Feeling the Word

Even today, and especially today, throughout the multiplicity of separated groups within the broad reach of the Christian Church, we have our own ongoing and self-perpetuating derivative of Babel. We have all played a part in the process that has spawned the fragmentation and dilution of our understanding of the Word of God.

Any admission, even secret and unspoken, of anything even vaguely resembling those thoughts can discomfort us in a way that threatens to hurt if we dwell on it. It stirs something very deep within us: something that brings distraction, and an indefinable awareness that, however rarely we may open a Bible, or give any thought to scripture other than hearing the readings at Sunday mass, we really do value whatever is written between the covers of that solid body of a book.

The confusion lies with the many translations available, though many of us will be untroubled by this availability as it does not translate into a consciousness of there being a choice involved. If we have a Bible of our own, we can truthfully declare that we possess a copy of the Bible; and what more is needed? – Whether we open it or not. But if the Bible contains the Word of God, and if, as everyone hears so often, many Christians believe every word written there, then in every verse where translations differ, which particular words are the correct translation? Which words accurately convey the Word of God? Which words are God’s words? What, and where, is God’s Word?

I do not usually give much thought to these questions, as I am aware that time spent with them would be better spent elsewhere: – reading my own Bible perhaps? The one I am used to; the same one that others around me use; the one that I have come to regard quite simply as “The Bible”: The New Jerusalem Bible. Other Christians, from other denominations and churches, will think along the same lines, but their solid book will not contain the same translation as the one I use. Any attempted discussion would probably carry us towards a defence of our own particular volumes, and that, in its turn, will only lead us into the blind alleys of fruitless disagreement and fractious discontent – the thorny ground in which many translations have already been seeded and germinated.

Someone gave me their email address a few days ago; writing it on a card which had a scripture verse printed large on one side of it. I looked at the photograph on the other side but, unlike the words of that verse, it carried no message for me. I read it as though it spoke directly to me as an individual, and found myself wondering if that card just happened to be the first suitable thing that came to hand when looking for something to write on, or whether it had been recognized earlier as having some relevance for me, and therefore carried for the sole purpose of passing it to me. Almost certainly it was the former.

I looked up the verse in my own Bible later, as that is the one I use on these pages; but having done so I had to reject it in favour of the words I had read on the card. I believe they were taken from the New King James Version; they were the ones that spoke to me. 

‘He has shown you, O man, what is good;

And what does the Lord require of you

But to do justly,

To love mercy,

And to walk humbly with your God?’

(Micah 6:8)

For me, on that day, the Word of God was recognized in the above wording: in that translation rather than the one I always use for myself. The last few words are the same in both, for which I was thankful, as they tell me to continue with my solitary walk, my waiting, and my watching with my Lord, without any thought of needing to do anything more specific. But the ‘O man’ was received as being aimed directly at me as I read: a twist that would not have been possible with my own Bible’s version.

Intimations of Babel echoing through the ages came with my finding that in my own Bible, ‘To love mercy’ – which I love – was rendered as ‘to love loyalty’.

Am I alone in having difficulty in accepting that they are one and the same? – that they both convey the same meaning?  Which do I take as being the better, and hopefully correct translation? Which is the Word of God?

Objectively, I am in no position to know the answer, and to pretend that I do, based on my habitual preference for the Bible I have used for years, is not helpful. Subjectively, however, I know what I am meant to know; that on that day, with my thoughts and feelings at the time, and with the person and the means chosen to bring those words to me, God’s Word for me came in the particular words printed on that card.

That is the reality of The Word; it is not a lifeless book of words, phrases and sentences; dead verses, chapters, stories and letters. It speaks to us collectively as the Church, but it is forever speaking to us individually and personally: – subjectively.

Reading it is not enough; we must learn to feel it. God has ever longed for us to understand that it is so.

‘The word of God is something alive and active:

it cuts more incisively than any two-edged sword:

it can seek out the place where soul is divided from spirit, or joints from marrow;

it can pass judgement on secret emotions and thoughts.’

(Hebrews 4:12)

Food and drink

However determined we may be when we close our doors, when we make conscious decisions to shut ourselves in or to shut everyone and everything else out, we rarely manage to isolate ourselves completely for long. For some it may be a matter of hours only, for others a few days; some of us may manage it for a few weeks at a time, but even that is not long when seen from an external viewpoint.

Our presence in our local community seeps out almost unnoticed through modern communications and our continuing needs for at least some of the essentials for normal everyday living. The one overriding need for each one of us is an absolute necessity for life: the need for food and drink.

Whether our closed door is the physical reality of a garden gate, the door to our house or flat, or, if we are living at home with our parents or in somebody else’s home, the door to our own room; or whether it is a purely internal barrier: a mental closing of curtains, bringing down of a blind, securing of shutters, or closing and locking of a door on whatever psychological or emotional disturbance we are trying to deny, bury, counter, or overcome, the barrier we use to separate us from the undeniable reality of the rest of the world can never be completely sealed. Just as our presence will leak out through an occasional use of today’s means of communication and through the essential answering of some of our physical needs, so also, that which we are trying to avoid will find a way of seeping in.

The process could be regarded as a form of osmosis: an equalizing of all that was created equal, and an underlying tendency to reposition every part of creation where it was meant to be. We are part of the world, and have not been created to live outside it; either in an attempt to survive beyond its influence, or shut away in a sealed cell, even in the midst of it.

