It’s hard to let go of the familiar. I am facing this right now because it looks like I’m going to need a new computer soon. I was reminded this morning, however, that the most difficult things to let go aren’t actually things; they are ideas. My beliefs, so firmly held, are often just opinions that I cling to for protection from the reality of the complex and confusing world.
God is like that too. By which I mean, my notion of God. Every time I am certain of what I believe, of what God must BE—the God of justice, the God of Love—I am reminded that my ideas are always and forever inadequate. Scripture—which may not be inerrant but is certainly inspired—tells us that besides being just and loving, the Divine can merciful and furious. Or maybe I’m sure that God is energy or that God is Beingness. None of these faces, or characterizations, are necessarily wrong. They are necessarily incomplete. It’s only when I assume that I’ve got the lock on it, that I finally know, that I am completely wrong.
It’s like I got started a long time ago with God 1.0, and my job is to keep getting constant upgrades and even once in a while a whole new machine. Learning the upgrades takes a hell of a lot of work, but the alternative is that you can’t process the information that is coming in—you can’t read the files that you get sent and you can’t enjoy all there is. In computers and programs, as in our relationship to the Holy, as in our lives, to be static is to die.
So here’s to a new computer, and to God 10.3, or whatever upgrade you’re on. May we have the courage to learn it well and let it go when its time has come.
blessings--
Therese
No comments:
Post a Comment