God

The first chapter of our book, A Faith for the Future, tackles a big subject: God. At the heart of this subject is almost always a paradox:

There is a God. 

This God is a being who is both uniquely and definitely other 

to our human existence, 

and at the same time intimately involved in our lives.

We necessarily wrestle with paradox when we deal with the big topics of faith.  God is other and God is intimately involved. How can that be? God is above all else we know and yet God is as close as our own jugular vein. We experience the unfathomable presence of God while also the raw absence of God. How can this be? 

Our God is a God who creates and who makes covenants. What does that mean to us or for us? At the heart of both of these actions is this acclamation: "you shall be my people and I will be your God." How does acknowledging that we belong to God change our way of being in the world? Does it change us in noticeable ways?

Too often, I think, we operate as independent agents impelled by culture to create a productive, entertaining and self-satisfying life. In Lent we are challenged to think and be otherwise. In what ways might our yearnings in this life, our drives and passions, be a gift from God to be used for liberation and transformation of ourselves and others? How have we failed to use those gifts, perhaps putting them "under a bushel?"

Lent is about noticing our blindness and seeing differently: to see past our anxiety, greed, fear, and control. To see ourselves as the sheep of the Good Shepherd, as the traveler in God's golden valley, as the citizen at home in God's good house. We are invited to seek freedom, joy, generosity, an unencumbered and grateful life.

What if today we desire only one thing: God's presence? How would this day be different if this were our utmost priority?

Pursue and catch us, Good Shepherd--embrace us in your love. Help us to trust you and desire you more than anything else, that we may know the joy and freedom of life in you. Amen.