June 29, 2005> 12:47 AM
god alone? God alone. That ominous statement greets you on the right as you enter the outer halls of the Abbey of Gethsemani, above the entrance gate that goes into the monastic enclosure, where the monks live - behind the wall. It's supposed to signify something to them. I'm sure it should signify something to us as well. What does it mean?
What do we mean, God alone? Does that mean we constantly and only think about God 24 hours a day - well, however many hours we're awake and conscious a day? Is that what it means? Does it mean we only care for "God" - that He is all we hold affection for? I have an idea these are the kinds of things we think that means. We have that pressure over us. If we sense ourselves feeling affection for anything but God, we feel that we have failed in some way. We, more accurately, think God feels that we have failed - failed Him. I'm not sure that's really accurate. I think that's a slanted view of things.
Can we love God and love our spouses? I think we'd better. Can we think about fishing from time to time and also be fully committed to God and His kind of Life? I should hope so. I think instead of replacing everything in our thoughts and lives with some false sense of single focus on God, we should seek to have a life into which God is fully integrated. I believe His great desire for us is to have the Life that He gave to us, fully and joyfully - that it not be a struggle or a burdensome thing. We should seek to have a Life, and when we have that, which is only found in God, we will have that union with God alone. It may just not look like what we thought, and that will have to be OK. Grace and Life be with us.
June 29, 2005
> 12:47 AM
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