The truth is that many folks--very good folks, in fact--never share in the spiritual or faith experiences I sometimes describe, whether they are open to it or not: they sense no God; they are disinclined toward faith; they reflect no spiritual intuition. To borrow context from my reflection, Being Found, they do not and never have sensed that
"...the One who calls us may be trying to get their attention." They have in no way perceived Him "waving His arms at them in the press of daily relationships and responsibilities, flashing His light in the soft, smiling eyes that pause and pass by, speaking in the voices of those who love and care, whispering to the heart that sighs, stirring in their very soul. They have not heard Him calling from all creation, the cycles of birth and death, change and renewal, nudging them to the questions of what is passing, what transcends, and what endures."
Perhaps they are too lost, too isolated or without, too much in pain or emotional suffering to lift their eyes or hearts in faith or even hope. People are wont to say that, even to believe it. Perhaps they are too much involved with self-indulgence or self-aggrandizement to consider a more disciplined, behavior-changing alternative. We hear that as well. Or perhaps they are just insensitive or unresponsive to spiritual invitations or cues for reasons unclear to us: perhaps it is an expression of their personality or temperament, perhaps it is just the way they are genetically wired--for there is, apparently, a correlation between a group of genes and faith or spirituality.
And the inescapable corollary must be a call for humility and respect from each of us to all others. We must be aware that those of us who do reflect a spiritual intuition, who do sense God, hear the invitations, and have a personal experience of connectedness with something we call God, may also be reflecting our personalities and temperaments, our genetic predispositions or prescriptions. That does not mean there is no God--although some would consider it evidence--or, for we Christians, that Jesus is not still the same Jesus.* But it continues to challenge us about the reasons some people are drawn to spiritual understandings and experience, and some are not.
For the faithful, it also continues to challenge us about what God is doing in our lives, wherever we fall on the spiritual or faith continuum. Orthodox Christianity has few satisfactory answers for these questions, at least not for me--other than the notions of predestination and election, and the call to trust in God's perfect love and justice, notions that do not share comfortably the same intellectual or emotional space. Mystery or misunderstanding? Destiny or delusion? How about humility about the unknown and unknowable? Yes, humility, that at least. And respect, that too--for all people wherever they are, or are not, on that spiritual or faith continuum.
[*For those interested in my understandings of my faith and connectedness with God and Christ, see my essays "What God?", "Being Found" and others in this What God? series.]
First written and posted March 15, 2011
Copyright Gregory E. Hudson 2011
And the inescapable corollary must be a call for humility and respect from each of us to all others. We must be aware that those of us who do reflect a spiritual intuition, who do sense God, hear the invitations, and have a personal experience of connectedness with something we call God, may also be reflecting our personalities and temperaments, our genetic predispositions or prescriptions. That does not mean there is no God--although some would consider it evidence--or, for we Christians, that Jesus is not still the same Jesus.* But it continues to challenge us about the reasons some people are drawn to spiritual understandings and experience, and some are not.
For the faithful, it also continues to challenge us about what God is doing in our lives, wherever we fall on the spiritual or faith continuum. Orthodox Christianity has few satisfactory answers for these questions, at least not for me--other than the notions of predestination and election, and the call to trust in God's perfect love and justice, notions that do not share comfortably the same intellectual or emotional space. Mystery or misunderstanding? Destiny or delusion? How about humility about the unknown and unknowable? Yes, humility, that at least. And respect, that too--for all people wherever they are, or are not, on that spiritual or faith continuum.
[*For those interested in my understandings of my faith and connectedness with God and Christ, see my essays "What God?", "Being Found" and others in this What God? series.]
First written and posted March 15, 2011
Copyright Gregory E. Hudson 2011
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