As Leighton Ford concludes Chapter 8 of The Attentive Life, he notes that Thomas Keating (The Human Condition) maintains that we spend the first half of our lives finding our role- what our culture conditions us to do– and the second half of our lives finding our true selves, what God has called us to be. Mr. Keating believes that we can let go of those clamoring, insistent drives that propel our daily existence, neither holding on to them or struggling with them, to rest simply and deeply in the presence of God.
Rest is much more than “time on our hands” for leisure or sleep. Leighton asserts that God’s rest for us involves the freedom to trust and live out His dream for us. In one of Henri Nouwen’s first books, Reaching Out, he listed 2 components of the movement from restlessness to restfulness: (1) admitting our own incompleteness, owning our own pain; (2) giving up our illusions or “Messianic expectations” that any worldly thing will complete us. Henri Nouwen added:
“To wait for moments or places where no pain exists, no separation is felt and where all human restlessness has turned into inner peace is waiting for a dream world.”
Resting in God’s presence always is available to us. We’ve always been aware of it. Can we be attentive to God’s divine interruptions so that we can enter in and truly live in His presence?
Today’s question: What methods have you found effective for being attentive to God’s divine interruptions? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Compline- a paradox”
