Whilst in this world we may be subject to troughs as well as crests but no matter how low the trough of despair may be, we are not faced with the prospect of emptiness but the wonderful possibility of being further filled!
How important it is to learn that the deep troughs of the undulations of the spiritual life are not darkness but are in fact the place from which we take the first steps of a deeper faith.
We want cattle who can become food:
He wants servants who can become sons.
We want to suck in,
He wants to give out.
We are empty and would be filled;
He is full and flows over.
If we do not recognise the ‘law of undulation’ at work within us then at the very least we will drift away from a faith which has become over-dependant on emotional ‘highs’ instead of grounded in spiritual reality.
Holding a position different to another is not of itself sinful – but demonising our opponent most definitely is! Being passionate about something which stirs our heart can be godly – but using our ‘righteousness’ to destroy another is truly the work of the devil.
… to see the face of Christ in the pout of the fractious child or the groans of the awkward aunt is, for me, a different matter altogether. However, just because I can’t see Jesus in a particular place or person has never meant that He is not there.
One can understand Screwtape and his ilk hoping for war to be replaced by times of a peace which offers the hope of gentle indulgence which encourages us to calmly meander towards an inevitable death in which we refuse to believe.
Nothing good, in God’s eternal plan, comes from war. However it is during war that I think we are most aware of our frailty, our failings and our capacity for cruelty.
…if we are ever to grow in our prayer life, each of us needs to learn how to dive deeper into the pool of God’s love and revelation. For it is in this way that we finally wake up from the false dream of ‘a sense of supplication’ into a deeper relationship with the God of love
We need to learn that each of us is responsible for our own faith and it can never be the fault of an out-of-tune choir, a poorly prepared sermon, or a colicky baby in the children’s area, if we do not draw close to God.
Suffolk Vicar 