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Holy Ground

God said, “Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing is holy ground.” Exodus 3:5. NIV

In the never ending parade of thoughts that present themselves to us, themes reappear. A lifelong theme for me has been the idea of holy ground. My first encounter with this was as a small child when encountering an illustration of Moses and the burning bush.

As a pre-literate, pre-focused pre-schooler, church services were a challenge. After my under pew examination, noting the temperature of the floor with my cheek, drawing the monsters I saw in my closet the previous night and examining my dad’s fingernails, I would look through the pictures in my mom’s Bible.

The picture that captivated me (the way I saw it was probably nothing like the actual picture) was Moses with a curly mane of black and gray hair and a scruffy beard. He looked both curious and scared, clutching his staff, standing with legs spread and braced for something big. The ground beneath him fascinated me more. It was the very top of the mountain, rough with a pink glow that looked like rose quartz with a roaring fire beneath. I imagined it both hot and cool at the same time. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was my first encounter with awe.

My childhood walks through a nearby woods consisted of scouting for burning bushes. I never found any but gradually I realized that all I had to do was visualize the picture and a sense of sacred awe flooded my mind. God was big and mysterious. Did God create holy ground in my soul?

As I sit with clients in my office, and a life changing insight emerges it feels like an epiphany–an appearance of God. The room feels like holy space. Human meets God.

All my life I have looked for spaces of God in high concentrations. As the men on the road to Emmaus declared, “Were not our hearts burning within us?”, my burning heart seems to be a Geiger Counter indicating holy ground, whether in the inner or the outer world.

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Abundant Life in God?

You fill me with joy in your presence. David, Psalm 16:11

To miss joy is to miss all. Robert Louis Stevenson, 1887

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Jesus, John 10:10

What is a life to the full, or an abundant life, as some Bible translations say? Is it an intellectual idea or a way of existing? Is it for believers now or only after this life? I have an idea it can be all of that. There is something innate that makes us long for abundant life in God, now and to come. We do not just want to know about God. We are wired to seek a relationship with God.

Humans are wired for relationship from birth. Babies come out ready to attach—longing to be enfolded in the love and warmth of a parent. We never lose that longing, first for our parents, then others, and ultimately God.

We long to lose ourselves in the divinity of another. Unfortunately, most of the time we project God’s divinity onto another, which can be euphoric for awhile and often ends in heartbreak. But if we can imagine the most extreme joy and attraction we have had for another human, then put that longing to God—that’s only the beginning.

Many of us cannot imagine a God that is amazing. We often see God as a distant, clueless, grumpy, shifty, disengaged, old man. When life is tough we can see God as out of touch, harsh and elusive.

What if we watch for God to show up in the not so traditional and expected ways? God could be in a burning bush as Moses experienced, or a still, small voice like Elijah heard. God could inhabit a sunset, a ladybug, a baby or an old man. How about God being in a thought, a feeling, or an idea? If we can see God in all things and through all things as Colossians 1:17 suggests, we can experience abundant life in God daily.

Posted on by sofiaseekerofgod

Curiosity

The world will never starve for want of wonders; but only for want to wonder.

G.K. Chesterton

A lack of curiosity is a form of suffering. We are created in the image of God, with the personality traits God possesses. This means that humans, in our unwounded state, are naturally curious. We observe this in babies and small children. They begin by looking, then licking and exploring by mouth, and touching whatever is interesting. We can continue to do more mature forms of exploration all of our lives if curiosity is not disowned.

Curiosity connects us with God. But curiosity can go underground if we experience trauma. A person cannot stop and explore if something deadly is threatening. We can also disown our natural sense of wonder if we are shamed, scolded or devalued for being curious, especially if this happens early in life. We can quell our sense of wonder if we fear we will be rejected if we aren’t like others. We can choose to conform and be accepted or take a risk of rejection and find vistas of abundant life we didn’t know were possible.

If our natural state of wonder is not present in our relationship with God, it is impoverished and lacks many dimensions. Our prayer life is flat, and lacks the richness we can share with God if we bring our entire selves to Him. We miss out not only what we can bring to God, but also in what God has to show us and share with us in His perfect creativity. Most tragically, we have very limited awareness of God, since to really know God, we must seek Him, and curiosity drives the search.

As with most healing, we start by acknowledging the problem of a lack of imagination and ask God’s help in repairing our deadened curiosity. If we have trauma in our lives, getting therapy can help open the way for new and amazing ways of thinking, as well as healing the wounds that limit us and harm our growth.

If we need an example to remind us what curiosity looks like, study how a small child goes through the day. Everything from the roundness of a pea, to how a car lock works, to a dog is worthy of examination and delight. Even their approach to God is full of innocence, trust and curiosity.

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” Luke 18:16,17 (NIV). Like a child, let us be curious about God and find the joy that children know.