Friday, October 9
Show me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths. Learn me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; in you have I trusted all the day long.
—Psalm 25:3-4
Frank Griswold, past Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, has had some pretty complex and confounding days. Griswold said he relied on three sentences to help keep him grounded.
The first is from The Divine Milieu by Teilhard de Chardin. It is especially helpful during stressful and anxious moments. By means of all created things without exception the divine assails us, penetrates us, and molds us.
So when all heck is breaking loose, we can say to ourselves, “Ah-ha. This too is how I'm being shaped and molded. Everything is part of God's way. All things without exception, even those that I wish to escape from, are part of God's way with me." By means of all created things without exception the divine assails us, penetrates us, and molds us.
The second sentence comes from an old Russian Orthodox monk who lived in the forests of Finland. He was known to be holy and wise, having endured much with great grace.
When asked by a layperson what his many years of prayer and monastic life had taught him, the monk always replied: The very circumstances of your life will show you the way.What have you learned after years of prayer and reflection? If you want to know the way of God, look at the circumstances of your life.
And the third sentence is from a favorite writer of mine, James Finley, a student of Thomas Merton. This sentence sounds like something Merton might have said: A simple openness to the next human moment brings us into union with God in Christ. Where's God? How can I know God? How can I be one with God? Be open to the next human moment, in attentive simplicity.
God uses everything in creation to assail and mold us.
Whatever is happening will show you the way.
Openness to the moment brings us to God.
Assail, penetrate and mold me, O God through your created order, and guide me in the events of my life, that I may be open as you are revealed to me in each moment and live in union with you in Christ.
These Signposts were originally published on explorefaith.org in 2005.
