I fed you milk, not solid food, for you could not eat solid food. And, more, you still are not able to.
*I Corinthians 3.2, Christian Scriptures
They will hold to a form of godliness while denying its power. Stay away from such people!
*II Timothy 3.5, Christian Scriptures
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During Sacred Sharing, the group leader, Charlotte, closed the session with a comment about prayer. She said she could no longer offer intercessory prayer, or prayer for others, as she used to. Why? She said: "The relationship is too real."
Charlotte said she had prayed to her God in an envelope manner. Her prayer was like putting a request in an envelope, putting a stamp on it (this could be comparable to ending a prayer 'In Jesus Name' like a magical formula), and sending it off to her God. Her words resonated with me, also ringing true to my experience.
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Much of religion and prayer is a trivialization of the Sacred. I believe the decline of most religion in the West is related to this trivializing of the Holy.
Some, however, grow into a faith experience in which their God becomes more and more real to them. God, so to speak, gets out of their heads. God becomes more than a transactional relationship, a slot machine deity, and religion more than a quid pro quo affair. The result is the experience of a realness that leads to wonder, awe, reverence, and love that overflows the tribal boundaries of the faith group. The shift is from transactional to transformational, from form to spirit.
When God becomes real enough, a person cannot live, pray, worship, and love within the contours of their or their group's past. One must accept they are entering unknown territory and will never leave, while in this human body, that unknownness. One will continue growing into the realness, unable to say what it is to them.
I much appreciate what Charlotte said. And she leaves us with a question, "How real is Spirit to you?" She asks, "Are you willing for your God to become so real you cannot live your faith and life as you once did?" And, "Are you prepared to shift from a faith that mainly affirms and comforts you to a path that transforms you, even by leading you directly into discomfort, confusion, and unknowing?" In that unknowing, you enter a knowing unspeakable, hence real, really real. Is that what you want?
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