This is equally true, if not more so, of our spiritual lives. We are part of God’s creation, and as such we do not have an external view of what goes on in the world, of human nature and of its susceptibility to being influenced by both good and evil,  health and sickness, joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, love and hate, life and death. We are part of it; and everything within it: both sides of every conceivable coin, is, or is potentially, part of us. Just as our physical life is unalterably tied in with all other life on the planet, and will strive to stay in balance with it: equalizing the pressures on both sides of our doors in a lifelong attempt to maintain today’s take on the evolutionary and ever refining status quo, so too are we created to become aware of our spiritual nature, and to be drawn towards the spiritual realities that permeate the whole of the world around us. Whatever we believe, feel and think, it is not possible for any of us to shut God out, or to hide ourselves from Him.     

‘For I am certain of this:

neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,

nothing already in existence and nothing still to come,

nor any power, nor the heights nor the depths,

nor any created thing whatever,

will be able to come between us and the love of God,

known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.’

(Romans 8:38-39)

    

From our own point of view, a door may serve only one of those purposes: either to shut ourselves in or to shut everything else out; but the net result is the same in either case: the degree of separation is the same, and so too, inevitably, is the degree of consequent isolation. Whatever our thinking and reasoning, we are either afraid to venture out into all that the world has to offer, good and bad, or we fear being invaded and overwhelmed by it if we allow it into our lives. We cannot benefit from all the goodness, inspiration and strength made available to us if we shelter (hide?) or protect (barricade?) ourselves behind a closed door. “There is so much blessing and beauty near us which is destined for us, and yet it cannot enter our lives, because we are not ready to receive it. The handle is on the inside of the door; only we can open it.”   (John O’Donohue. Anam Cara.) 

                

But the Spirit of God reaches in to us, however deeply buried we may be, and in calling us, and touching us, He brings us to a point at which we may allow ourselves to be grasped, and gently drawn out into the hands of the Living God.

The gently glowing, barely recognized fire which had been lit within us could not have been started if we had never stepped beyond the boundaries within which we now attempt to confine ourselves. The kindling has been dried out during our remote and anonymous waiting, but we had to have gone beyond our present limits at some time in the past to gather those small pieces of fuel. Like Ruth in Boaz’s fields, we had to venture out to glean what we could, and in so doing we placed ourselves where we could be led by stages into a greater abundance of the very things for which we are still searching: food, and drink, and life itself.

‘So she set out and went to glean in the fields behind the reapers. ... Boaz said to Ruth, ‘... You must not go gleaning in any other field. You must not go away from here. Stay close to my work-women. Keep your eyes on whatever part of the field they are reaping and follow behind. ... And if you are thirsty, go to the pitchers and drink what the servants have drawn.'... Boaz gave orders to his work-people, 'Let her glean among the sheaves themselves. ... And be sure you pull a few ears of corn out of the bundles and drop them. Let her glean them ...' He also said, "Stay with my work-people until they have finished my whole harvest." ' (Ruth 2:3, 8-9, 15-16, 21.)

We fetch and carry the kindling to store within ourselves, but we do not carry the flame to light it until we welcome it into our lives; and the lit fire will begin to flicker and flame only when fanned by the breath of the Spirit carried to us in the presence of others: persons guided into our path by that same Spirit, but with whom we can have no meaningful contact without either stepping out into the world, or allowing them to approach us more closely than may at first feel possible.  

We have neither the time nor the energy to maintain the attempted separations we contrive for ourselves. There are other doors on which our attention should be focussed; doors which we alone do not have the power to open and close. We need our fellow travellers: the two or three, or more, who will meet in His name and bring us into the abundance of His blessings, ready and waiting in the world beyond our fears.

One way or another, if we have responded to God’s call, He will reveal Himself in the presence of others and at the very core of our being.

‘It is God who, for his own generous purpose, gives you the intention and the powers to act.’

(Philippians 2:13)

Liminal fortitude? 8

‘We must free ourselves absolutely of this anxious desire to be at one with other souls, however virtuous or wise they may be; just as we must never expect them to see things through our eyes. We must follow our own light as though we were alone in the world, save as regards charity to others. In purely private matters, we must never be deflected from our own path.’

(Abbé de Tourville. Letters of Direction.)

 I know I have not reached the end of my unravelling process, but the various strands are now lying in loose bundles with no tight knots to be seen. I have returned to a more relaxed and receptive state of peace, if not what I would recognize as tranquillity. But I must tread warily. Nothing has changed apart from the way I feel, and that, alone, must not be taken as counting for much. I find myself perched giddily, but not necessarily precariously, right at the very edge of things again. My options have been brought more clearly into focus, and yet they are essentially exactly the same as a few weeks ago. I either decide to follow the leading with which I have been struggling, or I do not. Taking a final decision will change things; that is inevitable. But changes brought about by making the decision will have no worthwhile outcome unless the decision is followed through; and in that fact lies the potential for a continuation of the turmoil that is preventing me from getting off the road and safely away from that which may eventually flatten me. Like the rabbit, I am still in the wrong place, and sometime soon the traffic lights at the edge of town are going to change to green again.

If I decide not to follow: not to risk losing the hope of that for which I hope, all I have to do is dismiss all these thoughts, delete all these words, and not print and send, or post any of this in my usual place at The Very Edge, or anywhere else. Easy! – until I come to act on the decision. I can destroy all that I have written, but does that move me on if I am unable to shed all that remains within me? – all that led to the writing in the first place? Such questions take me right back to a time when Prudence told me she could not help thinking that my writing, about whatever was going on within me at the time, was not helping: that it was aggravating and perpetuating the problem I was trying to resolve. If she knew what I was doing now, I know what her advice would be; and I know she would be right. In fact, that thought itself has immediately helped me. (Your past provision still retains power in me. Thank you Lord.)

