring you a way of seeing more shapes, making more sense out of things in front of you. Having an imagination lets you watch your own crazyness and not get in your own way over time. I had a friend who's daughter was strangled. I read the Right use of Will Series CeAnne de Rohan starting with the 2nd Book. That series gave me many formations to deal with hard to discuss important but explained lots of suffering in a contemplative organized way.

[galanos1]

04:04 PM on 09/11/2011

Sometimes I am worried of the thoughts of unfaithfulness I experience. As a human to have thoughts and worry about unfaithfulness, and not commit to them, means these thoughts are deeply rooted by satan. Sometimes Christ Allows for us to have doubts and thoughts of infidelity so that He may observe our disposition and pride. But our God is not a myth like Apollo ECT: Our Faith is true and alive: We have our persecuted Christians and Saints that met Jesus; they met Him up close and made sacrifices for Him. In our current years, people exist that are dedicated to God; they live a Heavenly existence and have relations with Angels and Saints, even with Christ and Mother Mary. These people reveal to us certain accuracies and undisputed fact’s that are a Blessing toward our Spiritual Awareness.

[see-ellen2001]

01:01 PM on 09/11/2011

Simple. Well put. Simply well put :)

[hippiechik]

09:55 PM on 09/10/2011

MJB - I really like what you have to say... You are a strong woman and your life is evidence is that made a choice to turn on your light... If you ARE a LIGHT you can never be in darkness - it is impossible...

[researcher]

02:14 PM on 09/10/2011

it is interesting to read month after month the following:

the god the religious worship is the same god the materialist reject that has been made in the image of man.

for some they must first reject such a god before they discover the divine in all.

unawareness and suffering are like ducks and water.

a synonym for unawareness is ignorance.

as the buddha realized all suffering is due to some form or level of ignorance.

what the buddha did not know or maybe did not teach was that without our unawareness there is no us, just the isness of the infinite and we can call that isness anything we want but chance.

to even suggest that a life supporting earth and nature is due to chance is right up there with a religious god that is all loving, all knowing, but screwed up by giving man free will then demanded an atonement of blood to satisfy its wrathful nature.

both the religious and the materialist will reject these words even resort often to personal attacks to protect their cherished beliefs.

[gal416]

09:56 PM on 09/11/2011

"but screwed up by giving man free will"

Whether you're God or man, it's useless to try and force someone to love you. As you well know, God will not make you accept the gospel of Christ, which most people believe is about getting sinful man out of hell and into heaven, although that's an important part, it's incidental. Actually the gospel is about getting God out of heaven and into man. You've got the choice. Choose wisely grasshopper. "Seek the Lord while He may be found".

[silverspirit2011]

01:57 PM on 09/10/2011

Hmm, really all the desire for god is -

Hope for justice, when justice is not served, against those more powerful who inflict injustice on us.
Hope for future hopes, to let man believe things can get better.
A wish for the world to be better.
To alleviate our many fears.
To make sense of our suffering.
Frankly, Mother Teresa had the right idea for religionists. She relished and believed suffering was holy - a serious mental deficit, which propagates the believe in gods.

All of those things (except the fear of death, I suppose), can be made better if mankind just pulled its finger out, and made a concerted and individual effort to resolve them.

Just imagine a world like that, it would be spectacular. Without a need for a god.

[irt2ltee]

12:51 PM on 09/10/2011

methodman
you are totally wrong. there will be a time in your life when everything else fails and you have no other recourse but pray to God . Read Psalm 23. There is no transformation if there is no crisis .For non believers like you I pray for your healing and perfect health. amen

[methodman]

10:48 AM on 09/10/2011

No Prayer is not necessary at all to screen in more light or heat. Prayer as power only works for a few rugged, tried folks. Most people need to eschew prayer. Light is 4 parts. When you get out of Decorative Evangelical Faith. God is in Control. God is used as a wipe-out word for wiping out many important legitimate, frustratingly important details and progressive modes of message and inspection Light and Heat pull in Magnetism, Momentum and defined change of direction that provide shape for established computations clarify why certain pages are good for something, Show me what I should inspect for and illustrate questions that care out of my computations and inspection systems. Let me build fun controls. See Stop letting the Evangelicals hijack a conversation about God When they do Make sure he stays out of It in public spots. College Hallways, Evangelical Prayer Time is my Book reading time. Beware the Textbook Illiterate Priests, Clergy and Rabbi's who genuinely Hate Books. They are a threat to your survival Get out of their Church Cult. Worship God with development of Comparison Systems. Again that is Lucifer to the Illiterate Baptists. Anything related to inspiration is unnecessarily and extending your vocabulary is unimportant to develop your strength -faith. Most of the Prayer People who emphasize it are unimportant. The other aspect is that Process is probably best taught by exposure to Poetry which is waning. Math is Marks and Process is Poetry. Prayer is for the Stupid

[suebeedue]

12:48 PM on 09/10/2011

Prayer IS for the few rugged, tired folks, for sure -- not for the self-righteous, pompous, presumptuous folks.

Jesus said "Happy are those who aware of their spiritual needs" and "You are the light of the world.....let your light shine before men, that they may see your fine works and give glory to your Father who is in the heavens. He was talking, at the time, to the people that the Jewish leaders of the day disdainfully called the people of the dirt. You know, the ones YOU call stupid and unimportant.

These are the very ones God says will inherit the earth! The ones who believe that knowledge of God far out trumps knowledge of puny humans---- "because a foolish thing of God is wiser than men, and a weak thing of God is stronger than men.", 1 Corinthians 1: 25.