There are moments in life for which we seem unprepared, and yet we are nonetheless leaning toward in desperate hope to receive and experience. These moments might be called mystical or spiritual, but whatever they are called they are definitive moments that open our hearts and minds to that which we seek, albeit often in foolish ways. When we are awakened to such a moment it is like standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls or some other wonder that causes us to gasp at the beauty and power and magnificence; and the voices of worry and frustration and criticism are silenced long enough that we can hear the soft, yet uncompromised and unmistakable voice of God saying “I love you.” When we experience such a moment, then we are being invited into God’s kingdom—a way of being that transcends time and place, but permeates time and place through joy and love and sacrifice. Some people glimpse this kingdom without knowing what it is and then they wander through a host of different pursuits trying to reproduce the splendor of the moment. It cannot be discovered or found. It is only revealed—and the one to whom it is revealed and for whom the dim eyes of the heart are opened to its truth, for this one it cannot ever be taken away.
Some will immediately comprehend the magnitude of what lies beyond the door that opens to love and rush in with gratitude. Others flounder in attempts to test and tease it out more, trying this and trying that in order to taste the sweet fruit of the Kingdom again. And still others, frightened that love means losing all the little levers and knobs of control they have assembled in life, will resist and fight against the love that exposes us as the vulnerable and helpless creatures that we are.
It is a mystery why some comprehend the Kingdom quickly, while others take a life time to figure it out—if they ever do. It appears that what is offered is so overwhelming that many will attempt to limit the rapture—like the difference between a person who leaps out of an airplane and one who, afraid of heights, chooses to descend slowly and methodically into the rich depths of God’s love. What isn’t a mystery, however, is that the One who offers it is relentless in mercy and love. Any punishment we may experience is self-chosen by virtue of turning away from what is offered as we play god in our own shrinking life.
© 2019 Stephen Carl
