|
First Stone: Encounter The unknown, mystery, initiation awe, worship separation and vulnerability The Transcendent From the time we are born, it is God's will that we have many opportunities to find Him. An infant recognizes the smile of her parents which is a reflection of God's smile. As we grow, we encounter God in the beauty and wonder of the natural world, so marvelously made, and in the predictability and design and order of the universe. As time goes by, we experience the miracle of love, the delights of art and music, the skills our hands are capable of, and the wonderful workings of the human mind which God created in His own image. (Genesis 1:26) Our hearts glow with awe and gratitude in these encounters. To whom do we express this outpouring of gratitude - for life, for love, for beauty, and for the goodness of creation? As humans, we have a built-in desire to know God. People of all religions have expressed this desire by the symbol of pilgrimage, or faith journey. We most commonly understand the faith journey as "conversion." United Methodists understand conversion as a process that goes on throughout a person's entire lifetime. The desire for conversion comes about as a result of a desire to know God and involves a complete reorientation of a person's life. In times past, making a pilgrimage to a holy sight was a spiritual discipline by which people hoped to deepen their understanding of God's will in their lives. It was a type of "vision quest." In the magnificent Gothic cathedral at Chartres, France, there is a stone labyrinth built into the floor for those who were unable to make a pilgrimage to an actual sight. By walking the maze of the labyrinth in prayer and meditation, the faithful sought to emulate the actual making of a pilgrimage. This is a practice that has seen a revival in some spiritual communities. As we walk our faith journey, or spiritual pilgrimage, we soon come to learn that there is much in the world that is painful. We become only too aware of our own failures to be all that we want to be and our shortcomings as we come to understand what God expects from us. We hurt others and others hurt us. We experience separation and vulnerability. Our souls cry out to One who can save us. We fear God is far away and may not care. We realize God is so much "other" than us. We experience God as "The Transcendent One." back to Stepping Stones |