The distance we keep from the pain of the world is the distance we keep from God. And the distance we keep from the pain in our own lives, our own groaning souls is the distance we keep from knowing ourselves—which is God in us.
We cannot hope to know God unless we are willing to know all of his creation. Because in one sense the sum of all of us is the most complete image and understanding we are going to get of God on this side of the divide.
Which in this fraught time means that the pursuit of God requires us to reach out to the most righteous (or unrighteous) Trump (or Biden) supporter and will ourselves to know them, to feel their pain, their fears, their hopes and their joys. We must empathize with them, find a way to understand them and agree with their decision based on their lived experience even as we disagree with their logic, their view and their vote. Only then will we begin to see God.
It means we must see the invisible: the homeless, the poor, the mentally ill. Those we pass at a pace, we must slow ourselves, sit, ask and understand. Enter their pain, their hopes, their joys and their sorrows. Only then will we begin to see God.
We must understand and know our Muslim brothers and sisters, our Buddhist, Taoist, atheist and agnostic friends and families. Only in knowing, understanding and loving them can we hope to begin to know, love and understand God.
Which brings me back to the beginning. It begins with our willingness to enter our own pain, our own disappointments, our own groaning souls. What are our hopes? What are our dreams? What is it that ills us? Only in entering THAT can we begin to see God within us. And only when we see God within us can we hope to see God in our brothers and sisters.
❤️
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