Reflections for 5/21/10

"When you can trust, as Gerald may says, that 'there is a part of you that has always said yes to God,' then you can trust your soul, even if you've gone down a lot of dead ends. Even those dead ends will be turned around. That's the providence of God. Trust that even your dead ends, your mistakes, your sins were still misguided attempts to find love. Don't hate yourself, just be honest with yourself! Even your sexual forays, your drug problems, your alcoholism-they were all misguided attempts to find the Great Love. Your heart of hearts says, I know the foundation of reality is love."(R. Rohr "Radical Grace" p. 191)

Most of life seems to be about choices. In seminary I enjoyed studying what is known as Process Theology. The original version is far more complicated than I understand, but the basic idea that I took from it was that every decision we make, God follows up with a corrective if needed, or waits for the next decision. And that these decisions keep happening almost every second. All of them interconnected.

When we think about those dead end choices we've made, they usually seem much bigger than a second by second one. And it can be overwhelming when we stop and take a look at those decisions to see how many dead ends our life has gone down.

The key is of course not to sit down at the dead end, but to turn around and get back on track, seeing what can be learned from it. Trying better to avoid that dead end or any dead end the next time.

Grace breaks through when we can see where we've made the wrong turn and are willing to be led back by that Great Love. Not abandoned, not verbally assaulted, but lovingly corrected and forgiven.

Blessings,
Ed