The Absence of God

I am sure that we all have experienced the absence of God in our lives. I have experienced this many times in my life, it is a lonely, desolate place.

Lewis Smedes eloquently addresses this in his book “When Goes on Leave of Absence”. He says this “If you have lived as long as I have, you have probably found yourself, now and then, in deep trouble and you asked God to help and He did not seem to hear. You knocked at His door and nobody was home. Gone on vacation. Heaven was silent.”

Let’s take a look at some places in the Bible where God was ‘absent’  -

In the Old Testament:

1. In the Garden of Eden when Satan tempts Eve to eat from the forbidden fruit.

2. Israelites enslaved in Egypt.

3. Years of wandering in the desert.

4. King David’s moral lapse.

In the New Testament:

1. Birth of Jesus- Joseph and Mary had to flee to Egypt because Herod wanted to kill Jesus. Many babies were slaughtered.

2. The error of the Jewish religious practices e.g. the unscrupulous money-changers.

3. The temptations of Jesus…. Satan’s voice “change the stones into bread.” Etc. (Matthew 4:1-11)

4. The cry of Mary, the sister of Lazarus. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:32)

5. The agonized cry of Jesus on the cross; “My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27 v 46).  Also, King David, one of the most beloved writers in the entire bible, in the very first verse of Psalm 22, asks the same question.

You and I may have felt like asking the same question sometime in our lives: My God, my God, why, why have You abandoned me?

Two possible conclusions:

A. Like a mother or father teaching their toddler to walk would, at some point let go of the toddler’s hand so that they can build the confidence in themselves.

B.  That God is never actually absent, but that we are expecting something different from God.

There are probably many more reasons, perhaps take some time to meditate on this….

What if Jesus Was Never Born?

Our eldest son had, and has, a very enquiring mind. His frequent question when he was young was    ”What if…?”

Many, many questions.

Today I ask the question…..  What if Jesus was never born?

Here are some of my thoughts and you can add yours: -

1. We would think that God is judgemental, demanding, punishing, distant, and only for the Jews.

2. We would not know the inclusiveness of God…” For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son…” John 3:16

3. We would not experience the releasing power of sins forgiven. We don’t have to live with the burden of guilt!

4. We would not have the incredible, wholesome ,life-giving  teachings of Jesus;

   • He taught us to love one another, as He loved us.

   • He taught us the value of all people, creatures and nature.

   • He commanded us to forgive.

   • Incredible ‘wisdom’ teaching e.g. Sermon on the Mount

   • His proclamation about eternal life.  ”In my Father’s house there are many mansions and I go to prepare a place for you..”

Read more in Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)

Learning to Live on Earth Like Humans

I came across a quote from the poet George Bernard Shaw that captivated me, especially the last line-

“Now that we have learned to fly in the air like birds and dive into the sea like fish,

Only one thing remains-

To learn to live on earth as humans.”

Think with me…what does it mean to live like humans?

Perhaps a place to start is by looking at what inhumanity is. The Oxford dictionary describes this as: brutality, barbarousness, callousness. Can we add to those adjectives? Cruel, selfish, cold-blooded, hateful, heartless…

But before we become too judgmental of others, and ourselves, let us remember that we are not born inhumane – life can be very cruel and can turn a cute kid into someone that has lost their humanity.

What then does true humanity look like? Think of a person that you might have met in your life that has qualities that are noble, protective, true, compassionate, warm, loving, non-judgemental, not perfect but never malicious.. What impact did that person have on you?  Did you feel safe with that person?

I wonder what our present world would rate on the “humanity scale” today? Wars destroying innocent lives, and devastating countries, the inhumanity of human trafficking, youth crime, sophisticated crime cartels, domestic violence, and many more inhumane behaviours….

However, before we become too negative, let us remember that just as there is inhumanity there are many examples of extraordinary, and ordinary, daily acts of compassion, self-sacrificing endeavours to improve the well-being of others, and genuine love and care..

The bible is full of stories both types of people and all those that fall in-between but it also has given us a picture of someone that was fully human in the best sense of the word; Jesus.

