First Presbyterian Church of Alabaster (Cumberland) - Knowing God and being known by God (11/5)

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Knowing God and being known by God (11/5)

Wednesday, 13 December 2006

     One of the more enjoyable activities of the retreat this past weekend was an early morning guided meditation on the back patio of the dining hall. Eighteen of our participants braved a crisp, bordering on cold 7:00 AM start. The scene in behind the dining hall is worthy of a postcard, especially in the fall. Brilliant colors of orange, amber, green, purple, red, and yellow filled the tree lined alley leading to Lay Lake which laps up against the bank some 200 yards below.

     The resource used for our time of silence, meditation, and prayer was Calming the Restless Spirit: A Journey Toward God, by Ben Campbell Johnson. Johnson has done good work in the field of Christian Spirituality as an author and a professor at Columbia Theological Seminary. I recommend this resource to any one interested in journeying toward God through meditation and prayer.

     Over the next few weeks I am going to be writing in this column about some of the ideas and practices that Johnson develops in this book. I hope that the knowledge of this resource and the comments I make about it will inspire you to develop a discipline of silence and meditation. Life is so loud and busy that few people take time to develop that discipline. Those who do are truly rewarded.

     Today’s comments about the book will be brief as they follow up these introductory words. Johnson poses the questions: Do you know about God? Or do you know God? These questions offer a beginning place for a journey toward God. Johnson describes most people as having “ a restless heart ”. He means by that people long for God – that there is something inherent in our makeup that pulls us toward the concepts and ideas of a higher power. He conjectures that no matter what a person’s particular religious, or spiritual, background there is a hunger for a fuller life. Johnson contends that hunger is filled uniquely in a relationship with God.

     Johnson challenges people to “ live with an adventurous spirit”. He states on more than one occasion that we should grasp and embrace the notion that God is deeply interested in us. Perhaps we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about that. Or, maybe more correctly stated, we confuse what that statement means. It doesn’t mean that God is interested in whether or not our team wins or what we have for lunch. God is interested in having a relationship with us. In knowing. And being known. God is prepared to make God’s self vulnerable and asks for our vulnerability in return.

     Knowing God and being known by God is a risky endeavor. For God. For us. It’s worth the risk. I’ve no doubt about that. Hopefully, over the next few weeks we can all find some encouraging ways to grow that relationship. Perhaps, even, in the near future, we’ll use Johnson’s book as a resource for a Christian Spirituality study. That would be fun! We’ll see.

Grace and peace,