Know that when you seek anything of your own, you will never find God, because you do not seek God purely. You are seeking something along with God, and you are acting just as if you were to make a candle out of God in order to look for something with it. Once one finds the things one is looking for, one throws the candle away. This is what you are doing.
— Meister Eckhart (via Daily Dig)
In the worst of times, the human spirit, with God’s help, does the best things. Karen Marie relays such one remarkable story of mercy and forgiveness called “With My Own Eyes” by Pastor Richard Wurmbrand. This is a must read.
I have been on this time and God and us kick lately. Steve in a post called “Attachment to the past” reflects on the wonder of how he has made it this far:
While it’s fine to compare and contrast [your past with your present], I have to avoid getting attached to the past. It can feel good to look back and say “look how far I’ve come!”, and that’s fine. But when that sentiment is used to prop me up in the present, then that seems like an unhealthy attachment. It seems like pride. If I stay attached to the past, then it will be harder to live in the present and look forward to the future. And besides, if God isn’t holding on to my past, why should I?
He is right, especially about the warning on pride part. The trick is to learn from your past, hope for the future, and live now in the present moment. But he ended his post with a question, “…if God isn’t holding on to my past, why should I?”
Good question. God is not holding on to our past if you have repented your past sins. (That can be a big “if”.) C.S. Lewis wrote in The Problem of Pain:
We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. I have heard others, and I have heard myself, recounting cruelties and falsehoods committed in boyhood as if they were no concern of the present speaker’s, and even with laughter. But mere time does nothing either to the fact or to the guilt of sin. The guilt is washed out not by time but by repentance and the blood of Christ: if we repented these early sins we should remember the price of our forgiveness and be humble.
Lewis also reminds us that all times are eternally present to God and to heaven. He speculates:
It maybe that salvation consists not in cancelling of these eternal moments but in the perfected humanity that bears the shame forever, rejoicing in the occasion which it furnished to God’s compassion and glad that it should be common knowledge to the universe. Perhaps in that eternal moment, St. Peter—he will forgive me if I am wrong—forever denies his Master. If so, it would indeed be true that the joys of Heaven are for most of us, in our present condition, ‘an acquired taste’—and certain ways of life may render the taste impossible of acquisition. Perhaps the lost are those who dare not go to such a public place. Of course, I do know that this true but I think the possibility is worth keeping in mind.
This reminds me of two scripture passages:
There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. — Matthew 10:26
Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. — John 3:20
Our past maybe on display in heaven for everyone to see. The thing is, I do not know if I can deal with it in my current un-perfected state. I hope that I am not living a certain way of life that “may render the taste impossible of acquisition.” But then again, I am not going to worry too much about it. The great thing about God is that if you or I have repented and honestly have asked for forgiveness of our past, current, and future sins, we will acquire a taste for heaven, whatever it entails.
Lord have mercy on us.
Take the time to really pray and reflect on this famous prayer. Each line is a goldmine worth…
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference—
living one day at a time,
enjoying one moment at a time,
accepting hardship as the pathway to peace,
taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it,
trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His will—
that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him forever.
Amen.
— Reinhold Niebuhr
In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.
— Bertrand Russell (via Whiskey River)
Last month, I was browsing through a large national chain bookstore, kind of killing time, waiting on my oldest daughter. I always seem to gravitate to the religion section. I had enough books to read in the queue for summer. I did not need another one, so I was not paying too much attention. As I was skimming over the books, this one particular book nonchalantly peaked my interest. It was different from the others. The design of the cover was minimalist—plain white with one word in large contrasting black, “Christ,” with a subtitle in small dark maroon lettering, “A Crisis in the Life of God.”
I opened up this book by Jack Miles and started reading the prologue. First page, blah blah blah. Second page, blah blah blah. Third, fourth, more of the same, but I kept reading. Somewhere in there he wrote something that made me stop and think. I like that in a book. He created an imagine in my mind which triggered a memory from my past and its associated emotions flowed forth for a moment. Then my daughter found me. She was ready to go. I started to place the book back on the shelf and paused. Yes or no? Do I get it? If I don’t, the book will haunt me until I come back. Better get it now.
If I had only known that I was going to be knocked off my spiritual equilibrium point…