Searching for God

There is something I have observed as I have worked with people in the Church. I have seen those who have been eager to find God, who have been hungry for the Holy. But then in their earnest efforts of searching, they have found instead Religion. By this I mean that there comes a point in the process of searching when real discoveries and insights and spiritual experiences occur, and the language of religion, especially as it is expressed through liturgy, gives voice to what they have been experiencing. This is a potentially dangerous time. People may think they can engage a spiritual practice that will bring them closer to God by taking on the language, the theology, intellectual study of the scriptures, and the liturgical customs and rituals.

All of these can be tools helpful along the way, arrows on the road map directing us beyond ourselves. But too often they become like a railroad siding, off the main track, where the seeker sets up housekeeping and is happy and content. Thus the great prize that St. Paul talked about for which he kept pressing on is lost beyond the horizon of present absorption of attention.

The Apostle Paul was taken out of just such absorption in religion by the Resurrection Jesus on the Damascus Road, and now with all clarity Paul could say:

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal;

but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do:

forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12-14

That is why meditation as a spiritual practice for those seeking God can be particularly helpful. Meditation can give perspective to what religion is all about, and remind us that these are all tools to direct our attention toward God. In meditation we sit and be with a clean, unadorned space in which we can see what is going on behind all the activity of our lives, and with open and trusting hearts let ourselves be shown what we rarely are aware of – our motivations and values, our desires and what we reject, our emotions and feelings. When our meditation is with the Prayer of the Lamb, we have a way to see all this with openness, trust and compassion for self. Then with the Apostle Paul I can say, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection (Philippians 3:10), as the mystery of our baptismal identity with Jesus in his death and resurrection is revealed to us.

Let yourself be meditated by the flow of compassion, love and joyful creativity from the heart of Yeshua/Jesus awake within you. Let go of self-concern about the searching, and let your meditation practice be devotion. Devotion is surrender of self-concern. Devotion is trust and openness to the flow of present Life. Devotion is free receptivity to the radiance of Yeshua’s presence. Then, like the little fish swimming everywhere desperately looking for the ocean, realize that you are in the ocean of God’s love, of the very Presence of Christ in whom all live and move and have their being (Acts 17:28).

Keep meditating!

Beverly