ONLY IN GOD IS MY SOUL AT REST

I am enthralled with the simplicity and clarity of the voice of God that I find in silence and nature.  It meets me and ministers to me in the depths of my soul.  It reveals insights and mysteries that make me feel alive and at one with all creation.  It isn’t loud, coercive or demanding; it simply IS and in that IS ness is the treasure that I continually seek.  All else pales to it; the multitude of words used to describe it, or explain it, are empty, meaningless, and shallow.  They are what Solomon declared as “Vanity of vanity; all is vanity.”  I understand Aquinas’ decision to stop writing and considering all that he had written as straw.  Words are inadequate to the mysteries that are revealed in silence and nature, directly to the soul by God.

I have worked hard at getting emotionally and spiritually healthy.  There were a lot of hindrances not of my doing that I had to overcome, as well as those that were of my own doing. A lot of the work I did was so I could fit in with people; be included and liked by others.  Now that the work has been done and I feel healthy and whole, I don’t have the need and desire to fit in with people; to be included and liked by others.  More than ever I desire to be a hermit, and be alone, in the Presence of God.  At first that seems strange but it really isn’t.  I am not choosing that life in order to hide and seclude myself, escaping the messiness of life.  I am choosing that life because it is where I feel most at home, and most loving of the people in my life and in the world.

Some people choose a secluded life to escape and hide; just to be left alone and not have to deal with other people and life’s issues and circumstances.  That is an unhealthy motivation and it is an unsuccessful solution to the problems of life.  Issues and circumstances that are not dealt with don’t go away even if one is locked away and alone.  The other side of the coin is people who enter into groups and communities to hide from being alone with their issues and circumstances.  They look to others to meet their needs and try to escape any of the personal responsibility there is in living this life.  Again, the motivation is unhealthy and it is an unsuccessful solution to the problems of life.  It’s only as each individual deals successfully and maintains their personal responsibility in living their own life that they will become whole and healthy, and will be able to deal with themselves and others in a whole and healthy way.  Emotionally and spiritually healthy individuals constitute healthy happy hermits and healthy happy members of a group or community.

Jesus didn’t come to earth and change things by overthrowing the ruling powers and institutions.  He didn’t come to earth to start a new religion.  He came to remind us from whence we came and to remind us of where we are going.  He came and he healed individuals, body, soul, and spirit.  He demonstrated in his being and in his teachings the image that each person was originally designed to be and how that works out in what we are to do.  As each of us come to that realization, then, and only then, will we become whole, healthy, and happy individuals, able to love one another as God so loves us.