If I imagine that she was fully aware of my feelings and leadings, my hopes and fears, and all that is written here, and that I was talking about it with her now, I know that I would follow her advice. She would tell me that the written words still do not matter (and that I should not have started on them). What I should have done at the beginning, and what I should still do, as soon as the opportunity arises, is open my mouth and say to the people involved, whatever it is that I need to say. The trouble is (how do I dare still think those words?), that having imagined that powerfully helpful conversation, I also hear her saying, “What are you afraid of? You know Wisdom and Hope; how can you fear anything from them?”, and then, as she asks, “What’s troubling you?”, I am back at the start, having been reminded that I just don’t know!

Unless, as was in my mind when I included verses from Ephesians 6 somewhere in these posts, - unless I am being restrained by something which really does want to nail my feet to the ground: something which will do whatever it can to prevent me walking along whatever path I am meant to follow: something which has already succeeded, not least by tying me in knots, and keeping me occupied by trying to write myself out of my bindings.

Perhaps those thoughts alone are enough to tell me that while I should follow the course Prudence would have set for me, I should also go ahead with posting all of this now that it is written – not only for what it might speak back to me at some time in the future, but as a form of armour against the silencing that could otherwise claim another small victory if I did not give some sort of voice to these thoughts and feelings.

If I am involved in a battle of some sort, other than with myself, then this too must point to the correctness of any honest approach I make towards the door that Hope appears to have opened for me.

All my past thoughts on companionship, fellowship, being part of something, and needing each other, together with my awareness that I have not always followed my own advice, are placed here, along with a readiness, and a fortitude which is ready to break away from its self-doubting, and from its liminal flat-lining in a confrontation with whatever spiritual enemy dares to challenge me. They are placed here, between two quotes from the Abbé de Tourville’s ‘ Letters of Direction’, which may seem, to some, as diluting the value and the necessity of any call to fellowship and community, but which, for me, are significant reminders both of where I have been for many years, and of where I am also meant to be.

I am well-schooled in standing alone, and perhaps because of it, I can find it difficult to step into the very welcome that I hope for. But the two are not meant to be exclusive; we are called to be at home in both, with each giving us elements of our spiritual life which cannot be gleaned from the other. We bring from each to enrich our understanding and effectiveness when in the other. If we fail to do so, then we shall inevitably remain ‘profoundly incomplete’.

When next I find myself writing here, I hope I shall have moved on in some way: in whatever way God wills. I shall post all that I have written, and, however briefly and sketchily, I shall do my best to speak directly to Hope or Wisdom. My start-point will have to be a more complete answer to the probing question from weeks ago. But this whole experience has raised one other concern which also involves my speaking openly. They do not know about my writing here, and will therefore not know that these words exist. I know of only two local people who know both me and my ‘blogging self’, and they are not members of our parish. I have always said that if people find me here by chance and tell others, then so be it; but I have always wanted to remain unknown and of no consequence for the reasons given in my profile. I now find my original intentions under threat, and I am already finding it difficult to justify keeping to myself these written words which are irreversibly associated with Hope and Wisdom. I have let others know when I have referred to them here, and I know that I should now tell them. Avoiding that decision altogether by not posting this, is to turn down the chance of donning some of the armour provided, and would place me right back into the hands of the same restraining powers.

I suppose I could sheepishly revert to my original intention, which had been to write to them, using all this as a less personal form of the letter I failed to complete and never sent. Perhaps I shall hurdle more than one of my barriers by simply giving them a link to these pages, hopefully with a little more than a passing, “I don’t know if you might be interested, but ...” 

 I am uncomfortable with not knowing where that might lead me.

Why did I suggest hurdling? At my age any such attempt would undoubtedly result in me falling flat on my face; but then, in the company of the right people (as Prudence taught me) that need not be a fearful thought.

‘We must never allow ourselves to believe that our soul is linked to any other soul in such a way that we rely solely on that external influence, on a direction external to ourselves. God wants to teach us to stand alone, without having to lean too heavily even on the instruments He provides. ... He teaches us by a series of intermediaries all of whom are transitory and all of whom, when considered separately, are profoundly incomplete.’ (Abbé de Tourville. Letters of Direction.)

Liminal fortitude? 7

Our waiting, our staying awake, and our watching, are not to be confined to whatever limited space and time we may allocate to it. Maundy Thursday highlighted that fact for me. A clearly defined period in which to “watch” with Jesus, in a church, is a thoughtful as well as comfortable way to approach the edges of the reality behind our commemoration of that day, but the urgency of my wish to be part of it slips further away with each year. Particularly on a warm and still night like the one we then passed through, it takes little more than a moment to enter into the emptiness and the pain, as well as the beauty of Gethsemane. All it takes is a decision to allow one’s inner awareness to surface through all the usual boundaries while out in the quiet solitude of the fresh night air. It is not necessary to be up on the hills, though that is where I would have liked to have been; just out, among trees, or even close to a single tree, in one’s own garden.

