christianmystics.com

"We have learned that the Divine Other whom we seek is also seeking us."

Rufus Jones

 

Recently, a friend of mine was out of the country with his wife and the two of them split up to do some separate shopping and sightseeing, agreeing to meet back at a certain cafe in an hour.

They hadn't been apart for more than twenty minutes when one of the earthquakes that have been rumbling across the planet struck and struck hard. My friend immediately tried to find his wife, but it was impossible with the crowds that had poured out of the buildings and into the streets.

For nearly 45 minutes he searched, enduring at least one major aftershock and passing buildings and shops that had collapsed in the violence of the quake. All he could think of was how desperately he wanted to find his wife and to find her safel. He also knew that she must be frantic with worry about him and that, even as he looked from face to face and peered into the darkened buildings, she must be doing the same.

The reunion an hour later was dramatic and cut into both of them very deeply. All they could to was stand in the middle of the rubble and the shouts of passersby and hug each other, silent.

Cut to another scene, another story. A student goes to the Master and says, "I want to find God!" The Master says, "Why don't you have a look in that rain barrel over there?"

Curious, the student goes over and peers down into the water. The Master, being very strong, came up behind the student and shoved his head down into the water and held it there. The young man flailed about, fearing he would drown, and at the last moment the Master let him up.

"What was THAT for?" the student sputtered.

"What did you want more than anything else?" the Master asked.

"Air," the student said, still gasping. "All I could think of was how much I needed air."

"Then," said the Master, "you come back to me when your desire to find God is as strong as your desire was for air."

For most of us, our search for God is halfhearted at best, something we put on and take off when it suits us. When we are able to set aside a bit of time to do some reading or prayer, when Sunday comes -- there are many restrictions on our search.

But in both of those stories, we are reminded that we have to search with all our heart, that we must constantly be seeking to find God within ourselves and within the world so that we may see beyond ourselves and beyond this world. We must seek to find God not only in the private moments within our soul, but on the faces and in the happiness and sadness of others.

There is one point to all this searching. Just as in the story of my friend, there is not just one person searching and another -- or God, if you will -- sitting and playing a kind of cosmic hide and seek. God's love, the radiant energy of God that is available to us, is constantly, desperately and actively searching for us, as well. Think of it this way -- God can do many things, but God cannot love God. We are necessary to complete that circuit, to bring a co-creation of Love into the Universe.

And so in moments of discouragement, as you sit in the midst of that Dark Night of the Soul, know that even as you rest in your sadness or hopelessness, someone is still searching for you, a force that will not rest or be discouraged or set aside until there is that Divine Embrace within the rubble of life and the distracting or disparaging shouts of passersby, held in the silence.