Something Missing
Intimacy With God
Lent is a special time for meeting God. It’s an opportunity to renew our relationship with the Divine as revealed in Jesus. We’re invited to take this time seriously—because if we don’t spend time with God—we will soon forget him. All of life’s cares, tasks, and burdens will fill our hearts and minds (as well as our agendas) and any thought of spiritual things will disappear into the ether like mist burning off before the rising sun.
What helps is a dedicated time slot to meet with our Creator God. Schedule it in and stick with it. Write it in your journal! Put it on your phone! Whatever works— just make the appointment and show up. As I tell my students—“If you show up, God shows up.” Additionally, a bit of “silence and solitude” (the twin spiritual disciplines) will go a long way to sharpen our spiritual senses.
The Little Brother of Jesus from the desert Carlo Carretto puts it this way:
In order to pray, one needs a modicum of solitude, of detachment and withdrawal. This is what the desert, retreat, getting down on one’s knees, is all about. One cannot spend all one’s time with the community; otherwise one ends up denying that God is the Absolute. . .To all community enthusiasts I say: all right, I will give you twenty-three hours, but allow me to have the twenty-fourth alone with God.(Carlo Carretto, Essential Writings)
If we feel that something is missing in our lives, perhaps the answer is more intimacy with God? How about filling up our spiritual vacuum with a holy injection of “Jesus Time”? Another step is to make a commitment to do “the essential thing” (i.e. Kierkegaard) which is drawing closer to our Maker, Lover, Peacemaker, Soul Healer, and closest Friend? Maybe, by making such a change we fill up our spiritual wells rather than always drawing them down?
As this Lenten season comes to an end let’s go forward by finding joy and strength in Jesus and stop playing the frustrating and tiresome game of keeping all the balls in the air by our lonesome selves.