September 12, 2021

September 9, 2021

We need to get our bearings straight and properly lay life’s cornerstone. Otherwise, the rest of our journey will be skewed, and our judgment clouded. We can recall Jesus’ famous rebuke of Peter, “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” Even he, as one of Jesus’ closest friends struggles with understanding things and grasping the big picture. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) a renowned and learned French Jesuit priest often has these words attributed to him: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Whether they were actually from his lips, they certainly mimic his thought. These wise words orient us and capture the essence of who we really are.
Many people consider spirituality an option. It is no wonder that they come to this conclusion when they predominantly define themselves using human terms and concepts. Immersed in this world view, they struggle finding any semblance of God because God does not work according to human expectations! This is especially true when suffering and death enter life’s picture. If we are only human beings having a spiritual experience, then we wrongly expect our spirituality to serve us as we desire. The human expectation is that my spiritual life is something that is useful in avoiding pain, hardship, and death, not something that gives the courage to live through it!
So, when we protest and get upset with God because our journey is becoming difficult, painful, treacherous, disappointing, and even pointing us toward death, Jesus rebukes us as he did Peter and gently reminds us how to see. It is God who inspires and opens hearts to see truth and beauty. In God, the true meaning of things is understood, and we receive a depth of insight and understanding that is not found following purely human paths. It is not our task to understand God, as God is beyond human understanding. Ours is the joyful privilege of simply resting in God’s presence simply because God is God and we are who we are. As spiritual beings having an exciting and adventurous human experience, it is in our DNA to do so. Through prayer we can let go and let be. This is how we lose our lives but then save them. ©LPi