Just think of His qualities as revealed when he lived on earth- he had incredible compassion, but was quite clear about behaviours that were damaging, e.g. he did not lecture the prostitute but said to her “go and sin no more”, he wept over Jerusalem, in the bible Peter, the disciple said, “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats..” He could have called on legions of angels to rescue him and destroy his enemies, but he did not. Even on the cross he said, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing!”

If we want to be truly human let us study the lives of truly great people who have lived, but most of all let us study the life of Jesus and imitate Him.

A modern interpretation of our Lord’s Prayer

A modern interpretation of our Lord’s Prayer

“Our Father” – Every living human being is a child of God. Some know they are loved. Others reject any belief in God through various reasons, the main one being the misrepresentation of who God is, because who would reject one who loves them so deeply?

“Who art in Heaven” - We are divine creatures having an earthly experience and one day will return to our heavenly home.

“Hallowed be Thy name” – May we always acknowledge You with deep respect and awe for we serve a mighty and eternal God.

“Your kingdom come” – May we work for noble principles and according to the command to love God, love our neighbour and ourselves.

“On earth as it is in heaven”- Imagine a world where there is peace, abundant joy, unconditional love for one another (regardless of race, colour, creed, gender), humans in harmony with all of nature, no wars, poverty and hunger. Fully aware that we are loved by our Heavenly Father.

“Give us today our daily bread” – Our earth has sufficient sustenance for all people. It is selfishness, greed, foolishness that mismanages our abundant resources resulting in adults and children starving on the one side of the world and others are grossly obese elsewhere.

“Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us” – This is a powerful statement. Are we  saying that if I do not forgive those that have hurt or betrayed me, I can’t be forgiven of my  ‘sins’ ?

“Save us in the time of trial, and deliver us from evil” – Jesus said, “ In this world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). We live in an imperfect world, “broken” people doing unspeakable things. Someone once said, “Evil will happen, but not through me” – may that be our motto.

“For the Kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and for ever” -    We acknowledge that God is our ultimate sovereign worthy of honour and glory and our total obedience. AMEN

                                                                                                                                                                                Marge Stathakis

WISE WORDS FROM “The Book of Celtic Wisdom” BY MICHAEL SCOTT

• Words have magical power. They can raise up the spirits or dash them down.
  

• May the Lord grant you food and clothes apleanty.
  A feather pillow for your head,
  And may you be forty years in heaven
  Before the devils even knows you’re dead.
  

• There is little shame in stealing, cheating and fighting, provided that,
  When you steal, you steal the heart of your sweetheart,
  When you cheat, you will cheat death, and
  When you fight, you will fight for a worthy cause.
  

• There is luck and there is discipline.
  Discipline achieves more.
  

• Words have a magical power.
  They can raise up the spirits or dash them down.
  They can bring laughter as easily as tears.
  Spend words like a miser counting coins.
  

Make each word count.

LONE-LINESS vs ALONE-NESS

I remember my father singing a song, I think it was reminiscence of the time he spent in North Africa during WWII, the words, as I remember them were “Lonely as a desert breeze, I may wander where I please…”  As the memory emerged so I began thinking of loneliness, and how different it is to aloneness.

There is a sadness, a longing, an emptiness hidden in the word loneliness. Think of the widow in her home, children married with families of their own. The funeral is over, and she is alone after all have left, she washes the dishes, vacuums the house, makes a cup of tea and the silence descends…she is alone.

A man is sent to a remote area to complete a work contract. He works hard all day then the siren goes indicating for them to “down tools”.  Many co-workers head off to a nearby bar, but he has had his brush with alcoholism and cannot put himself to the test. Too tired to do anything constructive, but not tired enough to sleep…loneliness!

A child sits alone on the playground of the new school. Children all around are playing games with their friends, they have been in the same school, the same town, forever. Loneliness!

I also think of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He is alone and wrestling with the knowledge of the suffering that He will have to endure… and the sadness of the ‘brokenness’ and weakness of so many people. He weeps for them….  Those closest to Him cannot understand, cannot comfort Him!

However, there is a vast difference between ‘loneliness’ and ‘alone-ness’.

