Taking a Good Look at Yourself.
What is the longing in your soul?
A longing is an earnest heartfelt desire for something that often seems out of reach.
Today I lead worship in a makeshift chapel at a hospital with an elderly Jewish gentleman from Russia, a young Buddhist woman from Vietnam, a mentally challenged Methodist woman from the East Coast and a sweet, retired woman who played piano.
Welcome to church.
Needless to say, I quickly abandoned my idea of unpacking Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross.
I thought we’d use his poem as a springboard into discussing the deep longing for God found within each of us and to share our journey into encountering our deepest longing, but it was a bit difficult due to the language barrier and other obvious obstacles.
I was at a loss for words and felt for a moment that I was wasting my time.
Yet, in the awkwardness and silence God was there.
As I sat there in the silence I could sense the longing in others and myself: the longing to be heard; the longing to be noticed; the longing for communication; the longing to be accepted and to belong, the longing to be understood; and the longing to be found by God.
Regardless of our state of mind, beliefs, or the language we speak we all long to belong to God. We all want to return home to our place in the Garden. Yet how often do fear and shame attempt to drive us out of the Garden? How often does rejection by our peers threat our existence in the Garden? How often do our differences allow us to disconnect with one another?
But God comes to us and invites us home to share in the feast of life. God sees the depths of our hearts and our yearning to belong to God.
That was the lesson I learned, there was a longing within each of us that got us to the table.
We all have longings to connect with one another and God. Sometimes we attempt to connect to external things like possessions and power in an effort to connect to our deepest longing for God.
Looking at each person I began to see into their humanity and the spirit within each person. They carry the same concern about cancer or mental illness as I do. They do not want to watch a loved on suffer any more than I do. How dare we allow our beliefs to separate us from one another.
I began to imagine how Jesus must have felt sitting with a diverse group of folks from all walks of life at his table longing to connect and belong. Welcome.
So when you are sitting at God’s table don’t be surprised who is sitting across from you. Don’t look at their externals, look into their heart and you will see what God sees… you just may see yourself.
14 Comments:
This is so true.
A beautiful post.
This is, without a doubt, my all time favourite post of yours. Simply beautiful, wonderful, and so very, very true.
Thanks Grace for your kind words and for visiting my blog.
RWK, hey brother, thanks. Your words mean a lot to me.
God bless.
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Many people don't realize that the job of a hospital chaplain is much different than a congregational pastor - the challenge is to meet people where they are, rather than to lead them where I might want them to be or how I might want them to believe.
It's so important to me to focus on the understanding of God as "I AM" - as in "this is where I AM for you, and them, right now, Steve." That universal presence you describe is a comfort to all who come into the Presence. To be a facilitator of that presence is an amazing thing - and it's obvious you've found your calling.
But it's also clear that you found the call to grace for yourself in this encounter, too. So many times, I think I'm the one who is bringing the message of God's love and presence to someone - only to receive it myself. It's a very cool thing when it happens - and even cooler when I recognize it happening...
God has truly blessed you with a true vocation, brother.
Thanks Steve, you are right. It is a ministry of presence. As the Church we are supposedly the Body of Christ. We have the opportunity to be the loving,incarnational presence of God to a broken world.
The goal isn't to tell people what or how to believe, but to be the presence of God to them. And if the Church cannot be the presence of God then what good are we? :)
Namaste,
A touching, beautiful observation.
Yes, across from me at the table, I AM.
Perhaps this is the truest meaning behind the passage '...if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out...'
When the heart opens fully to the realization of who we are and we then surrender the need to understand...we become blinded to all distinctions that separate one from another- and see for the very first time.
Rick! I think this may be one of my favorites of your posts too! I absolutely have to link to it today. What spoke loudest to me is that you ecognize the need in all of us to feel noticed, cared about...we all want to share our story or be acknowleded for who we are - not what we appear to be on the outside. Those folks are blessed to have you as a chaplain.
Rick,
Again, a deeply heart felt and Christ centered post. Thank God you are there and being Christ to those people in need. May we all follow your example to those who are seeking God.
awesome
spot on
and
challenging
thank you
PS when interviewed (atlocusts and honey) this week I said that this was probably the most challanging God centred blog I read.
this post reminds me of the lyrics that have been rollin' round my big ol' noggin' lately...
What I wouldn’t give to find a soulmate
Someone else to catch this drift
And what I wouldn’t give to meet a kindred
longing indeed...
to be 1 again...
whole again...
who doesn't want this...?
(slides silently into her place at the table)
i'm here. :)
well written.
speakin' some deep truth here.
superb post.
i'm with rwk.. this is definitely in my top 10 all time Rick favorites.
sneaked (snuck?) back for another read
What is the longing in your soul?
this resonates but also sets of a tiny tremour of fear - it is awesome to take the risk of allowing a layer to be pulled back and that longing exposed.
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