So, (continuing on from the two previous posts),
how does all this abstract philosophical speculation grip the dangerous road here and now at this moment and in succeeding moments, even when the worst tests of life ravage our lives?
We can have hope that God becomes "for us"--ALL of us, even in the worst of worst.
God isn't an almighty sovereign who controls/ordains everything including evil. God doesn't view us as his things 'to do with as he pleases,' as many modern Christian leaders claim.
God isn't primarily found in doctrine or private devotions, not even mainly in corporate worship. God doesn't need our praise and adulation. The latter was always for us, never for himself. As 1 John says, God is love. When does love ever focus on itself?! When does love ever want to be the center of the party?
The true glory of God is that he has become, for everyone and everything, much less than he is--emptying himself because he "so loved the world." (John 3:16)
As the New Testament so repeatedly emphasizes, like Jesus did in one of his last actions for his followers, God becomes...
--a servant to us!
--through Jesus, suffers and dies for every human who has lived and who will ever live, and eventually all of creation!
--our future, eventually culminating in a universal communion between Creator and created.
--the creative, healing edge in each moment of our lives.
--the ultimate hope in every despair.
As a few visionary spiritual leaders have emphasized, God and all related true spirituality isn't primarily a memory of the past, not tradition, not creeds which were created by warring Christians who had forgotten Jesus' primary words of instruction--to love everyone, even their political and religious enemies.
God's will for us is to live out of our spiritual imagination, not past events or our present circumstances, whether they be good or bad.
God becomes in loving, peacemaking, healing, truth-sharing, communing, giving...
So...
Step #1 Be Calm.
Yeah right...(both in the ironic sense and, yes, in the denotative sense)
yeah right in the midst of all your despair, testings, temptations, heartache, worry, tragedy, loss, good times, joy...
In the midst of all that can't seem to be overcome, or even the good that is keeping you focused narrowly within your kin and nation,
break out,
by becoming in this present moment now focused on God--the Truth.
When this meditation first came to me at the 'Church of the Swimming Pool,' I thought I would share one of the climatic results of once when I 'be calmed.' But now as I write this, it seems best to leave the past, even the wondrous past...
and focus,
on the future--
As Scripture says, Jesus stands outside every door and knocks. Will you answer,or are you too lost in your loss, your suffering, your failings, your despair? If you are too lost--so am I on some days when despair drowns hope--
answer anyway!
Like the rock group Third Day sings, "Cry out to Jesus..."
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
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