Alone-ness has a totally different ambiance, meaning, experience! We need to have “alone” time. Some writers rent remote accommodation so that they can fully focus on the thoughts that they are trying to convert into words. When we are alone with only ourselves, no-one to prevent or interrupt our inner journey, then the real ‘soul’ work begins. The Psalmist speaks to himself and says, “Why are you downcast, O my soul?”   A time to acknowledge our thoughts and feelings, away from well-meaning friends and loved ones who would offer solutions or encouragement. A time to actually feel … to rejoice, to mourn, to be proud, to admit failure, to be angry and to explore why that emotion is so strong, to be able to think, plan and dream.

Jesus, John the Baptist, and many spiritual giants and guru’s have spent time in the ‘desert’ or in quiet spots in mountains etc. It seems to be that in that silence, clarity is easier to come by. Think of the opposite-the noise of a busy city, town, environment. It is not easy to think and feel deeply in those places.

We may not be able to escape to the desert, or such like places, but we can proactively create such a place for ourselves.

Loneliness is a cry for love and companionship

        Aloneness is a time for inner rejuvenation

Living Life Well

Every minute someone leaves this world behind.

We’re all in “the Queue” without knowing it.

We will never know how many people are ahead of us.

We can’t move to the bottom of the row.

We can’t get out of the line.

We can’t avoid the queue.

So, while we wait in the line,

Make the moments count!

Make priorities.

Make time.

Let your qualities be known.

Make your people feel important.

Make your voice heard.

Make big things out of small things.

Make someone smile.

Make the change.

Make love.

Make peace.

Get it together.

Make sure you tell your people that you love them.

Make sure that you have no regrets.

Make sure you are ready.

Live life, and let live, enjoy, be grateful,

don’t waste time arguing, fighting, and doing bad things.

Life is short, live it, be humble, love yourself,

and be happy with what you have.

Have a happy life.

“Daring to Dance with God”

JEFF Walling in his book says: “And what is it like to dance with God?  Dancing with God is allowing Him to take our breath away as He whirls us through the dark and light places that life leads us. It is relaxing into His embrace and trusting fully in His strong arms.  It is releasing the power of the Spirit within us to give us joy beyond measure.  It is revelling in the unexpected and celebrating the divine surprise that is each new day.  It is rejoicing out loud at the grace and beauty God provides and ignoring the calls of the crowd to sit down and quit grinning.  But above all else, dancing with God is learning to let go.” 

What do we need to let go of?

Let go of guilt – Guilt has an important function- to alert us when we have ‘missed the mark’, when we have hurt someone, when we have been untrue to ourselves….

But guilt is not meant to be a permanent condition…let guilt do its role and then…let go of guilt!

Let go of resentment - resentment is like eating something that really disagrees with you and just can’t digest!  But how to let go?  It’s almost like removing a thorn stuck in our flesh, we have to consider it; where it came from, what it is doing to us and how do we get rid of it.

Let go of anger – The bible tells us “be angry but sin not”. That is not easy. When we are really angry, we actually don’t care if we are sinning.  It’s like an exploding volcano! However, anger has a function. Again, inner dialogue can be helpful…we can ask ourselves “Why am I so angry?”   Perhaps our anger is alerting ourselves to something that needs to stop, or to be put right. Perhaps it is a wound from the past that has been prodded. Perhaps it is biological- a physical issue expressing itself in anger.

In essence, let these negative emotions, events, hurts, disappointments be recognized and then released so that we can be free to Dance with God….

Inconsolable Longing

Introduction:  Some years ago, a man made a significant statement after he had won the world title in body building. He said that he had money and fame – he was on the top, the pinnacle of his career, but it did not satisfy a hunger in his heart.

St Augustine said, “Our souls are restless until we find our rest in Thee”. An inconsolable longing in us…..

• A longing that money cannot satisfy… how much? - --just a little more, never enough.

• A longing that fame cannot satisfy... famous, rich people committing suicide e.g. Marilyn Monroe died of an overdose of barbiturates. She was only 36 years old!

• A longing that pleasure-seeking cannot appease, similar to the law of diminishing returns (“law of diminishing returns ‘any rate of profit, production, benefits, etc., that beyond a certain point fails to increase proportionately with added investment, effort, or skill.”)

• A longing that human companionship and love cannot appease… (my wife/husband /children/friends don’t always understand me, even though they love me)

In every human being, whether we are aware of it or not, there is a deep longing, an inconsolable longing and this has been there since the beginning of time.

