Thoughts On God (Belated) - For Sunday, February 5th, 2012

Coming up with a thought about God every Sunday, as I have hoped to do since last Sunday, is a task that seems simple but it is not, at least not for me, even though it seems to be automatic for Joel Osteen. To say that God had not provided me with an inspiration because I am being punished is not true (I am just realizing this as I am writing [1]). I believe the ability to be personally inspired spiritually requires just such a desire and making that desire integral to one's daily existence. That, of course, is easier said than done for one's earthly existence is replete with a variety of tasks, work, troubles, worries, distractions, entertainment, wants and needs that overwhelm the senses day after day to the exclusion of any period of quiet that would permit a connection with God. Without spending time focusing on God, one will sense that God is absent, or worse, non-existent. In such an event, the mind's eye can see only darkness.

The more one is fascinated by earthly matters and the more time one spends on them to the exclusion of God, the farther away God is and the darker and thicker is the space between one's existence and God's existence, to the extent that God's existence becomes merely an academic issue or a passing interest. It is sad indeed when one has reached that point, or beyond, when one believes that God is irrelevant, or does not exist.

[1] I was of the opinion that if God has left one in darkness, it amounts to punishment or rejection. I am troubled by this new revelation because I am not ready to relinquish my belief that when a religious finds herself/himself without God that it is not punishment or rejection. A religious is betrothed to God in love yet has become unfaithful to that commitment. The betrayal of God's pure love in return by a committed religious would generate such intense and unbearable pain that it encases then dissolves the bond that was once created between God and the religious so that God has no choice but to forsake the relationship, leaving the religious in the emptiness of darkness.