God in action..

I spoke to an old friend last week, someone I wondered about, yet haven’t spoken to in almost twenty years. She is married with 3 children, and her oldest child has severe epilepsy and brain developmental issues. What was almost a near perfect life has been invaded by suffering. She told me how one has to question the existence of a loving god, when innocent beautiful children are born into a life of suffering.

I have been wanting to write this post for several days, yet a part of me feels I have no right to write it. I have had my own suffering, pain, loss and disempowerment, yet this is nothing compared to a chronically debilitating illness. I have not had to raise an innocent child who was born into seizures. I don’t know the ‘why’ of suffering on the blameless.

What struck me from my friend was her willingness, in the face of suffering, to love her child, and to find joy and blessing in the gift of the child, amidst the question of God’s existence and the feeling of separation from Spirit. I felt her heart as a mother, and saw her courage and her bravery. I came across this quote by another friend yesterday.

“So often I have remembered what the Divine Mother spoke to Amma, "You have not been born to just experience bliss and peace, but rather to give comfort and solace to humanity. Use your Divine gifts to bring relief. That will be the real worship of me, who resides in the hearts of all beings as their essence".

Through my friend’s choice to respond to the suffering of her child with Love, I saw God in existence, in action. In John 16:7, Christ talks about the Holy Spirit as ‘the Comforter’. What is the spirit in her that responds to suffering with love and care? What is it that responds to suffering with outrage and heartbreak? How can an impersonal world be filled with a desire to comfort and solace? Even if my friend could not see it, her life and response, to love and not to reject, had to be evidence of a loving God, seeking to bring light into suffering.

Shining Light

I read the words of Matthew 5 last night..

⁴"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

 

These words jumped out at me, and I lay thinking about our responsibility as Christians, to let our highest good into the world. As Christians, we are lights in the world, powered by the Holy Spirit, to bring glory to the father. In the Lords Prayer, the lines are “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. How are we bringing Gods kingdom into the earth?

 

Jesus was a social revolutionary, challenging the sin and power structures of his time. He would retreat in prayer, regain his strength, then go into the world, preaching, teaching, healing, doing Gods work to transform the earth. At the school I teach at, there is little spirituality, yet today I was encouraged when a group of students asked if they could use my classroom to pray for a sick student. This gave me hope, hope for them to become leaders, to become social revolutionaries, to choose life, honor and respect instead of lawless self-interest.  They can do this by being lights, by letting their goodness shine out while they praise their father in heaven…