I would like to explore, with you, this deep longing, this yearning in two ways; Inconsolable longing in history and an awareness of our own personal journey.

THE JOURNEY OF HUMANKIND: We have moved through various stages; one author defined them as - The magical stage, the materialistic stage, and the mystical stage.

In the magical stage people were aware that there was a powerful spiritual force and because they had no knowledge or insight they feared this ‘force’ and this gave rise to many taboos, rituals and sacrifices, for example, In Mexico before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, the Aztecs offered human sacrifices to the sun god, a practice that took as many as 20,000 lives a year (Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopaedia, vol 23, p 60). An awareness of God but did not know him and therefore feared Him.

The magical stage gave way to the materialistic stage where people rejected anything that they could not prove. This was tragically emphasized by the astronaut who claimed that he had been out in space and saw no sign of God. The materialistic view -I cannot see or prove it, therefore, it does not exist. We are still emerging from this stage at present and, to a certain degree, we are still locked into this belief.

The mystical stage has emerged because the hunger for transcendence has been suppressed. There is a deep, and often not acknowledged, hunger for meaning, and meaningful contact with our Creator. Our spirits are rebelling against the lack of recognition and acknowledgement of our souls. Out of this hunger various spiritual practices have emerged; some have led to authentic, deep and life-enriching belief systems; however, many have been seduced into harmful teachings and practices.

What are you and I longing for in the depth of our being?

Discovering Who You Are…

Searching questions that reveal your character:                                                   

1. Who are your hero’s?

2. What are the important things to know about somebody else?

3. If you could write your own epitaph, what would it be?

4. If your last words were to be remembered, what would they be?

5. What is the quality of your anger? Your tears? Your loneliness?

6. What is the quality of your moral indignation?    

7. If you had three wishes, what would you wish for?

8. What are the hungers of your heart?

9. What is it you rather die than do?

10. What are your incentives for living?

11. What is your favourite text in the bible? Or quote from a book?

12. What do you personify? What have you become?

Remember the  song “Getting to know you, getting to like you..”? I hope that these questions help us to understand, accept and love ourselves.

I See You

The movie Avatar was captivating on so many levels but something that stayed with me was the phrase “I see you”.

I have noticed something significant in this regard in recent years; people do not seem to want connection. Let me give an example; when I was travelling on public transport e.g. busses or trains, people did not interact. It was as if each was in their own world and did not welcome any connection at all. It was as if all others were invisible.

I also feel invisible because of my own reticence. I am not a forthright person. I was trained to be a listener and although I am not unfamiliar with public speaking, I do not feel comfortable to be centre stage, even in small gatherings.

However, there have been the rare and wonderful people who have crossed my path and they have given me a gift of … “I see you”

Richard Rohr in his book “Things Hidden” speaks about the many insecure people today who have no real, solid self-concept and they will take on any external persona. This is very evident in people mimicking the characters in movies etc. He speaks of it as a type of “possession”. They are not themselves. This can range from the manner of speaking to a more serious ‘take over’ of the whole personality. He says, “But one way to think of ‘being possessed’ is when there is an unhealthy other who is defining you and defining you poorly”. (1)

The role of trauma is also significant. The abused can become the abuser. The dramatic story of Jesus healing the madman of Gadara is an interesting case in point. (2) He was in chains because he had become too dangerous. Tormented! Jesus asked one question “What is your name?” A key to his madness was the name he had given himself “Legion”. The classical interpretation was that he was possessed by many demons. This was a way of explaining it in ancient times. But the fact that Jesus pinpointed this “name” is significant. He saw where this man’s agony originated. Let me unpack this a little further; at that time, the Roman Legions terrorized that whole area. Perhaps as a child he witnessed immense brutality and had no way to disassemble it…. it possessed him. He became “it”. Jesus “saw” him, saw his agony, saw his struggle, and the man returned to his right mind.

I’m sure that you and I, and all people, long for the gift of someone “seeing” us. And may we have the grace to “see” others.

(1) “Things Hidden” by Richard Rohr. Published by Franciscan Media Cincinnati wwwFranciscanMedia.org. pg 99-61

(2) “Disciple’s Study Bible” New International version. Luke 5:1-5