Rabbi Rami: How Can I help My Parents Trust God to Provide for Me?

Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler

by Rabbi Rami Shapiro – August 27, 2015

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<em>Edit Article</em> Rabbi Rami: How Can I help My Parents Trust God to Provide for Me?

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Q: I’m a lily of the field (Matthew 6:28), trusting God to care for my needs. My parents want me to leave home and get a job, but I know God will provide. How can I help my parents trust God?Rabbi Rami: I wonder if it isn’t you who lacks trust in God. Right now, you trust your parents to support you. Move out of your parents’ home onto the street. Give no thought to money, clothing, food, or shelter. Trust God to take care of you. Of course God may be so busy with the millions of involuntary poor, naked, hungry, and homeless that your needs may go unnoticed for decades, but God is eternal, so stick with it. I’m an impatient person, and I have no time for years long spiritual practice. What can I do that will bring me enlightenment now?Ask yourself Who wants enlightenment now? Notice that the self who is asking is not impatient. Ask similar questions regarding every thought, feeling, and sensation—Who is thinking this? Who is feeling this? Who is sensing this?—and sense the pure awareness behind all experience. Living from this awareness is enlightenment. Or, you could forget about enlightenment and …

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Author and teacher Rabbi Rami Shapiro has been called “one of the best bridges of Eastern and Western wisdom.” His newest book is Embracing the Divine Feminine. Check out Rabbi Rami's weekly podcasts for S&H here.

Rabbi Rami Shapiro is an award-winning author, essayist, poet, and teacher. His spiritual advice column, "Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler," addresses reader questions pertaining to religion, spirituality, faith, family, God, social issues, and more.

His newest book is Surrendered—The Sacred Art: Shattering the Illusion of Control and Falling into Grace with Twelve-Step Spirituality.

He has this to say about religion: “To me, religions are like languages: no language is true or false; all languages are of human origin; each language reflects and shapes the mindset of the civilization that speaks it; there are things you can say in one language that you cannot say or cannot say as well in another; and the more languages you know, the more nuanced your understanding of life. Judaism is my mother tongue, yet in matters of the spirit I strive to be multi-lingual. In the end, however, the deepest language of the soul is silence.”