God's Presence

God’s Presence

“Union with God is not something we acquire by a technique. Because God is the ground of our being, separation is impossible. God does not know how to be absent.”—Martin Laird, Inward Outward Daily quote, May 16, 2018.

Piper calling us to the Beach

We may feel that God is not beside us or has abandoned us, but Martin Laird reminds us that God is never absent. Never absent. Never absent. We need to remind ourselves about this every day, every moment. We are never alone. The vastness of God’s presence and love is more incredible than we can know, feel, or imagine.

My experience is that when I ask for more love from friends and family than they can give, this is a stop sign that I have become disconnected from God’s presence.

I am asking others to give more love than they can give, because I do not feel God’s love. When I talk to people in spiritual direction who feel estranged from God, I remind them of my experience.

So, how do we change? How do we feel God’s presence and God’s love, rather than God’s absence? My experience is that we have become disconnected, especially from the Christ within us. A multitude of ways can put us in a position to know and feel the love of God always present. That is the purpose of all spiritual exercises. Some make gratitude lists. Others try to be more intentional about their prayer time, spending more time with God and listening instead of talking. Some spend more time in Nature, where God’s presence and beauty are overwhelming.

We are told God is always present among the sick, the poor, the needy, and the lonely. My experience is that visiting those in need is one of the surest ways to connect with the Christ in another, who then reflects to us the Christ in ourselves that has been there all along. Working at a food pantry, visiting the sick, and sitting with someone lonely is where we find God.

The paradox is that getting out of ourselves leads us back to the God within.

Cannon beach

Joanna joannaseibert.com  https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Nouwen: Community

Nouwen: Community

“Community is not a talent show in which we dazzle the world with our combined gifts. Instead, community is the place where our poverty is acknowledged and accepted, not as something we have to learn to cope with as best as we can but as a true source of new life.”—Henri Nouwen, Henri Nouwen Society, Daily Meditation, March 18, 2018. From Henri J. M. Nouwen, Bread for the Journey (HarperSanFrancisco 1997).

The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament constantly reveal stories of how God continually calls us to community. This enlarges our view of God and keeps our God from being so small as we hear about the God of their understanding from others. In community, we learn how our gifts are needed and don’t need to have all the gifts or be in control. In community, we also learn about ourselves, as we begin to see that the faults we dislike in others are often also in ourselves, and in time, we see how ugly they are in us and finally pray to be changed.

We also learn about forgiveness as we are forgiven. Finally, as we attempt to live in harmony in community, we learn about reconciliation, pluralism, connection, and a different kind of living than our society often teaches us.  

We live in a zero-sum world, where we are taught there is only so much food, resources, jobs, money, and love to go around. If we give away any of what we have, we will lose it all; we will lose all that we have accumulated, and it will not return. So we store our things in pods and warehouses, and even store up love inside ourselves and don’t give it away. We fear that if we share, we will lose what we have and not have more.

 I learned about the fallacy of zero-sum from some of my grandchildren. I once envied others who lived nearby while we lived far away. I feared there was only so much love my grandchildren could give, and their closest family and friends would get most of it. Oh, me. My grandchildren have taught me that they have far more love to give than I can fathom, and how wonderful they know and share the love with so many companions who love them. This is what we learn in community. We learn about God’s love without numbers, love without conditions, love that we cannot hold onto, but love that can only grow if it continually moves and flows in and out of us.

As I meet with spiritual friends, I share what I have learned in community and offer living in community as one more way to keep that connection to God, which so beautifully lives in others. In return, our community reflects to us the Christ, the God of our understanding, which also dwells within us.

Joanna  joannseibert.com. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Love stronger than Death

Solomon and Wells: Presence, not Words

“Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm, for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.”—Song of Solomon 8: 6.

at race for the cure with Shaun

Samuel Wells is the vicar at St. Martins-in-the-Fields in London and a frequent writer for Christian Century. He recently titled his article “Is Love Stronger.” 1 Wells tells the story of visiting with the husband of a wife who committed suicide whom he did not know, and hearing their story, then delivering the homily at her service, suggesting that all is now well. However, when he visited the husband a week later, he was met with anger about his sermon. All had not been well with the woman, who had a painful wasting disease, and all was not well with her husband. The husband said he told Wells that before the funeral.

 Wells said he learned from this experience that when being with people living with tragedy or in the aftermath of a disaster, all he has to offer is his presence beside them. There are no words to improve the situation, and attempts to clean up the situation do not affirm their difficulty. Wells believes his role is “not to make things better for someone. It’s facing the truth with them.” This is what makes love stronger than death. It is a presence, not words.

This is also true when we meet with spiritual friends. Sometimes, trying to see God in any difficult situation is simply listening to our friends’ stories and letting them know we are beside them. We are not there to improve things, but to be a loving presence beside them in a great storm. Eventually, we hope to lead them to see God’s presence in them that was present all along.

 In times of great tragedy, I remember people who just came and sat beside me and cried with me and never said a word.

 Often, the person who can best do this is someone who has known a similar tragedy. They have walked in our shoes and understand that the presence of the listening heart is a more powerful healer than any words.

These are also people like women running or walking in Race for the Cure, who show their loving presence with their feet instead of their mouths.

This is love stronger than death.

1 Samuel Wells, “Is love stronger?” Faith Matters, Christian Century, April 25, 2018, p. 35.

Joanna joannaseibert.com  https://www.joannaseibert.com/