Dear Spiritual Companions,
The longer I am on this adventure of a deepening relationship with God called life, the more I discover there is so much more to learn about the major questions of life. One of the biggest seems to be related to when terrible things happen in our life or those we love. It has seemed quite apparent to me for some time that God doesn’t cause these problems, but indeed uses them to further reveal the mystery of existence which includes them. I reread this scripture this morning from the Gospel of John 9:1-5. “As Jesus walked along he saw a man blind from birth. His Disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned , this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world.” Rather perplexing on many levels as far as I am concerned. Let’s talk about this.
We are human so part of that humanness is long to have answers for the mysteries of life. When things like blindness arise in individuals lives we like to blame it on something like them or their parents or the environment. For example, many of us continue to go through life declaring we are the way we are because of the way our parents treated us. If we were told we were no good we live as though we are no good. That to me seems to be a very good definition of being emotionally blind. In addition, we do not have to be responsible for our actions so we can coast along and not to the hard work of forgiving their short sightedness. How can there be any alternatives to our behavior if we haven’t let their actions go? On the other hand, sometimes children are given everything they need physically, emotionally and spiritually and wander through life not having a clue to what they have been given. This again is a sign of blindness. Is God to blame for either of these situations? Well yes in the sense of giving us a choice, but no in the sense of making us be who we are. So who is to blame – No One! Even as I write this I don’t like that answer. Are we not responsible for our own actions. Yes to a certain extent, but there is so much of life that is beyond our control. It is that part of life outside of our control that plays such a big part in who we are. Bad things happen to us and try as we might we just can’t overcome it on our own.
Where does that leave us? Here comes the troubling line, “He was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” Blindness is a part of God’s Creation whether it be physical, emotional or spiritual. We don’t like that so instead we ask why would God allow such a thing to happen? Not because God is vengeful, not because God is manipulating us and certainly not because God is punishing us. Those thoughts are simply our feeble attempt to take the mystery out of life. I have found through Katrina, my wife’s breast cancer and other unfair aspects of life some incredible gifts. When I give up searching for an answer I find one – there is none! Life is a paradox where God says Let It Be What It Is. Like a Zen koan, where there is no answer, we find our ability to live life to the fullest giving up the search for answers. When we let blindness be what it is – blindness then we can see how the rest of our senses suddenly step up to help us live life more fully. When life is a room of manure we can suddenly look for the pony that has to be there. What we focus on becomes the driving force in our life. We are often blind to the way God works because it isn’t the way we want God to work. When we let God be God we can accept God creating a world filled with challenging individuals. We do not have to engage them or believe what they say is true. Just because people treat us like manure doesn’t mean we are.
Jesus, along with all of the great spiritual masters, are the Light of the world because they invite us out of our darkness found in being blind to the way life is so we can be in lightened by what they have to say and how they lived and died. The night of our ignorance can be an invitation to so much more. When we give up a life that has to make sense, then we can discover a life that often doesn’t and so we are not defeated by it. We are only defeated because we think or believe we are. God, by whatever Name you call God always has the last Word – Love. Our work is to enter what God’s kind of Love means. It may entail leaving behind all that we have been taught about Love to embrace it in a new way. So often when I think I have the final answer about something God reveals more. Do I give up certainty for a lifetime of growth? I know what my limited sight is providing, but can I trust that there is even more goodness out there? Could Jesus embrace His Death on the Cross believing that there was more on the other side? He must have because he told the thief he would be with Him in paradise. In fact, I would venture to say we don’t have to wait until we die to experience paradise. It is right now and right here when we dare to let life be what it is.
It truly is a mystery isn’t it?
Gary