A young woman was falling back into her old patterns of oversleeping and depression. She was going through a difficult time since her layoff in January. She was dealing with her nasty depression, financial worries, struggle with a relationship, and a sense that her life was falling apart. I suppose you could call it a wilderness experience. In the midst of it she had a kind of spiritual awakening in which she actually began to pray to God not knowing who or what God was but she was convinced to follow through on the experience with the help of others.In her wilderness search, she asked her spiritual director for an answer to her dilemma. "I want to have a lasting experience of God," She told him. "Sometimes I feel like I understand the divinity of this world, but then I lose it because I get distracted by my petty desires and fears. I want to be with God all the time. But I don't want to be a monk, or totally give up worldly pleasures. I guess what I want to learn is how to live in this world and enjoy its delights, but also devote myself to God."
Her spiritual director said he could answer her question with a picture. He showed her a sketch he had drawn once during meditation. It was an androgynous human figure, standing up, hands clasped in prayer. But this figure had four legs, and no head. Where the head should have been, there was only wild foliage of ferns and flowers. There was a small, smiling face drawn over the heart. "To find the balance you want," he shared this image. “This is what you must become. You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it's like you have four legs, instead of two. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead. That way, you will know God."
I believe this is the way that Jesus lived. He had his feet firmly in the world but also looked at the world through his heart. For Jesus' purpose was God's purpose and that was to care for people, to invest his life for people, to serve people, to show the world the power of love. It should be a stronger word than "purpose." It was a "passion." This was acting on the "heart" rather than considering what was the safest and more practical way of acting according to the head. Every day of his life he chose service over self-interest.
If we are to follow the way of Jesus we have to act with the same passion. There are many roadblocks along that road. There are times that you just have to act, trusting that what you have learned of Jesus' way will be in every breath and fiber of your actions - moving beyond thought to action in faith, courage and determination. That is, keeping our feet firmly on the ground and looking at the world through the heart. That is the way that we will know God.
God prays for us as we reflect: “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.” (Psalm 28:7).
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that they keep their feet firmly on the ground and not stumble on the roadblocks of life. Let the Spirit come into their hearts so that they will act with passion and trust that God is their strength and light.
