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For instance, from Joan Chittister, a Catholic nun:
The shape and cultivation of the God-life is a very personal thing. It touches each of us in the same way and yet differently. The sense of the presence of God is almost natural to many and a real struggle to some. But whatever our natural inclination for God, there are, nevertheless, some givens: We must be open to the God within us. We must be free of the shackles of the mind. We must be willing to forgo everything we have been told about God to this point. Realize that all of it is inadequate, partial, well-meaning, but fallacious to a fault. We must
not fear to go beyond proofs for the unprovable, or beyond belief to the unknown. Just because we do not know does not mean that we do not know. As the Tao says, 'The Way that can be told is not the eternal Way'.
Once we empty ourselves of our certainties, we open ourselves to the mystery. We expose ourselves to the God in whom "we live and move and have our being." We bare ourselves to the possibility that God is seeking us in places and people and things we thought were outside the pale of the God of our spiritual childhood. Then life changes color, changes tone, changes purpose. We begin to live more fully, not
just in touch with earth, but with the eternal sound of the universe as well.
The other day, I sensed God impressing the following to me (through a book called "Conversations with God"):
"You must be willing to really know Me. Not simply to know what you *think* about Me. If your beliefs about Me make it impossible to know Me as I really am, then all the belief in the world won't work. You'll continue to know what you think you know, instead of what's really so.
You must be willing to suspend what you imagine you already know about God, in order to know God the way you've never imagined."
My spirit grasps this, even as my mind reels ...
And I have to ask, "Why wouldn't that be God...?"
Shalom, Dena
3 comments:
I'm crying big wet tears because this is where I am. I believe in God but I don't know Him. I feel like everything I have been taught in the years of my life is lacking. Something is missing, a connection, a rtealness? I don't know. I do know that something is changing in my perception of God, in my understanding. It has been happening for a few years now and this week the anger that boiled over because of our financial situation has brought me to a point of brokenness but not in a defeated sense. More of a recognition that things are going to change and that it's going to be a journey and it's going to be good. I'm probably not making sense. I didn't mean to write a post here.But everything you have posted so far is speaking LOUDLY to me. :) Oh and I'm JoAnn from RCU btw.
(((JoAnn)))
You're an answer to prayer, my friend! I was talking about your situation with Mark (husband) this morning while we were doing our talk/walk, talking about the perception of need ... saying that I'm learning that I already *have* everything I think I need ... that the delusion of being "in need" is what keeps me from seeing what I already have -- God within (& what more could I possibly need?).
I cannot express the joy I feel in reading what you wrote here -- because that's what I sensed when I read your story. Yes, I saw your pain, and could feel it with you, but I also saw/felt the joy, of knowing that something beautiful is happening within you -- you're in the transition process of a birthing -- when it most feels like "death," life is pushing forth ... that which seems to be "truth" has to die, in order to make room for what's really Truth. As the illusion shatters and crumbles, it feels, indeed, like we're coming to the end of ourselves. And we ARE. We're coming to the end of our illusional/egoic self ... that which we *think* we are, in order to truly expereince who we really are -- that part which is of God, which returns to God, even in this life (if we so awaken to Him -- otherwise, we realize it later). Yes, it's going to be good, and it even now IS good...!
You're making a LOT of sense -- thank you so much for responding, and for being a confirmation of something that was already in my heart!
You're not alone -- not EVER!
Shalom, Dena
“My testimony to you is that you have come literally “trailing clouds of glory”. If you only knew who you are and what you did and how you earned the privileges of mortality and not just of mortality but of this time, this place, this dispensation, and the associates that have been meant to cross and intertwine with your lives…what in my bitter moments I call this spook alley of mortality…if you knew the latent infinite power that is locked up and hidden for your own good now – you would never again yield to any of the putdowns that are a dime a dozen in our culture today.” – Madsen, The Highest In Us. http://mormonsoprano.com/
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