All that happened on that original Thursday night, cannot be separated from the fact that the root of Christian fellowship began its journey towards potential oblivion in a form of Eden: in a quiet seclusion, outside, between earth and open sky; in a place where all doors to God’s presence were open, but where those who could have spent time with Him failed to stay awake. They experienced the apparent non-existence of a mere moment in sleep, when they could have been consciously waiting and watching, bathing in eternity’s shallows (the gift we receive, and are asked to give back, as time), and gradually being drawn into the eternal miracle of a timeless and total immersion in His Presence: of being with Him.

The “when” of things has been a barely discernible part of my experience during the last twenty years. I have not been aware of anything resulting from my own sense of timing during that period, for I have not been conscious of having any such sense; at least that is how my waiting has seemed. I have spent much of that time feeling as though I was that startled and confused rabbit: motionless, in danger, not knowing which way to run, and unable to make a decision for fear of getting it wrong. Perhaps what has brought me this far, is that in having no real timing of my own, I have been prevented from seriously mistiming whatever I may have done. I have spent all those years waiting, and what has often disturbed me greatly has been my continuing lack of knowledge as to what it is that I am waiting for; what I am meant to be doing; where I am meant to be going. But whenever I have started to formulate ideas, they have occupied me for a while and then faded to nothing, leaving me with a feeling that they had been mere distractions from the path I was being asked to follow. Yet that path seemed to lead endlessly on, taking me nowhere; and with nothing new to grasp along the way, I found past experiences, people and places becoming even more firmly embedded in my limited catalogue of meaningful and trusted friends.

I have not been aware of passing through any particular doors along the way, and the only doors of which I have been conscious have always seemed closed to me. This has troubled me in waves that subside whenever I attempt to convince myself that they have been conjured from my imagination. They were doors I had wanted to find open to me, while suspecting that such doorways did not in fact exist. But now, in the last few weeks, I have found my unspoken longing being met by rays of hope that I may not have been as misguided as I had thought. I am now more inclined to believe that my continued waiting may have been the correct response to being asked to do just that: that I have in fact had an unrecognized ability to sense that I have not been called upon to do anything other than to wait, to stay awake, and to watch with my unseen companion, not on Maundy Thursday night only, but every night and day, and with every step that I take.

As my thoughts slowly turned themselves into a form of words, I came to recognize what may have been obvious to anyone able to view the situation from beyond its apparent boundaries. If I had remained at the very edge of it I would have been able to see it for myself long ago, but the whole nature and structure of the situation has caught me up into thinking far too much about myself, instead of doing what I have so often told myself to do: to wait, and to carry on waiting until such time as I am told to do something else.

What I have finally come to realize is that Hope and Wisdom feel that a door has closed in front of them, just as I have long thought one closed in front of me.

Might not that door be the same one? And leading on from that thought, if it is the same door, where are we in relation to each other? Are we standing together in front of it? If we are, are we being called to join forces for some reason? – to open the door together, or to search for another door which will lead us to where we are needed to be? This is the very possibility on which I have dwelt so many times. Or, are we standing on opposite sides of the same door? It would again appear that this door could be opened by our joint efforts, but from different directions. This image feels far more powerful to me, as though acknowledging that while we are travelling different paths and being called to different tasks, we are required to combine some aspects of our spiritual natures for the good of all. After so much time, could our closer fellowship, after all, be the answer to my long-running wordless prayer? – the opening of my closed door? And could their own closed door be opened as a result of my joining with them?

We need to have the eyes to see. Have mine been closed to what has been in front of me all the time? Could it really be that the door to that which I seek has been wide open for a long time? Could it even have been open to me all the time? Have I really been that blind? Or has the whole self-conscious delay been the product of my fear? 

Yet again, I am brought back to those same few lines from John Henry Newman; but this time they really do ring through my heart as an accusation rather than as a less troubling pricking of my conscience.

‘Perhaps the reason why the standard of holiness among us is so low, why our attainments are so poor, our view of the truth so dim, our belief so unreal, our general notions so artificial and external is this, that we dare not trust each other with the secret of our hearts. We have each the same secret, and we keep it to ourselves, and we fear that, as a cause of estrangement, which really would be a bond of union. We do not probe the wounds of our nature thoroughly; we do not lay the foundation of our religious profession in the ground of our inner man; we make clean the outside of things; we are amiable and friendly to each other in words and deeds, but our love is not enlarged, our bowels of affection are straitened, and we fear to let the intercourse begin at the root; and, in consequence, our religion, viewed as a social system is hollow. The presence of Christ is not in it.’ (Christian Sympathy. Parochial and Plain Sermons).

Yet still I do not speak out, other than in half-truths. My longing is hidden: kept concealed, or at least disguised so as not to risk the door which I long to find truly open to me, being firmly closed. It has felt as though a door has blown off in an aircraft at altitude, with a sensation of being irresistibly drawn towards the opening, and, if I allowed myself to be so drawn, being taken straight through it to freefall to a landing place which cannot be anticipated or pre-selected.

I still have not dared to take the risk; and yet I know that my one and only opportunity may be short-lived. I may hesitate too long, even while fearing that the door may close before me. But I also hear another voice ...

‘You are in communion with God and with those whom God has sent you. 

What is of God will last.’

(Henri Nouwen. The Inner Voice of Love.)

Liminal fortitude? 6

Whenever I think of Wisdom, the first image that has always come to mind is an open door. I am sure that most people would agree that this is an appropriate image for her anyway, but mine is deeply embedded for other reasons.

Long ago, she sent me a card with one, and with Revelation 3:8 quoted inside: “Look, I have opened in front of you a door that no one will be able to close”. That card is still a frequently seen reminder of the first time I met her: a meeting which became one of the permanent anchor points along my path. The door towards which she was the first to point me has never closed.

