According to David Van Biema, in the August 23, 2007 edition of Time Magazine, Mother Teresa said the following to Rev. Michael Van Der Peet in September of 1979. "Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness are so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear." I resonate with this statement by Mother Teresa as well as much that I have read by St. John of the Cross. I see no visions, I seldom dream and I don't hear God talking to me.
Jesus said to the doubting Apostle Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” (John 20:27) Thomas answered Jesus the same way I would; “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me?" (John 20:29)
Jesus probably asks me now, "Rick, must you place your hand in my side in order to believe?"
I am always convicted when I read, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” (John 20:29)
I see the Lord moving in the hearts and lives of others and I can see how God has changed my life, but I just can't rid myself of the desire to meet God in the present and to hear God's voice like others claim to do. I have always been jealous of those who claim to hear God speak to them during prayer, during the day, during dreams. When I was very young I wrote that life is a comedy to those who touch and a tragedy to those who feel. How many of us have felt, but not heard? How many of us have felt, but not seen?
Whatever our circumstances may be, faith demands we live our life in the presence of God. Faith is not about the experience I long for. Faith believes God's promise that those with clean hands and a pure heart, those who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and those who do not swear deceitfully will see God. (Psalm 24:3-4) Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." (Mat 5:8)
I know that being faithful does not depend on whether I see or not, whether I hear or not, or even what I can figure out for myself. I actively seek to know the Lord through scripture as well as in prayer, but I am becoming increasingly aware that the rubber meets the road in my relationships with others. Here is where I sometimes sense God's movement or God's displeasure with my thoughts and actions, but even here I know that scripture validates experience and not the other way around.
Scripture teaches that we were created in the image of God. (Gen 1:26) Does that mean my desire to see God is measured by whether or not I see God in others?
Comments
In this age of Grace, God speaks to us through others but more importantly through the Bible. Today we can see the hand of God in our lives as well as others, but we need to be aware of His presence in our busy lives - there are no coincidences! Faith is taking God at His word. In days prior to this age, the people needed the works, visions, miracles and they even had Jesus in the physical form - today, we have His Word, which is never returned void.
last night someone said, "Faith is informed trust." I like that because it makes Eph 2:8 less ambiguous. If faith is a gift of God as Eph suggests, then the gift of informed trust makes that verse make more sense for me. God gifts me by informing my trust of Him... whether that's through scripture, prayer, people, or the weather. by grace, tm
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