Coming to terms with misfortune

Today's Ministry of the Word reminds us that God freely provides food, drink and protection to satisfy need. If that provision seems to break down, it seems unfair, yet it's a result of an all too human failure to live in full accordance with God's will and purpose. '..unless you repent, you will all perish as they did' (Luke 13:3 & 5). It's not intended as a threat, but to remind us that each tragedy we hear of challenges us to review and revalue our lives in relation to God. 

'So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.' (1 Cor 10:12)

Nobody deserves a cruel or an arbitrary accidental end. Anyone can have the misfortune of being the victim of random fate, in the wrong place at the wrong time, or making choices unaware of hidden consequences. There can sometimes be no answer to the question 'Why has this happened to me?' But trust in God's providence finds reassurance in Paul's words

'No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.' (1 Cor 10:13)

Also

'For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' (Rom 8:38-39)

Living as we do, in the face of uncertainty and insecurity in turbulent times, praying and not losing heart calls for resolute struggle to rely on God's providence and protection despite all that is happening to cause us anxiety about the future. 

 'I will say to the Lord, “My refuge, my fortress,  My God, in whom I trust!”. (Psalm 91:2)

Whatever is happening now, in the end the future belongs to God, who is all in all

'Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you, those who have God lack nothing. God alone is enough.' (Sta Teresa of Avila') 

Trusting the unknown

Teaching on prayer or disciplines which support it, by training mind and body, such as yoga, Tai Chi or deep meditation, are ultimately no more than forms of preparation to approach the threshold of engagement in opening the self totally to God. The prophet Jeremiah issues a stern warning about over-reliance on anything of human origin. 

'The Lord says this: "Woe to the man who puts his trust in man, who relies on things of flesh, whose heart turns from the Lord".' (Jeremiah 17:5)

Trust is described as 'firm belief in the reliability, truth or ability of something or someone'. Ultimately, God alone is worthy of such firm belief.

'Happy is the one who has placed his trust in the Lord, with the Lord for his hope.'

says Jeremiah in 17:7, and this is echoed in Psalm 1, which is an extended reflection on the happiness of the person who relies on God alone. In both passages, the image of a deep rooted and resilient riverside tree is used to describe the stability enjoyed by such a virtuous person. Commendation of trust in God is a persistent feature of the Psalms.

'Rest in God alone, my soul, for my hope comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will not be shaken. My salvation and glory depend on God, my strong rock. My refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before Him.' (Psalm 62:5-8)

Again the image of stability and constancy is evoked in support of trusting in God. Yet God is unknown, unknowable to finite human minds. Human beings must rely on God revealing himself in some recognisable way, since the infinite is beyond conception. The mind can reach above and beyond knowledge of the created order by exercising the imagination, but this is still finite and limited. 

Opening the heart, the whole being to God means taking the risk of reaching out into the unknown, trusting that God is, and that God reaches out in response to the loving desire expressed in the fallible human act of trust, tinged, as it is, by mixed motives, plagued by ignorance and confusion. We take our strength and hope from the unknown.

'For God alone, my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress, I shall never be shaken.' (Psalm 62:1)

   

The threshold of encounter with God in prayer is where each of us, from wherever our journey begins, pause in awe of the mystery, of which so little can be spoken without diminishment. Like the quantum effect in sub-atomic matter, where the position and momentum of a particle cannot be measured together at any time, for the very act of observation itself displaces the subject.