Until Holy Week, when these particular thoughts were coming to me, I had always thought that she had opened that door for me; that she had, so to speak, been the gatekeeper who had pointed the way and encouraged me to move towards the opened door. I did not know her, and we spoke only briefly, but her few words during those fleeting moments, were the subtle trigger that began a process which put all that had gone before into a context that soon became the bedrock of the only life I know.

As I was writing to her, and Hope, on Maundy Thursday (the unsent letter), it dawned on me that while she had indeed been a gatekeeper, positioned at the right time and place to meet me on my unsuspecting arrival, she had put me at ease as I drew closer to a door which had already been opened. It had been opened by the One who caused her to pause when I was passing; to greet me and enquire of me, that I too may pause instead of wandering straight past. I had thought she had opened the door because it seemed almost that it was her own door; she had been so comfortable beside it. And it seemed clear that she was equally at home beyond it as she was where she stood, talking to me; even that she belonged on the other side of it, and had merely come visiting for a while. Perhaps what lay beyond the door was her true home? That would explain why I had never even noticed another door: the one she really did open for me, and through which I had unknowingly stepped as soon as I responded to her greeting.

These thoughts took me straight to John 18: to the door into the high priest’s palace, where another woman was on duty as gatekeeper, and where Peter, who could have gone straight through with “the other disciple” chose to stay outside the door. Why he did not take the opportunity when it first arose is not relevant here (though his turmoil may have some relevance for me), but it did get me thinking about the existence of other doors: doors other than the one “that no one will be able to close”.
That those words were spoken and written now implies – no, it makes clear – for me, that all other doors can be closed. It is equally clear, however, that we cannot deduce from that, that all other doors can be opened.

Peter held back when the door before him was open, and missed that first opportunity. At the same time, he wanted to go through; why else would he have waited just outside the closed door?

The expression “to shut the door on” something can be used in many ways, broadly splitting into two groups. Someone else can shut the door on us; on our opportunities and our potential: on any aspect of our presence, our activity, or our influence. But there are just as many in the other group; those which involve our own decisions and our own shutting of a door. We shut out other people, and aspects of the world we wish to exclude from our lives and even from our consciousness; and from our conscience. Others can shut us out, but we are equally capable of shutting them out, along with whatever we do not wish to be part of, cannot face, or are too afraid or ashamed to confront.

We can be caught unawares if waiting close to doors over which we have no control, whether open or closed; and if we are right beside them, we can find ourselves in danger of falling through to where we do not want to be. We have only to think of the warnings on the London underground.

There are wide open doorways allowing free access to and from the lounges and dining areas at the home where Hope and I had our conversation, but, as Ella had demonstrated, we may not always find a doorway easy to locate, however wide the access may be. We need to have the eyes to see. We may be confident that we can see clearly and that we know where to look, but what chance do we really have of finding the way out, or the way in, when the doorway is not so wide? Finding it, as well as walking through it, can be like passing the sealed book around; I can’t read, and the person next to me can’t open it because it is sealed. And the majority of those in the room with us, whether they can open the book and read or not, will make no move until they are led by someone else who knows the way, or even by a blind person who encouragingly and confidently, but falsely, proclaims that they can find the way for us. And lying blanket-like over all other layers, is the fact that, in reality, we each have to find the way for ourselves. Finding ourselves in front of a door, closed or open, means we have already found our way to it. Anyone there to help us, gatekeeper or not, is able to make contact with us only if and when we have turned up; but would we be able to trust in their help if they told us we were approaching the wrong door?

“Try your hardest to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed” (Luke 13:24).

We fail through none other than our own fault; and not only through our lacking the eyes to see. “The narrow door” is easily missed, not only because without knowing what we are looking for and persevering in our search, its narrowness makes it hard to see, but because it cannot necessarily be taken to be the “door that no one will be able to close”. It may be one which seems to be permanently open, but which can close unexpectedly at any time; or it may suddenly be opened for us, only to close again soon afterwards (like the door into the high priest’s palace), giving us the opportunity to go through it, but withdrawing it if we spend too long holding ourselves back.

Our call to follow is not a call to abandon our individuality and to live passively as one of a flock of equally inactive and unthinking sheep. It is a call to follow Our Lord’s example: not only to do, but to see, to hear, to feel, to think, and to speak, that we may become able to do in the way that Jesus has shown us, and to accomplish all these things as the unique persons we have been born to become. Following that example involves learning, not only what to do and how to do it, but when to advance, when to stand one’s ground, and when to retreat; when to speak and when to remain silent; when to do and when not to do. Our attempts to duplicate Our Lord’s manner of living and of being become the following to which we are called, only when we have learned the importance of knowing the “when” of all things. He did only what His Father told Him to do, which means His example included doing all those right things at the appropriate time: at the right time.

There is a right time for each of us to walk through open doors (“I shall remain at Ephesus until Pentecost, for a very promising door is standing wide open to me…” (1 Cor. 16:8-9); “Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding hall and the door was closed” (Matthew 25: 10)); to wait beside closed doors (“Be like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks” (Luke 12:36); “Look, I am standing at the door, knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in to share a meal at that person's side” (Rev 3:20).); and to knock on closed doors (“knock, and the door will be opened to you” (Luke 11:9-10).).

