Earlier this week I had a wonderful conversation with a friend about how we as clergy folks can help others learn to articulate their experiences with God. Our conversation focused on the expression of who we are as God’s beloved children rather than specific activities such as helping those in need (I use this phrase gently and carefully – we are all in need of each other but let’s save going deeper into this discussion for another day. I don’t want today’s post to be so long you empty your coffee cup before we’re through).
When we come to know the reality (and I use these words intentionally with bold confidence) of God’s presence with us at all times then all that we do will flow from this understanding of who and whose we are with ever present joy and peace even in the most difficult of experiences.
In Jesus’ last face-to-face encounter with his disciples after The Resurrection, the disciples want to know The Plan and they ask Jesus to tell them the what and when of God’s purpose.
Jesus tells them plainly, “it isn’t for you to know.”
This isn’t a message from a God who wants to keep us under control by lack of knowledge but from the Loving God who understands that if we were to know all that God knows, we would be unable to accept our own humanness nor to live into the people God created us to be. We wouldn’t be willing or able to be who we are and do what is ours to do.
Jesus finishes this statement by revealing a great gift: we are all enabled to receive the power of the Holy Spirit so that we can reveal the Love of God to the world. This is the superpower of all superpowers.
Jesus is teaching us to let God be God so that we can be the amazing and beloved people God created us to be. Jesus is freeing us from the impossible task of force fitting God’s Purpose into our linear, time-bound planning and removing from the equation the idea of ‘when God gets all these ducks in a row then I’ll be able to …’ so that we can live in this moment, shining the light of God’s love as we are, where we are, doing what is ours to do while we wait.
We aren’t called to wait on God passively but to live into God’s purposes by letting who and whose we are guide what we do. With God we live in the reality of God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, witnesses to the reality of God’s Presence.
I pray that my words aid you in your continuous discovery of who and whose you are and better equip you to express your experiences with God.
Mother Nancy's Coffee Thoughts 