Frank Laubach prayed, “If every annoyance can be made to remind me to turn and grip Your hand and ask You, ‘What are you saying through this vexation?’ then I can turn life’s rough spots into Your vocabulary.”1
Reality—be it vexing or blessing—is a friend of intimacy with God.
Conversely, denial is an enemy of intimacy of God.
For in every moment, God is present in our real lives.
Though we can anticipate God’s presence in the future and remember His presence in the past, we can only be attentive to His presence in this moment. Therefore, to invest in avoiding what is real—to escape what is actual in preference for what is illusion—is to mentally and emotionally refuse to be present to God’s presence. However painful, what is can sensitize us to the One who calls Himself, “I Am.”2
Anglican clergyman Jeremy Taylor is quoted as saying, “[a] religion without mystery must be a religion without God.”3 Mystery is a given for real relationship between the Infinite and the finite. Psychologist Gerald G. May describes the invitation of mystery beautifully:
When we were children most of us were good friends with mystery. The world was full of it and we loved it. Then as we grew older we slowly accepted the indoctrination that mystery exists only to be solved. For many of us, mystery became an adversary; unknowing became a weakness. The contemplative spiritual life is an ongoing reversal of this adjustment.4
To dance when we do not know the steps requires us to value our Partner above our performance. To dance in the dark demonstrates a lavish display of trust. Perhaps control, even more than distance, is a fitting antonym for intimacy.
Real life’s many unan
swered and unanswerable questions invite us to abandon the illusion of control and embrace the free-fall of wild love.
[1] Frank C. Laubach, Learning the Vocabulary of God: A Spiritual Diary (Mansfield Centre, CT: Martino Publishing, 2012), 17.
[2] Exodus 3:14 (NIV).
[3] Leonard I. Sweet and Frank Viola, Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010), loc. 1630.
[4] Gerald G. May, The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection between Darkness and Spiritual Growth(San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2004), 132-133.
The mysteries in and of life have always called me to seek answers to the WHY and HOW. Usually in futility though, I would give up and then just press on. The Bible tells us that God, through His Holy Spirit, will make known to us the mysteries of life and beyond; such beautiful, unbelievable and awesome truths that our finite minds can barely it in, understand or believe. I once asked our only female pastor of our church, ‘How is it that the Holy Spirit knows just the right moment to swoop in to rescue us, to comfort us, to prevent us from harm or injury, to speak to us, etc.?’ Her answer was very simple and straight:
New International Version John 3:8 NIV –
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
The Holy Spirit of God moves to and fro at His will, without explanation – He comes and He goes. We are not required, nor is it necessary, to know the How or the WHY. Our part requires only trust, faith and belief that He is for us and acting on our part ALWAYS. It should be almost second nature for those in Christ to feel, to sense and to hear the Spirit of God, which gives us intimacy with Him. When we are quiet before Him, he unravels the mysteries before our hearts.