God's Home

Since retirement I have been reading some different authors.  Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Richard Rohr, and Joan Chittister..  And though Wesleyan to the core, these Roman Catholic writers have nurtured the longing of my heart for God.  There are other new writers which have led me to probe more deeply the heart of mine where the Spirit dwells.  J. Philip Newell, John O'Donohue, Christine Valters Paintner, and Esther De Waal.  These last four have opened a new window enabling me to see and walk into the stream of Celtic spirituality.     

There is a sense in which they have all caused me to walk into a spiritual life that is deeper than the one known before coming to this place and certainly one which makes me want to pay attention to the ordinary moments of my life since those are the moments when God is most apt to be seen, heard, and known.  I am amazed at the way my view of the things of God which seemed so nailed down to the floor of the institutional church has been changing  There have times when the change seemed so radical that I felt like I needed to live my faith secretly lest I be branded as some strange heretic who had lost his way.   

Today while reading, or I should say re-reading Henri Nouwen's book, "The Return of the Prodigal Son," I found the words, "Jesus says, 'Anyone who loves me will keep my word and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home in him.'  These words have always impressed me deeply.  I am God's home!"   My response could have been "Amen," but instead, it was "Wow!"  Our search for God need not take us on a pilgrimage to some distant shrine, but simply to the inward part of our being where God dwells through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.  I am grateful for this season when God has been probing my heart enabling me to know how it is that we are enabled by Him to walk constantly in His presence.