Spiritual Encounter

Ever consider that the empty feeling deep within yourself can be turned into a spiritual encounter? That is what George Maloney says, insisting that such emptiness is necessary if we want to experience God face to face. To quote: But he [God] can only be met in the desert of your own being, in the depths where you encounter the dread of loss. So few of us have the courage or the discipline to cut ourselves off from all the attachments by which we define ourselves, to go out into the desert and be at the mercy of the unknown. (Journey Into Mystical Prayer, 8)

According to Maloney, the journey "within" begins with surrender. It's a concept not often talked about. We tend to think of even the spiritual life in terms of what we might gain. But it is good to remember that there is also a need to let go of anything that impedes our awareness of God. It is a reminder that not having is not necessarily a disadvantage, and that a feeling of helplessness can hold riches for our spiritual life.

Maloney is telling us that we will find many things in our lives that simply don't make sense. Instead of letting such things become road blocks in our spiritual descent, we can surrender to the fact that we cannot understand them, and so continue forward. I like his term mercy of the unknown. It begs for a spirit of trust. It begs for us to believe in a Being bigger and more capable than myself. And most of all, it challenges us to surrender.