Trying our “hardest to enter by the narrow door” means not just searching for it in space, but knocking on it once it has been found, and waiting beside it until the time is right; and that means God’s time, not ours; waiting for the narrow door to reveal itself in the passage of time: the narrow window of time and opportunity that brings God’s blessing on the efforts of all mature followers of Christ. “I tell you,” that without the discernment of God’s timing “many will try to enter and will not succeed”; and they will include even those who have found the door, and who are prepared to remain close by it, but for only a limited period of time.

Liminal fortitude? 5

Feelings of which I was well aware, but which, for a long time, had not fully risen to the surface, were unknowingly reached for and touched during a conversation at the home where Hope’s family member now lives. From my first visit there, I have been blessed by the opportunity to have this contact, and by the possibility of continued meaningful contact and conversation in the future. 

During our conversation, a lady (Ella) came towards us and stood right in front of us, as though wanting to get past, into the small empty space in the corner behind us. I did not know that she cannot see well, and had thought she wanted to get to something in the corner of the room. Being aware of her poor sight, however, Hope knew she was not where she thought she was, nor where she wanted to be; she was not heading towards whatever she sought, nor to a place where she thought she might find it. Her compass was reset by explaining where she was, and by directing her into the main part of the room once more.

As a random moment in the day-to-day happenings of any place where people need ongoing support, it was merely one of many, and I would have had no reason to recall it. But I had much to occupy my mind as a result of some of the things said to me during our conversation, and I had to deal with particular thoughts and feelings into which Hope had probed with one of her questions. 
Belief has its consequences, and my own belief that she had been guided to ask her question, led me to feel that it had been raised, in some way, for both of us; and the consequence of that is that I also have to believe that I have something to bring to her situation, just as she has something for mine. I am certain of the latter, but doubtful and vulnerable with regard to my own potential ability to contribute. I am not prepared to consider the only alternative I can think of: – that it was for my benefit alone. If that was the case, then it is far too close to an unforgettable provision God made for me once before; not that there was any part of that which I shall ever recall with anything other than thanksgiving and astonishingly life-changing memories, but the possibility of such provision being made for me again is frightening, because it could only mean that something is going to change: perhaps as drastically as it did before. That possibility is something that excites me, but, at the same time it terrifies me. There are too many reasons for me not to let myself go. That thought also worries me; I am sure it is what I thought before I disintegrated last time.

Though voiced (I believe) merely as a friendly enquiry, my experience of Hope’s question was as an accurate probing, and I had to move beyond the disturbance it stirred within me  before I could focus fully on something else she had said: important words that my feelings were masking from further thought. She had spoken of a door being closed, or having been closed, in front of herself and Wisdom, with whom I had also spoken at that same meeting a year earlier.

I find something disconcerting in the very idea of both of them, not just individually, but in the close fellowship they share, feeling as though a door has closed before them. It troubles me. My immediate reaction was that nothing should feel like that for either of them, but by the time I was engrossed in writing to them, on Maundy Thursday (a letter which was not sent), I had begun to see things differently. I was no longer troubled, but remained concerned; and, through being unable to lay my concern aside, I felt, and continue to feel, involved.

Allowing myself to continue feeling that I was involved was presumptuous of me, though I also felt that Hope had mentioned the closed door for a reason; and I would certainly not allow something of some importance to her to simply be blown away as mere chaff. The fact that I have, nevertheless, given voice to that feeling of involvement, reinforces my belief that some of her words had begun to tug at the cords which keep me securely bound within my own comfortable anonymity; and I find myself wanting to suggest to them both, that they also may need to see things differently.

My altered viewpoint was prompted, in part at least, by thoughts of Ella getting lost right in front of us during our conversation.

Liminal fortitude? 4

A year had passed since my brief but memorable meeting with Hope and Wisdom: two friends whose presence in my life is needed, but almost entirely un-admitted; longed for, but for the most part undeclared. I met Hope again one Sunday morning, when I learned that the health of the family member previously spoken of had deteriorated markedly. I repeated the offer made a year earlier, and left it for her to phone me if I was needed. Two weeks passed, but still without my having heard from her, and though I had made a conscious decision to wait – it had to be entirely her choice and her own wish for me to become in any way involved – I was finding it increasingly difficult not to contact her. I attended the Ash Wednesday service at our parish church, and I met her again when I walked in. I remained with her during the service, and found myself drawn into a deep awareness of the weight of the cross she has been carrying. I had no doubt that she had, and still has, contact with good friends who help to carry her burden, but with the added dimension of reliably stable ground having been taken from under her feet, I felt called to do what I could to make the ground feel solid again for her. The rock is always there, but experiencing its unwavering stability sometimes takes the steadying hand of a friend who is not among those closest to the emotional sharing of the burden.

‘Your unique presence in your community is the way God wants you to be present to others. Different people have different ways of being present. You have to know and claim your way. That is why discernment is so important. Once you have an inner knowledge of your true vocation, you have a point of orientation. That will help you decide what to do and what to let go of, what to say and what to remain silent about, when to go out and when to stay home, who to be with and who to avoid. ... Your community needs you, but maybe not as a constant presence. ... your community also needs your creative absence.’ (Henri Nouwen. The Inner Voice of Love.)

“We miss you.” The touch from those three words a year earlier was undeniable, and yet, other than giving voice to my immediate wish to help in whatever way may have been necessary or possible, I found myself hanging back. The possibility of having closer and more frequent contact with two of the very few people with whom I could feel both comfortable and safe, and with whom I had long wanted that contact, had suddenly presented itself, and I waited; and waited. I had some sort of expectation that if these friends missed me – for friends they are, in spite of our lack of contact and almost non-existent communications – there would be a follow-up to those three beautifully welcome words. And I found myself being inextricably bound by my own waiting, until the binding held me so tightly that I was once more motionless in the grip of my unrecognized fears; like a frightened rabbit caught in the headlights of an oncoming car.

