THE GOD ONLY YOU CAN KNOW

Look at how we relate to each other.

Based on personal experience, we know there are certain dynamics all of our one-on-one relationships have in common. These dynamics range from love to hate, loyalty to rejection, forgiveness to revenge, intimacy to estrangement, etc.

Pick any one of your close relationships.  Notice how, the more “personal” it is, the easier it is to identify with these different dynamics. Relationally speaking, we have a lot in common with each other.

After all, isn’t this is why we all love a good love story? We can relate!

But, if we peer into the particulars of any one of our relationships more deeply we see something else: Absolutely every single relationship we have is unique and different from all the rest. In fact, the more intimate the relationship is, the more unique it becomes. At this writing, the world’s population is estimated to be 7,493,618,067, yet put any two of us together, and the resulting relationship will be different every single time.

Why would it be any different when it comes to God?

For each of us, our one-on-one relationship to God is wonderfully unique and personal—even intimate—and is meant to be so! This doesn’t mean we all know different “Gods.” It means we all know God differently. In other words, we each have a relationship with the God that only we can know.

TAKE IT PERSONALLY

What kind of advice is that?!

Ever since being children we’ve been told, “Don’t take it personally!”—no matter what ‘it’ is. No doubt, this is advice that serves us well most of the time. But depending upon the context, the opposite of such sage counsel might be just as helpful—or even more so.

Never mind who said or did it!

If we are willing to engage in a little self-reflection upon something painful that someone has said or done to us—something that we would normally “take personally” [read: “be offended by”]—we may gain surprisingly deep awareness into ourselves and our modus operandi. Doing so offers us much more than just insight. It can stimulate our own emotional health and well-being and even promote personal transformation.

The biggest stumbling block to accomplishing this is our ego.

This is the gist of what Jesus was talking about in his Sermon on the Mount when he discourages us from focusing on the speck we’re so quick to see in someone else’s eye while overlooking the log in our own. Utilizing unusually abrupt language, he drives home a point that actually has the power to positively transform us—and our relationships—if we will apply it.

But…

It’s a point that you and I won’t even “get” unless we’re willing to take it personally.

“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye.” (Mt 7:5 NRSV)

WHO WASN'T ATTRACTED TO JESUS?

Isn’t it interesting that children were attracted to Jesus? 

As was blind Bartimaeus, the tax collector Zaccheaus, the synagogue official Jairus, the Samaritan woman at the well, the wise Nicodemus, the hemorrhaging woman, the mute demoniac, the disciples, foreigners like the "gentile" Roman centurion, a mix of prostitutes, orphans, widows, sick and leprous, poor and powerless and many, many others. It seems they all sensed Jesus' receptivity, affirmation and safety.

Who, then, wasn’t attracted to Jesus? 

Many of the religious officials--temple and synagogue priests, Roman authorities, lay synagogue leaders like the scribes and Pharisees, the wealthy and the well placed like the rich young ruler--considered the same Jesus as unnerving, threatening and dangerous. They wanted nothing to do with him. In fact, many of them wanted to do away with him.

Did the former group, children included, somehow know that this Jesus offered them something they couldn’t get for themselves? Were the latter, both knowingly and unknowingly, so full of themselves and their ego-driven agendas that there was no need—in deed, no room—for anyone else in their lives? God, included?!

“Who wasn’t attracted to Jesus…and more importantly, why weren’t they?” These are good questions to ask ourselves when we leave God out of our picture.  

“...but Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs."  (Matthew 19:13-14 NRSV)

LEARNING TO STEER

Last week we considered a tricycle as a metaphor for using prayer to navigate the complexities of life and perhaps discover new ways of making a difference in the world. In this metaphor one wheel represents the part of our prayers having to do with thanking God, a second wheel represents asking God, and a third wheel represents listening deeply (and without an agenda!) for God. 

Today, using the same metaphor, I’d like to suggest that the “listening” wheel, whether we call it contemplation, centering prayer, meditation, reflection time, etc., is actually the best wheel to use for steering the tricycle we call our life. (Again, while these popular terms may connote different things to different people, all are variations on the theme of listening.)

In his historic 2012 Address to the Synod of Bishops in Rome, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams offered an excellent explanation for why this may be true:

“[Contemplation] is very far from being just one kind of thing that Christians do: it is the key to prayer, liturgy, art and ethics, the key to the essence of a renewed humanity that is capable of seeing the world and other subjects in the world with freedom--freedom from self-oriented, acquisitive habits and the distorted understanding that comes from them. To put it boldly, contemplation is the only ultimate answer to the unreal and insane world that our financial systems and our advertising culture and our chaotic and unexamined emotions encourage us to inhabit. To learn contemplative practice is to learn what we need so as to live truthfully and honestly and lovingly. It is a deeply revolutionary matter.”[1]

Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane suggests that he didn't just talk. He listened for God’s guidance (that is, he practiced contemplation) regarding the most significant decision he would ever make…"My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want." (Matthew 26:39)...and then followed it.

