September 2011

Rabbi: what are you looking for? Disciples: where are you staying? Rabbi: Come and see. John 1:38-39. There is a growing desire among many people to be connected to something worthwhile, meaningful and lasting. During the boom years we seem to have lost this sense of connectedness. We felt that everything and anything was within our reach. It seemed there were no limits but more recently and painfully, we have had to rediscover those limits. We have also had to rediscover our connectedness to what is of lasting value. This includes family, friendships, community and whatever is of significant value, including God. Connecting with God isn’t just for a chosen few or those with special skills. It is open to everyone and anyone and can help make sense of a complex world of which we are all a part.

It is an invitation to create stillness within, which we all know does not come easily.  Preoccupations begin to surface:  fear of what could happen; will my questions be heard? will my reality be taken into account? 

will I be free enough in myself to listen to the other – to listen to God? – to trust that God is also present even if a “storm” appears to be brewing!

Let us hand over to God all these preoccupations, whatever they may be, and renew our desire to be open to where the Spirit may be desiring to lead us.

 

It often takes courage to listen to those with imagination and creativity: “put out into the deep water and let down the nets” Lk 5:4. The mind, like a garden, needs regular turning over so that new thinking may surface. We may then notice that something which keeps emerging on the shoreline of the mind; let us hold it - not submerge it– put out into the deep and let go of all those nets that may have entangled us for years.

When we embrace our fears, move out into the deep, the object that consumed us incredibly disappears and sets us free to draw new life and energy.

May the Spirit of God transform us from sometime, through maybe to now.

 

 

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