Are Our Relationships with God High Maintenance?

 

I recently spent a couple of days looking after our (I really should say my wife’s) cat while Lorna was away visiting a friend.  This was the first time this opportunity fell to me.  Trixie the cat and I have a rather strained relationship as she has never really trusted me after being taken in as a feral cat. We have speculated about this with no real answers’ forthcoming.  In any case, Trixie and I both survived the experience. 

However, what became clearer than ever before was that Trixie is a very high maintenance cat.  We have all probably experienced or know about relationships that are high maintenance as opposed to some that are less so.  Trixie is definitely high maintenance.  I know that Lorna has no question about it being worthwhile. 

As a result of this experience, I got to wondering about the relationship between God and people.  Is that relationship high maintenance and, if so, so what?  In my experience personally and as a Spiritual Director, it seems that the relationship between God and people takes a lot of conscious effort on the part of the people of God.  Often, we are not aware of how God is present and active in our lives.  As modern people in a secular world, we have forgotten how to recognize that presence.  We may be aware of what it takes to recognize where God is present in our lives.  However, we often do not know how to respond to that.  If people are part of a Christian community, hopefully they will be given information about how to identify and respond to that presence.  They are called to gather together as a community to worship God and, hopefully, are encouraged to study scripture, to pray regularly, study, and to share that experience of God with others through acts of kindness and Christian charity. 

However, even if we know God’s presence and blessing in our lives, we can easily ignore and avoid what it takes to maintain that relationship.  We might have good intentions about doing more to keep God in our conscious awareness and deepen that relationship but things in life seem to get in the way of doing that. We can sometimes, conveniently or not, forget to make that effort.  Sometimes life does seem to get in the way of doing those things.  If we neglect to keep up our end of the relationship, the relationship will wither and even die.  However, God is always present in our lives and that relationship can be resurrected and reestablished. 

I will use an analogy to illustrate this. Everyone dreams, and scientific studies have shown that dreams are necessary for our psychological and physiological health.  Many people will be aware that they dreamed last night when they awaken in the morning.  However, many people have difficulty remembering their dreams.  However, if they pay attention to their dreams they will begin to remember them more frequently and in more detail.  They can pay attention by recording their dreams and making associations with the images in the dream.  In that way, dreams are also high maintenance.  They require attention, and work to maintain the relationship that you have with your dreams. 

Now I believe that dreams are one way in which God maintains the relationship with us.  Culturally we have forgotten the language of dreams – dreams are, in effect, God’s forgotten language in our culture today.  But, even if you don’t subscribe to this understanding of dreams, they are important for our health and wholeness as human beings, and it is beneficial to pay attention to them.  Regardless, it takes two to tango.  We must keep our part of the bargain – our part of the relationship.  It definitely is a high maintenance relationship; it requires work to maintain but it is definitely worth it.  That is exactly with same with my relationship with God. 

My relationship with Trixie – not so sure but I will keep trying. 

May you be blessed to keep working on your relationship with God. 

 

What’s a Christian to believe?

Those who read my weekly musings are likely aware that I often refer to the work of Richard Rohr.  I find his theology and understanding of God and Christianity to be a sound guide which helps me navigate the waters of spiritual life and the cultural times we find ourselves in.  Last week a friend brought to my attention a blog by a Christian writer, Alisa Childers, who is strongly opposite to the Christianity expressed in Richard Rohr’s writings.  The blog may be found at https://www.alisachilders.com/blog/heres-why-christians-should-avoid-the-teachings-of-richard-rohr in case you wish to read it.

Let me delve into her argument with Richard Rohr as expressed in that blog and give you a taste of what she believes and why she is adamantly opposed to Rohr’s theology.  Childers firmly places herself in the type of Christianity which can be called a fundamentalist.  She declares, “Following Jesus’ own example, Christians have affirmed over the centuries that the Scriptures are internally coherent, without error, and infallible.” I would have to question whether Jesus held this comprehensive view of scripture as I don’t believe that the Gospels give evidence of that.  She quotes Rohr to support her assessment of Rohr’s understanding of scripture:

The text moves inexorably toward inclusivity, mercy, unconditional love, and forgiveness. I call it the “Jesus Hermeneutic.” Just interpret Scripture the way Jesus did! He ignores, denies, or openly opposes his own Scriptures whenever they are imperialistic, punitive, exclusionary, or tribal.

Childers does not identify the source of this quote so I don’t know the context in which it is made.  However, there are times when Jesus certainly objected to the interpretation of scripture and the Law which Pharisees and others were making e.g., the Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath.  I am sure that Rohr agree with Childers’s assertion that Rohr does not believe that scripture is “internally coherent, without error, and infallible.” 

My understanding of scripture is that it is inspired by God.  However, it is also revealed to human beings.  That revelation is understood by those who receive it in different ways and through the prism of the limitations that all humans are subject to.  Humans in biblical times had an understanding of creation through the limitations of their knowledge at that time.  Therefore, they did not know that the earth revolved around the sun and they believed that heaven was somewhere up in the sky.  They did not necessarily understand that what they were receiving in revelation was being expressed symbolically and the language of God is not necessarily understood in the way we perceive it.  I want to delve into this more fully next time.  However, let me close with another quote from Rohr in a recent Daily Meditation:

In my experience, the people who find God are usually people who are very serious about their quest and their questions, more so than being absolutely certain about their answers. I offer that as hard-won wisdom.

I believe that those who believe they know the mind of God with absolute certainty are guilty of the sin of hubris.  Indeed, perhaps God is discovered more in the questions than in the answers. 

Blessings on your journey and blessings on your questions in your quest.