I waited for the follow-up contact that did not come, making no move to respond myself because of my fear regarding where those words might lead me.

As I see it now, a door had been opened for me by their utterance, and I had waited, in the hope that someone would arrive at my side, take me by the hand, and lead me through the door without any deliberate action being required of me. I would have gone quietly, I am sure; I would have gone willingly, I think; I would like to go further, and should be able to say that I would have gone eagerly, but the fear is rising even as I write these words. Would I? Would I have gone at all? Would I even have allowed the possibility of a situation in which any follow up could have occurred? It is easy to tell myself that I am imagining myself into non-existent situations, but however true that may be of present thoughts about something that did not in fact occur more than a year ago, it does not alter the fearful truths existing in my present day-to-day paralysis.

When those words were spoken, I was aware that continued waiting would probably find me in the same position a year later. That is precisely what happened. When I wrote about it previously (24.12.10), I had not had any further contact with Hope, and even at the beginning of Lent this year, my lack of real contact had left me in an untroubled situation. While recently wading against the current of my own words, I came across these, written a few weeks ago: “... rather than the experience ending as I had feared – burying me still further within myself, and even cutting me off from any future contact with them, or with anybody else with the potential for bringing me further into the clear light of day – it simply left me unchanged: still uncertain, still afraid, still asleep, and still blind to the door that had been opened for me."

Those words confirm to me that, while having recognized the possibility of a door having been opened for me, even that recently, I had not begun to be troubled in the way that I now am. That only began when what could be described as the much delayed follow up to “We miss you” came about during one of our conversations.

‘That is why you must take up all God's armour, 

or you will not be able to put up any resistance on the evil day, 

or stand your ground even though you exert yourselves to the full.’ 

(Ephesians 6:13)

Liminal fortitude? 3

‘Put on the full armour of God so as to be able to resist the devil's tactics.’ (Ephesians 6:11)

In becoming aware that we are not alone, we may realize that we had forgotten that we had at one time been travelling with others. Now we find ourselves with them again, and we suspect that, though we had no ongoing sense of their presence, they may never have been away.

I have never been able to forget that there was a time when I had been accompanied by others; I could not have made it through some parts of my journey at that time without them. That indeed was why they were there: their presence was no accident, or mere coincidence. It may also have been intended, and necessary, that I should spend a long time without such company: with Jesus as my sole companion. But now, with my own awareness of others having been made real through a recent merging of paths, and through closer contact with Hope, one of the few persons with whom I have always felt at ease, a potential change is hovering (with God’s Spirit perhaps) only just out of reach. It is only beyond reach at all if I remain fixed to the spot: making no move towards it. And there, in that invitation: that extended hand: that smile of welcome: that opened door; I see and feel other things which, other than in myself, may not exist at all: – I hesitate before what appears to be the answer to a long-lived wordless prayer, and find myself viewing the innocent and encouraging beauty of the possibility before me, through vague shadows of doubt.

Do I only imagine that there is an invitation? Taking the offered hand requires only the shortest of steps, but I have to take the step. Am I misinterpreting the smile? Is it merely an everyday friendly response to a normal moment of conversation, and not in any way related to anything hoped for that runs through my mind? And that door; is it really open? If so, am I meant to be there? – is it open for me? Or is the whole idea of the door a figment of my imagination?

What may be the simplest of steps becomes the smallest of challenges, but, however small, it is a challenge; and with hesitation, it grows. My wish not to risk anything which could, in the least way, spoil this much needed contact, prevents me from doing anything at all. And the difficulty mounts with the passing days. It becomes less likely that I shall say anything, and while nothing may show outwardly, I know that something within me will gradually fall to pieces. I do not allow myself to think about where that would lead me, but it is impossible to shake off the knowledge that it would be a place from which my return would be almost inconceivable; and that chimes frighteningly with the growing sensation of being where I find myself today.

I sense the predatory crouch of a truth in these thoughts. Perhaps I would be led nowhere, and perhaps that is precisely the point. Something is working to send me nowhere; and to succeed in that objective it need do nothing other than ensure that I remain exactly where I am; I am already there: I am nowhere. Being here keeps me out of the way; out of action. So long as I remain blind, deaf, lost, and asleep, and so long as when next I fall, I give up, and remain down, beyond the reach of those who would have me stand again: those who would walk beside me in a shared search for others in need of whatever gifts we can bring, then I shall be of no consequence; a non-combatant; disconnected from the power source which would bring me back to life. 

Even when, for the most part, distanced from the immediate physical reality of my life – when writing here – I am running, as it were, on batteries that are always being recharged in my real world; they are never emptied of what actually makes my heart and soul tick. It is therefore no surprise to me that this coincides with having circled round to find myself aware of the contrived group of twelve followers again: The Named, The Touched, and through to The Sent; the unknown companions who share these pages with me (thank you again for being there). We have not been walking our paths alone; nor, in our watching and waiting, do we stand alone. We all need to hold on to that thought. We have been placed in each other's paths for a reason; we have the potential for helping each other on our journeys, and, for much of the time, all it takes is our continued presence. In each other we find the reality of God’s provision: living proof of the Presence which will never desert us or cut us adrift. 

