There has not been much time for quiet or reflection …
I’ve been reading a book entitled Surrender to Love … I’ve only had time to read a few sentences each day. I am struck by the simplicity of the message. The author writes … if we confuse our thoughts about God with personal knowing of God, we confuse theology with spiritual experience.
Head knowledge … knowing Scripture, knowing about God, trying to do what He says … that’s just plain hard work.
But getting to know God … experientially … talking, listening, communing, enjoying, learning … that’s not the same hard work … instead it’s the building of a relationship.
Benner writes, “Any authentic spiritual journey must grow from direct, personal experience of God.” Yes, and amen!
A couple of stanzas from a poem written by May Sarton seems to connect to this idea …
What element dissolves the soul
So it may be both found and lost,
In what suspended as a whole?
What is the element so blest
That there identity can rest
As salt in the clear water cast?
Love, in its early transformation,
And only love, may so design it
That the self flows in pure sensation,
Is all dissolved, and found at last
Without a future or a past,
And a whole life suspended in it.
I want to be immersed, dissolved, suspended in His love … knowing Him!
We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. ~ 1 John 5:20
