Going beyond need

Who hasn’t smiled at the directness and honesty of children? But while we chuckle at how uninhibited they act we know the day will come when life will not be quite so simple for them.

In our spiritual life, we too must "grow up" into reality. Bernard Bro puts it this way: perhaps the best definition [of an adolescent] is that of someone who has not yet experienced her limitations, and therefore has not had to accept them.

Bro points out that much of our prayer, the earnest and heartfelt portion, usually springs forth when we realize our limitations, our woundedness, our needs. When we do, we have the opportunity to accept them in faith, or to become angry that life isn't fair. Our acceptance, our "growing up" leads us to that authentic self, where we no longer pretend to things that are not so.

Bro goes on to say Prayer brings us back to what is most authentic in our quest for happiness...prayer makes us free...prayer...must teach us every day of our need for God.

If you and I would grow up spiritually, we need to realize that prayer is more than asking. It is accepting. It is telling God that we are okay in feeling needy, in being wounded, in having wants in life. Prayer from an adult says to God, "Yes, this is a relationship where I can trust that no matter what happens to me, I can reach out my hand and find you are there." Prayer is realizing that it is our very needs that keep us close to God.

For if we were all sufficient, who of us would take the time to pray?

Finding the Beyond

For the last two days, this hymn keeps replaying over and over in my mind. I heard it a couple weeks ago at a funeral. Yet it wasn't until Monday evening that it began to replay in my mind, over and over again, until I wondered what was going on! Then I heard Tuesday  readings of the Good Shepherd, and realized my soul is totally in sync with the liturgy!

The hymn starts Shepherd me O God, beyond my wants, beyond my needs, from death into life. We are all familiar with psalm 22, The Lord is my Shepherd, there is nothing I should want. The hymn goes one step further. It prays we go beyond our wants and needs, seeing the Shepherd as the true life. I like this interpretation because it admits we have needs and that they do need attending to, that they are valid. To deny human needs is to portray Christianity as some form of asceticism that denies the true human condition. And God knows, that is disastrous.

Faith and trust in God does not negate; it fulfills. That is a truth we need to hold on to. Perhaps the centuries of monastics have made one believe that to truly love and serve God requires a radical separation from all that is normal, from all that is human, from all that can be desired in this life. But nothing could be further from the truth.

We are all called to a life that is lived with spiritual awareness and mature understanding of human needs. And to prove it, the psalmist wrote Even when I walk through a dark valley, I fear no evil for you are at my side. A spiritual life isn't about going without, it is about going beyond to that which is at our side.