Mud Bath

Friday 1/18/2013 3:21 AM

For whatever reason last year I did not have my devotions as regularly as I have in the past and I felt somewhat distanced from God, unaware of his working in my life and in the world around me.  This year I am making an effort to be more consistent and I feel as if I am more aware of the world around me and of God’s presence with me.

Catherine de Hueck Doherty writes about this awareness in her book Poustinia–Christian Spirituality of the East for Western Man.  She writes, “You should be more aware of God than anyone else, because you are carrying within you this utterly quiet and silent chamber.  Because you are more aware of God, because you have been called to listen in your inner silence, you can bring God to the street, the party, the meeting, in a very special and powerful way.  The power is God’s but you have contributed yourself.  God has asked you and chosen you to be the carrier of that silent place within yourself.  In a manner of speaking, nothing has changed in your daily schedule.  So you attend all the meetings as before, knowing in deep faith and its accompanying darkness that you are bringing Christ, the Christ who prayed to his Father all night, alone on the mountain.  You bring the Christ who stole away from the crowds to pray.  You are now carrying him back to the crowds.  So you should be ‘with’ the crowds.”

There are two things that stick out to me as I read her writing this morning.  The first is that the power at work in the world is God’s power but I contribute myself.  God is working in the world to reconcile it to himself.  I can choose to participate in this work if I align my heart with his heart, my vision with his vision and my will with his will.  The best way to become aligned with the purposes and the work of God is to spend time with him so that I know his thoughts and so that I can anticipate his actions.  The second thing I noticed is that in order to be effective in this work of God I need to be with the crowds.  There is a tendency for me, and others in the Christian community, to live in isolation, wallowing in the soothing mud of intimacy with God as if I were enjoying a day at the spa.  God reconciled with Jacob by wrestling with him throughout the night.  Today he still chooses to wrestle with people who are sullied by sin.  If I am to be a part of his work I will roll in the mud with him as he wrestles with humanity.  The choice I get to make every day is whether to stay in the soothing mud of the spa for my own benefit or to roll in the mud of a broken world, joining God in his reconciling work.