The poet, Rumi, submits that we live with a deep secret that sometimes we know, and then not.
That
can be very helpful in understanding our faith. One of the reasons why we
struggle with faith is that God’s presence inside us and in our world is rarely
dramatic, overwhelming, sensational, something impossible to ignore. God
doesn’t work like that. Rather God’s presence, much to our frustration and loss
of patience sometimes, is something that lies quiet and seemingly helpless
inside us. It rarely makes a huge splash.
Because
we are not sufficiently aware of this, we tend to misunderstand the dynamics of
faith and find ourselves habitually trying to ground our faith on precisely
something that is loud and dramatic. We are forever looking for something
beyond what God gives us. But we should know from the very way God was born
into our world, that faith needs to ground itself on something that is quiet
and undramatic.
Jesus,
as we know, was born into our world with no fanfare and no power, a baby lying
helpless in the straw, another child among millions. Nothing spectacular to
human eyes surrounded his birth. Then, during his ministry, he never performed
miracles to prove his divinity; but only as acts of compassion or to reveal
something about God. He taught us what God is like and
that God loves us unconditionally.
Moreover,
Jesus’ teaching about God’s presence in our lives makes clear that this
presence is mostly quiet and hidden, a plant growing silently as we sleep,
yeast leavening dough in a manner hidden from our eyes, summer slowly turning a
barren tree green, a man or woman forgiving an enemy. God, it seems, works in ways
that are quiet and hidden from our eyes. The God that Jesus incarnates is
neither dramatic nor splashy.
Simply
put, God lies inside us as an invitation that fully respects our freedom, never
overpowers us; but also never goes away. It lies there precisely like a baby
lying helpless in the straw, gently beckoning us, but helpless in itself to
make us pick it up.
God prays for us as we reflect: “They are like trees
planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their
leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.” (Psalm 1:3).
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that God lies
everywhere, inside us and around us, almost unfelt, largely unnoticed, and
easily ignored, a quiet, gentle nudge; but, if drawn upon, the ultimate stream
of love and energy.
