The mysticism of the soul

Isn’t it our greatest wish that God not be some faraway abstract entity, but somehow like us? writes Heather King.

I think she is on to something here. Perhaps a faraway abstract entity satisfies us when things are going well, and we are operating on cruise control. But when life needs direction, we’d like our deity to be near, very near, to us.

Mysticism is all about that understanding, that knowledge, that awareness that God is somehow like us, near us, available to us. It is journeying into the light without having to see the light at all times. It is taking the hand of God without needing to see the signs of God.  It is struggling without losing heart, fearing without terror of the future, grieving without despairing, because we know our deity is within the chapel of our own soul.

Headache, heartache, anxiety; God knows them all in Jesus. Loneliness, fear, terror, we see it in the Gospel stories. Our God is someone we can identify with, someone who can understand our struggle, who knows our pain and suffering.

Do not let your hearts be troubled, Jesus says in John 14:1. Jesus would not have us stay in our fear and anxiety of heart. He would have us remember his own life, his own struggles, and realize that God is very much like us. He is indeed, not some faraway abstract entity. He is very near to us.