I read somewhere
That the prime purpose of humans
Is to worship God.
Why, God, I pondered
Should you need me to worship you?
You who are All and Everything?
I don’t, he replied
As I’d barely finished the question
It’s you who needs it
To be fully human.
Strange, unexpected things
May be found in the desert
An empty space to meet with God
Free from normal distractions
But it doesn’t stay empty
For God will fill itLook around. wander about
A blade of grass
A perfect white stone
Find the dry cracked mud
By the seasonal stream
A shoot pushing through
That will flower with joy
Forget the rolling sand dunes, This desert is harsh, hilly scrub-land. It’s where Jesus went after his baptism by John.
Follow his footsteps and come to a place to be alone; a place to take stock of life; a place to be alone with yourself and get to know who you really are.
There’s nothing like spending time alone with someone in difficult circumstances for really getting to know each other. We may take it for granted that we already know ourselves, but whenever unusual and difficult events come into a conversation people tend to admit that they don’t actually know how they would react in such circumstances. If you were really hungry and knew you had the power to turn stones into bread would you succumb to the temptation to prove a point and fulfill your own need or desire? It’s a matter of using God’s gifts for selfish reasons instead of for love.
On other occasions, Jesus fed huge crowds. He turned water into wine. Although these events did act as signs of his power, they were done out of compassion for people in need.
The reason or motive behind an action can sometimes be as important as the action itself. Yet, at other times, what matters is to just get on and do what needs doing without a lot of introspective speculation on the whys and wherefores. Knowing which response is called for in any given situation is a matter of how well we know ourselves, how well we know God and how much we allow God to know us.
Of course, in the sense that God is all knowing and we are his creation, then he knows all about us anyway. But there is a big difference between this knowledge and the knowledge that we deliberately lay before him and invite him to share with us. When we open our inner selves to God in this way, we get to know him better and, because he knows us better than we know ourselves, we also get to know ourselves better as he shows us things that we hadn’t noticed about ourselves. Armed with this knowledge, we can start to become the person that God really wants us to be.
Lent is a good time to embark on such a journey of self-knowledge and deepening relationship with God. A time to consider the place that our faith occupies in our daily lives.
It often seems as though Lent falls into two parts. At the beginning comes the preparation for ministry and towards the end the preparation for Good Friday. The time in the desert and the time in Gethsemane. Facing life, facing death.
As we metaphorically follow Jesus up from the Jordan into the desert wilderness, there is nothing and no-one to come between us and God. Nowhere to hide. No excuses. Just our own self, open and exposed.
Consider setting aside ten or twenty minutes a day to place yourself alone with God in the desert. Picture the scene. Own the space. Look around. If you’re going to spend some time here, you’ll want somewhere to sit down. Perhaps a scrubby, stunted tree will provide some welcome shade, or the mouth of a cave. Or a flat rock might make a good seat. Wherever you find, this is your space. Your space to simply be before God, as unencumbered and naked before God’s gaze as the stones around your feet.
We often think of giving up something edible for Lent, but how about giving up some time instead for prayer and meditation and see what it does for your relationship with God and with yourself.
Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’ And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
Take some time to picture the scene; put yourself in the crowd at the water’s edge and observe from there; note the atmosphere, the mood of the people. Watch the expression on Jesus’ face as he hears the Father’s voice.
Follow in his footsteps as he heads off into the wilderness; the vast empty landscape. Look at the sky, the horizon. Feel the essential aloneness.
Cogito ergo sum– I think therefore I am – these words of René Descartes are familiar to us in the west but do we have any idea of the extent to which they colour our subconcious thinking and affect our whole culture?
Other cultures have a different defining proverb: We are therefore I am or You are, therefore I am.
When we present ourselves before God in prayer, what then defines our existence? The fact that we are God’s creation, are part of the Body of Christ, or that we think? There is something very individualistic about cogito ergo sum which runs counter to the teaching of Jesus.
And the culture of our consumer society, jokingly but rather aptly, expressed as Tesco ergo sum – I shop therefore I am – is arguably even more at odds with our Christian faith.
So what should the motto of the praying person of faith be? I’m no Latin scholar but I guess that Credo ergo sum would translate I believe therefore I am. But it still does not embrace the communal or holistic element. And to reflect the way that Jesus talked about all being one as he and the Father are one then it does need to express something of this.
Please use the comments box to offer any suggestions.
The discussion was entitled, ‘The Holy Spirit’ but someone commented afterwards that we seemed to spend more time talking about prayer.
What a wonderful, insightful observation. For whether we experience God as transcendent creator, more intimately as Abba, Father or as Jesus our friend, is it not in fact the work of The Holy Spirit within us that makes any of these experiences possible?
And this awareness of God is the very essence of prayer.
So what do we do
When it feels like God’s not there?
We call
And we knock
But the door does not open.
We hear no welcome voice.
Consider the options
Bang louder and harder
Sadly turn away
Shrug and assume God’s busy right now
Drop a note through the door…
Sit down and wait
Make a phonecall, an email
Get angry and shout
What do you do
When you can’t find God?
Do you think He’s really not there?
I know He is
I’ve yelled in an empty church
Don’t play hide and seek with me.
It doesn’t feel reverent
And some might be shocked
But I cannot live
Without my God.
He wasn’t hiding in the rafters
But in a deep dark crevice
Of my own heart.
Incarnation. The inaccessible made touchable.
Great God of heaven, a tiny baby.
Vulnerable. needing human care.
Lord, you entrusted yourself to us, the human race, with all our capacity to inflict hurt. So great is your love for us. Help us to love and to trust; to put aside our fear of hurt, for love has overcome.
Morning dawns; a bright new day
Bright with intentions to live in God’s grace.
Then come distractions, clouding the mind
And life no longer looks bright.
But, Lord, you’re still there
Hidden beams peeping through
Lord, come and smile in my heart.
Abba, God, my Father, I gaze around as I walk and see the trees you made are wearing their late Summer green. A different green from Spring. You made so many greens.
This green reminds me that times are changing. Fruit is ripening. Nature preparing for the long night as Summer draws to a close.
Yet all around me people are preparing for a new start. A new term, a new class, school or college.
Beginnings and endings intrinsically interwoven; the very fabric of life.
Lord, the Beginning of all beginnings and End of all ends. You encompass all of life. Grant us now that awareness of your presence that inspires confidence to meet whatever the changing season brings our way.
Bengeo Prayers 