questions, saturday

Saturday, May 30

Opening Prayer: O Lord my God, how incredibly tragic that we went from naked and unashamed to I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid.  O how far the fall.  Forgive us.  Renew us.  Restore us.  Have mercy on us, O Lord.  Amen.

Scripture: Genesis 3:1-13

Journal: Where are you?

Reflection:

 

     Did God not know where Adam was?  Of course he did.  After all, he’s God, right?  Why then the question?  Most likely because God wanted Adam to know where Adam was.  God wanted Adam to recognize that just moments before that first bite was taken, he and his new wife stood before God (and each other) naked and unashamed.  And now, as a result of their choice, everything had changed.  In the blink of an eye they had gone from totally known and totally loved to fearful, hiding, and filled with shame.  God knew it oh too well, he just wanted Adam to know it too.

     Knowing where you are is a very important part of any journey.  Just try using a map to find a desired destination without knowing your starting point.  It just doesn’t work.  It is the same with the spiritual journey.  In order to get where we long to go, we must know where we are.  That’s why God asked Adam, and that’s why God asks us, “Where are you?”

     Where are you these days?  What is the state of your life?  What is the state of your soul?  And where do you think God wants to take you?

 

As a culture, we have to be taught the language of descent.  That is the great language of religion.  It teaches us to enter willingly, trustingly into the dark periods of life.  These dark periods are good teachers.  Religious energy is in the dark questions, seldom in the answers.  Answers are the way out, but not what we are here for.  But when we look at the questions, we look for the opening to transformation.  Fixing something doesn’t usually transform us.  We try to change events in order to avoid changing ourselves.  We must learn to stay with the pain of life, without answers, without conclusions, and some days without meaning.  This is the path, the perilous dark path of true prayer. (Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr)

Prayers:

Closing Prayer: Late have I loved you, O Beauty, so ancient and so new, late have I loved you!  And behold, you were within me and I was outside, and there I sought for you, and in my deformity I rushed headlong into the well-formed things that you have made.  You were with me, and I was not with you. ~St. Augustine