We’re not trained to see
7.21.2010 | All Blog Posts, Contemplation and Meditation
Continued from the previous post. . .
Some people say we look for love in all the wrong places.
It’s true, our longing can take us into dangerous and destructive places, but there is no place on earth where God is not present, where Love is not as near as our next breath.
In our search for God, our yearning to return to the center, we’re always looking exactly where we can find what we’re looking for. We’re just not trained to see. We have such little schooling in real holiness. We may have heard all about God, our ideas about God may be straight-laced and orthodox, but that doesn’t mean we’d know how to recognize God even if God were standing, in all God’s radiance, right before us.
To be continued . . .
7.21.2010
Chris – do you think we can have a felt-knowledge of God’s love deep within us or is it only by faith and seeing his glory around us that we are to have the knowledge? Thanks for taking the time to reply. Pat
7.22.2010
This is a great topic and I do love your posts! We simply must change the precept that God is outside of us and that God’s presence is something we must obtain rather than something eternally present with us. The illusion of separation sets us up for all suffering we experience. So the very first order of business of those who understand this is to change the default perspective of those who have forgotten it. WE come to form with all knowing and fully equipped to love and live. Thanks, Chris, for your gift of words and wisdom.
7.23.2010
Thank you, Peggy. Yes, yes. And are you launching a new website? ecuminus.com?
7.23.2010
Pat, faith, it seems to me, is a different kind of knowing.
Too long our understanding of faith in the Modern West is something like mental assent to doctrine. Faith is a deep knowing.
In the Bible knowledge of God is more like the knowledge of each other shared by two lovers. It is intimate. Beyond words or ideas. Yes, felt. But also more than felt. The joining of mind and heart, thought and emotion in a union of spiritual intercourse that is beyond what we can describe.
This is why stillness and silence are such important modes of deeper or higher prayer.
I’ve written more about silence here: http://chriserdman.com/all-blog-entries/resting-in-prayer-the-spirituality-of-darkness/
Also in the series of Christmas meditations available as a download: http://chriserdman.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Journey-of-the-Magi-e-book.pdf
7.24.2010
Hi Chris, I am trying to get the ecumenicus.org up and running and it is taking considerably longer than I intended. I hope to publish it before the end of August. In the mean time, I have been putting ideas of interest on an ECUMENICUS facebook page. ECUMENCUS on FB is public and a good resource for current and contemplative thought. THanks for asking!! Check it out!
7.24.2010
Peggy, thanks for the link. I’ll check out the FB link and wait for news of your site. I’ll also pass along to readers.
7.26.2010
Thanks so much, Chris!!