Making Sense of Non-sense
As I write this Gerry and Kate McCann, the parents of Madeleine are suffering unimaginable anguish following the abduction of their daughter. I doubt very much whether they and the countless others who are, and have been, the victims of undeserved suffering will readily agree that life is good. Many will also reject the sort of God who, on the face of it, is powerless to intervene and prevent suffering.
This will particularly apply if God has hitherto been perceived as a sort of cosmic Santa Claus who unfailingly looks after his own. At such times devotees are bound to be bitterly disappointed. Because God doesn’t promise to fix anything; neither can we expect to be rescued. Christians, or followers of any other faith, are not exempt from suffering. The only promise is the one made to Abraham: ‘I will be with you.’ We can know this for ourselves if we call out; and if we listen.
Beyond All Telling
If we want a wider view of life we must be brave. Only the mysterious God who embraces all things – light and dark, pain and joy, life and death and whom it is beyond our capacity to understand - can offer any sort of comfort.
If we have courage enough to meet this God in the prayer that arises from silence and emptiness we come to know that we are cherished by a God who loves us, and in whom we can dare to trust. The knowledge that we are valuable and valued is beyond thought or emotion; it is not found in books, or speech. If we are to know it in our guts, we must discover and experience it for ourselves, Thereby we will come to recognise that God’s Will for us is the better way and we will be able to pray: ‘My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.’
Let Go and Let God
How we pray is unimportant because God always listens - no matter what we have to say, or how we say it. What we must do, however, is to approach God with a spirit of utter openness, without preconceived notions about who or what and without anticipating the response.
The advantage of coming before God in meditation is that it necessarily precludes the view that we can only know courtesy of our thoughts or feelings. If we can cease to use language - giving, receiving and interpreting signals – we are better able to become what God intends.
Being-in Love
We are called to become fully ourselves. And in order to realise our unique potential as individuals we must enter into a living relationship with God. This will oblige us to receive a divine presence into our hearts with a generosity that is no less than God’s love for us. Only then we will uncover another way – an unconditional way - of knowing that is founded on being-in love. When we are rooted and utterly grounded in the love of God we come to know a peace that is beyond all understanding. Such that, when confronted with suffering, we can say, with Job, ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.’
This is not the passive response of a depressed person. This is the assertion of a man who has made the leap of faith to which we are all called. Job, having made his commitment to God, and kept it, has found for himself that there is a love that endures, no matter what befalls him. It is a reality. It is a truth sufficient unto itself.
Liberated
God’s ways are not concerned with worldly measures of success or failure. Instead we are required to accept who we really are, and not who we think we might be. When we walk humbly with God we are free to be our true selves.
If we are to enjoy the freedom that is to be found in God we must let go, and surrender the limitations of our ego-selves. For it is only when we are no longer planning or desiring that we make ourselves available to enjoy the steadfast presence of God - to be at one with God’s stability. If we can forgo the alluring novelty of the market place we learn to forget about ourselves and our concerns: our worries and our aspirations.
The Call
We learn to listen out for and to live in harmony with God’s energies if we make a space in which to be still and empty for twenty minutes, morning and evening, every day. We must be disciplined if we are to travel what Hamblin calls ‘the way of attainment.’
If we are to be led to a new reality that is rooted in the love of God we must become wholly open to the gifts of our creation. We are called – if we would but listen - to hear and respond to a ‘still small voice of calm.’ If we evade this call - to live by God’s Will alone - we will fail to discern for ourselves that life in God is good. [†]
As I write this Gerry and Kate McCann, the parents of Madeleine are suffering unimaginable anguish following the abduction of their daughter. I doubt very much whether they and the countless others who are, and have been, the victims of undeserved suffering will readily agree that life is good. Many will also reject the sort of God who, on the face of it, is powerless to intervene and prevent suffering.
This will particularly apply if God has hitherto been perceived as a sort of cosmic Santa Claus who unfailingly looks after his own. At such times devotees are bound to be bitterly disappointed. Because God doesn’t promise to fix anything; neither can we expect to be rescued. Christians, or followers of any other faith, are not exempt from suffering. The only promise is the one made to Abraham: ‘I will be with you.’ We can know this for ourselves if we call out; and if we listen.
Beyond All Telling
If we want a wider view of life we must be brave. Only the mysterious God who embraces all things – light and dark, pain and joy, life and death and whom it is beyond our capacity to understand - can offer any sort of comfort.
If we have courage enough to meet this God in the prayer that arises from silence and emptiness we come to know that we are cherished by a God who loves us, and in whom we can dare to trust. The knowledge that we are valuable and valued is beyond thought or emotion; it is not found in books, or speech. If we are to know it in our guts, we must discover and experience it for ourselves, Thereby we will come to recognise that God’s Will for us is the better way and we will be able to pray: ‘My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.’
Let Go and Let God
How we pray is unimportant because God always listens - no matter what we have to say, or how we say it. What we must do, however, is to approach God with a spirit of utter openness, without preconceived notions about who or what and without anticipating the response.
The advantage of coming before God in meditation is that it necessarily precludes the view that we can only know courtesy of our thoughts or feelings. If we can cease to use language - giving, receiving and interpreting signals – we are better able to become what God intends.
Being-in Love
We are called to become fully ourselves. And in order to realise our unique potential as individuals we must enter into a living relationship with God. This will oblige us to receive a divine presence into our hearts with a generosity that is no less than God’s love for us. Only then we will uncover another way – an unconditional way - of knowing that is founded on being-in love. When we are rooted and utterly grounded in the love of God we come to know a peace that is beyond all understanding. Such that, when confronted with suffering, we can say, with Job, ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.’
This is not the passive response of a depressed person. This is the assertion of a man who has made the leap of faith to which we are all called. Job, having made his commitment to God, and kept it, has found for himself that there is a love that endures, no matter what befalls him. It is a reality. It is a truth sufficient unto itself.
Liberated
God’s ways are not concerned with worldly measures of success or failure. Instead we are required to accept who we really are, and not who we think we might be. When we walk humbly with God we are free to be our true selves.
If we are to enjoy the freedom that is to be found in God we must let go, and surrender the limitations of our ego-selves. For it is only when we are no longer planning or desiring that we make ourselves available to enjoy the steadfast presence of God - to be at one with God’s stability. If we can forgo the alluring novelty of the market place we learn to forget about ourselves and our concerns: our worries and our aspirations.
The Call
We learn to listen out for and to live in harmony with God’s energies if we make a space in which to be still and empty for twenty minutes, morning and evening, every day. We must be disciplined if we are to travel what Hamblin calls ‘the way of attainment.’
If we are to be led to a new reality that is rooted in the love of God we must become wholly open to the gifts of our creation. We are called – if we would but listen - to hear and respond to a ‘still small voice of calm.’ If we evade this call - to live by God’s Will alone - we will fail to discern for ourselves that life in God is good. [†]
Yes, the sky is the limit, and we are meant to reach for the stars and dream God's dream. (Desmond Tutu)
Published in 'New Vision' Summer 2007: http://www.thehamblintrust.org.uk/vision-july2007.htm)
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