The rest is history.

[1]http://rowanwilliams.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/2645/

archbishops-address-to-the-synod-of-bishops-in-rome.

PRAYER IS LIKE A TRICYCLE

One wheel is thanking God.

When someone gives us a thoughtful gift or does something very kind for us, we are touched. Moved. We want them to know we feel a deep sense of gratitude, so we do what comes naturally; we thank them. When we experience what we call blessing or goodness or abundance in our lives, again, we are naturally moved to thank someone. In the context of prayer, that someone is God.

Another wheel is asking God.

When things go wrong in our lives or we learn of a pressing need (e.g. for physical, relational, or emotional healing) felt by someone we love we often turn to God in prayer. To do so comes naturally, in part, because many of us were taught to ask God for help in our earliest bedtime prayers…and we’ve never stopped asking! This is good. Even Jesus taught his disciples to do so using the most famous biblical prayer of all…the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13).

These two wheels of prayer are critical and valuable. But there’s one more…listening to God. And this isn’t the kind of listening where we do it just long enough to think of our response or rebuttal to what we're hearing. This is listening without an agenda.

Virtually all religions include this third wheel of prayer. People have different names for it (contemplation, centering prayer, meditation, reflection time, etc.), but what name we assign to it is far less important than what it is!

Because it’s so different from the first two wheels of prayer, this one takes some practice. And, if you’re not already doing this, it’s understandable. To carve a niche out of our in our already-full lives to listen attentively for God may seem impossible, if not a little crazy. But seriously, what do you have to lose? And who knows? You may be delightfully surprised and moved by the experience. Further, the ensuing spiritual adventure may give you new-found perspective and courage to rethink some parts of your life that may not be working so well. Even 15 -20 minutes a day for a week can begin to open our eyes to a wonderfully refreshing and transforming way of navigating the complexity of life...as well as discovering brand new ways of making a difference in the world.

Most of all, you’ll begin to experience what it’s like to move through life on the wheels of a truly personal and life-transforming relationship with God.

"Be blessed, God; train me in your ways of wise living. (Psalm 119:12 NRSV)

YOU MAKE MY LIFE BEAUTIFUL

I love the way, the ways, you make my life beautiful
You surround me with beauty
You enfold me and immerse me in your ways of seeing it
You delight in it…and it delights me
A maker of beauty, you make my life beautiful

          I love the way, the ways, you shift my center
          So I can see beauty through your eyes
          So I see what I wouldn’t otherwise see
          Giving joy to my spirit, lightness to my soul
          A seer of beauty, you make my life beautiful

I love the way, the ways, our eyes look at the same thing
Yet yours see beauty where mine don’t
You even see beauty in me when I can’t
And you sculpt the beauty that lies within the stone of me
A shaper of beauty, you make my life beautiful

         I love the way, the ways, you fill me with beauty
         My soul and my surroundings
         You fill me with its impressions, its expressions
         Everywhere I look…if only I will look
         A beaker of beauty, you make my life beautiful

I love the way, the ways, you help me build bridges of beauty
Bonding the playful, whimsical to the thoughtful, inspiriting
The momentary and temporal to the eternal and divine
The physical to the spiritual
A bridge of beauty, you make my life beautiful

          I love the way, the ways, you give witness to the beauty you see
          In nature’s splendor around you, in you, through you
          In situations and circumstances beyond your control
          A herald of beauty, you make my life beautiful

I love the way, the ways, you aren’t just a maker of beauty
Not just a seer, a shaper, a beaker, a bridge, a herald of beauty
I love the way, the ways, you are beautiful
More, you are beauty itself

LOVE'S DEEPEST LONGINGS

Who can you share your innermost thoughts, feelings and fears with? Who can you give your deepest self to with abandon and never regret it? Who can you trust will never be tempted to share your secrets? Who will never betray, deny or sabotage you? Who will love you more than you love yourself…even when you don’t?

We need someone who knows us better than we know ourselves. We need someone who will be more honest than we are willing to be with ourselves, someone who refuses to play the games and who refuses to let us play them either.

Valentine's Day, with its "romantic" love is a beautiful thing. But considering the complexity of the human experience, it's easy to see we need someone who will love us with something deeper and longer lasting.

We need someone who, unlike us, hasn’t honed their human rationalization skills to a razor-sharp edge. We need someone whose first reaction is not to be defensive. We need someone who won’t back away from integrity no matter what the cost—and will lovingly speak the truth about our own lack thereof. We need someone who won’t justify our egocentric approach to everything and everyone. We need someone who isn’t living in constant denial of the realities right in front of us. We need someone who will help us see what we can’t see with our own limited vision, be it physical or spiritual. We need someone who will help us see that we are worthy of receiving love and are worthy of giving love.

In other words, we need someone who will help us see that we're each as beautiful and lovely as a rose...but we're not the only bloom on the bush.

That someone is God.

“As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.” (Psalm 42:1 NRSV)