It is in having come round to the point at which I hear my name being called again –both within the powerful reality of my renewed contact with Christ’s presence in human form (Hope), and within these written thoughts – that I have come to more fully recognize some aspects of what I believe to be my own predominant flaw: the weakness that most readily incapacitates me, and keeps me out of action while I continue to fade, falter, forget, and fall towards a time when the powers that keep me quiet will forget they ever had cause to keep half an eye on me.

My failure is that which, before anything else, is the main reason for Christians not speaking out to those who have no faith, and who have no awareness of God’s presence among us. In my own case, it has even become my main reason for not speaking up in the presence of others who do believe: even those who are further along their paths than I am along mine, and especially those with whom I long to communicate and with whom I yearn for fellowship. 

How can that have come about? And how have I been held in that grip for so long? I am unable to break out of it for myself. If it were otherwise, I would have done it long ago.

I have been held back, imprisoned and tightly bound by my failure in one of the four things that, for me, echo more loudly than anything else through the pages of scripture. I love God; I do my best to love my neighbour; I strive to forgive all, even myself; but though I hear the words, over and over again, “Do not be afraid”, I fear. And the most frightening thing about it – that which, even in its mere admission, makes me want to delete all that I have written for these posts, and retreat from the thoughts that have plagued me for these weeks – is the incomprehensible awareness that the one thing of which I am most afraid, is that I might become afraid. It makes no sense, but the only fear of which I am conscious is that I might fear.

‘For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, 

but against the principalities and the ruling forces who are masters of the darkness in this world, 

the spirits of evil in the heavens.’ 

(Ephesians 6:12)

Liminal fortitude? 2

In connection with the foregoing post, I wrote the following two months ago, and while not having used it in a ‘stand-alone’ form at the time, I include it here as part of my rather lengthy unravelling of the overlapping stages of a disquieting theme.

In drawing together the various strands of relevant experiences over recent weeks, in an attempt to make sense of the underlying shape and direction that is undoubtedly being waved in front of me, I am aware that the spiralling nature of my spiritual life has brought me once again to a point at which I am being called by my own name. I have come full circle, not to arrive at the same place, but at a new start point on a subtly different and slightly more elevated plane. I have walked alone for much of my circuitous route, but now find myself within sight of some of my fellow travellers again: the group of companions with whom I thought I might find myself sharing parts of my journey: the group suggested soon after I began thinking aloud on these pages, but also the possibility of known friends from earlier times.

In coming closer to others as our paths converge, I have realized that two travellers (Wisdom and Hope), both of whom are known to me, have come close enough for us to acknowledge each other. I begin to think they may have been beside me for the last twenty years of my journey, even when I thought I was completely alone. Alone, that is, apart from a constant Presence whose existence I can never deny. Perhaps our meeting will lead to a revived fellowship: a meeting of two or three in His name, which will bring His presence to life in more powerful ways for each of us; the beginnings of a gathering which, though answering longings of my own, would come about for as yet unknown and greater reasons. 

My longing may have been my experience of an ongoing call to take my place as part of something new about to be done. My waiting too, may have been part of something greater; it may have been shared by others for whom, like me, nothing seemed to be happening; or even, as I have recently learnt through this renewed contact with friends, shared in by those for whom doors have failed to open, or have closed in front of them. Perhaps many small fires have been lit, but have been deliberately maintained as no more than a slowly spreading glow; in place, though not recognized as being so, and ready and waiting for the right time: God’s time. Perhaps that time is close, and we are being called to move closer to one another. In doing so we may disturb the air around us just enough to fan our waiting embers into flames. “Where two or three...” again. Our waiting has ensured that the kindling within us is bone dry, and what happens next can go only one way.

I cannot separate these thoughts from my awareness of where we are in the Church year. Could our lead up to Pentecost have any bearing on this?  All we can do, and must do, is follow our leading, and wait; come together – at the very least, not remain out of touch with each other – and wait for the right time. We will know it when it comes.

Do I really need anything other than Jesus? 

In reality, no; but in my continuing frailty and uncertainty - yes. I need His presence in others as company on my journey. I have need of them. We have need of each other. The truth underlying such feelings is that, in my weakness, my need for Him is not always, nor in all ways, satisfied by my knowledge of His unseen presence within me, and at my side. There are times when I need my awareness of Him to be heightened by His presence in other people with whom I can share that awareness.

We are called to allow ourselves to become vulnerable in His presence, and I have recently been brought within earshot of His call to vulnerability in the presence of those who have played a part in leading me to Him. I still fear making any approach; even after being blessed by the potential invitation contained in those three words: "We miss you." The amount of time passed since they were spoken is witness to that fact, but, despite all my foregoing thoughts, until I change something, the situation (for me at least) will probably stay the same. If I am missed by those with whom I long to have more contact, what can possibly hold me back? One thing only; that multi-faceted enemy of so much that is good: my own fear.

‘We can help one another to find out the meaning of life, no doubt. But in the last analysis the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for “finding himself”. If he persists in shifting this responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence. You cannot tell me who I am, and I cannot tell you who you are. If you do not know your own identity, who is going to identify you? Others can give you a name or a number, but they can never tell you who you really are. That is something you yourself can only discover from within. ... Although in the end we alone are capable of experiencing who we are, we are instinctively gifted in watching how others experience themselves. ... we are too prone to welcome everybody else’s wrong solution to the problems of life. There is a natural laziness that moves us to accept the easiest solutions – the ones that have common currency among our friends.’ (Thomas Merton. No Man Is An Island.)